Navvy Jack and Memorial Parks

There were two parks on the Parks-on-the-Air list in on the North Shore yet to be visited by me. They were only three blocks apart and as one was very tiny, I felt that both could be done on one trip and so finishing the treks to the area and all the entailing traffic. Ralph signed on to the trip and together we set out for West Vancouver at 10:20. After a quick stop for a coffee we were soon fighting the highway traffic jams. Today the route was much slower than last week. Eventually we reached the 21st avenue off ramp and started down the slope to the waterfront.

We soon arrived at the park and found an opening along the road where we could park. We then walked to the park and strolled its walkway down the slope to the train tracks that run along the shoreline at this point. On the other side of the tracks is the paved Seawalk. A bit to the east the pathway continues first reaching a small community garden and then a crossing that traverses the tracks to the Seawalk. We followed the route across the tracks where I gathered a few photos from the Seawalk. I do enjoy this view of Burrard inlet. It was the view I had as an infant sitting in a highchair in my parent’s living room staring out at the water from just up the slope.  After a few moments of reflection, we headed back up the path to the car. The park has a broad grassy area at the upper most portion. It is big enough for a single radio station but not two and the lower area is encumbered by high voltage lines.

Knowing the size limitations, I had figured we would set up minimal stations and just work each other to get the park done then we could head to Memorial Park and set up again and do a full activation there. We gathered our gear from the car and made our way back to Navvy Jack, each of us selecting a park bench. We soon had our contacts made. Packed up again we drove the three blocks to Memorial Park, parking in a gravel stall on the upper north side of the park.  We then took a tour of the park. There is a forested section on the east side with a nice walkway along MacDonald Creek. Signs say to watch for spawning Coho.  The western side has two large lawn bowling fields, but they were fenced off and I doubt they would appreciate me driving a few stakes into the grass. The south side has some memorials to the war veterans. After walking around the park. We had both decided on a location to set up in.

Returning to the car we gathered our gear, and I set out west to a grassy strip that runs along the western edge of the park. Ralph selected a grass area alongside the creek. This trip there was no bench for me to use, and I had to set up my small table and chair. It works OK but being low, my back and legs get cramped after sitting at it for a while. Mast raised, antenna in the air, and radio connected - I called Ralph. No response, I started scanning the 20m band and could hear a few faint stations but not well enough top work them. Ralph was now ready, and we proceeded to call each other across the eleven bands we use. 80m to 70cm!

I felt that the 20m band was a bit noisy and so I looked at the 15m band. The propagation charts showed that it should be good but there were only a couple of activators on it, and I could not hear them. Being bold I decided to set up on 15m and picked a frequency and posted my activation. I quickly had a response – a chap in Eastern Tennessee.  He was quickly followed by a station in Minnesota and then Kansas. The band was working well for me, and I soon had contacts from Florida to California and north to New York, Nebraska and Wyoming. After a half hour Ralph and I had agreed to touch base. It was now 1:45, Ralph had 8 contacts and wanted to keep going another 15 minutes.  I continued calling but things had quieted down a lot and I wasn’t getting much response. I decided to stop calling and scan the 20m band for any stations I could hear. I managed to work three parks one in Illinois, California and Wyoming. At that point I decided to pack up the gear. Ralph managed to make two more contacts, so he was happy with his 10, unfortunately when he got home and was entering his log into the system, he realised that he had a duplicate and so only had 9 contacts beyond our mutual 11. Meanwhile I had 32 in my log to post. 

It had been a nice day visiting the two parks, enjoying some fresh sea breeze at Navvy Jack and talking across the continent at Memorial. We met one interesting chap at Memorial who talked with us for some time while we had been exploring the area. He was quite into environmental things and talked about the fish in the small creek and how he had managed to spot two young Coho in it earlier that morning. 

Done with radios for the day we were packed up and starting back up 21st for the highway. No accidents today just dense traffic with lots of delays though not as bad as some days had been. The drive home went smoothly with the navcom saying it would be 1 hour 21 minutes and in the end, we beat that by three minutes. A pleasant day out seeing some new sights but I am glad to be done with the parks on the North Shore and the congested driving needed to get there.