A number of members of the White Rock ARC gathered at the Centennial Arena in White Rock to set up an HF station to participate in the BC QSO Party.  This radio event sponsored by the Orca DX Club of Delta, BC has become one of the more popular radio events of the province attracting clubs and individuals from around the province and indeed North America.

This year, as the weather was not forecast to be particularly pleasant, the group planned to set up a portable antenna, a Buddipole™ belonging to Don VA7GL on the balcony outside our regular meeting room, and operate as best we could with Ralph’s IC706 HF transceiver.

Just before 0830, we gathered and begun the setup as planned.  Everything went well, and the SWR checked on the antenna to find it well within the operating limits of the radio.  We used a tuner just in case, as the bandwidth of the antenna on 20 meters was not very wide, a tuner would give us a little more ‘breathing room’.

We found that the band was very noisy, with an S7 noise level.  Tuning across the band we didn't find much BCQP action, in fact hardly any ‘action’ at all.  We persisted though, and made a number of contacts throughout the morning.

Jim, VE7UVL showed up with his dog, and portable G5RV antenna which he strung up between the building across from us, and along the facade of the arena.  We found that although signals weren’t a lot stronger with that antenna, it work well, and a number of contacts using it were made.

We enjoyed each other’s company for some time, with visitors dropping by, including Fire Chief Phil Lemire with whom we had a discussion around a permanent wire HF antenna installation at the Centennial Arena site.

Not having the room beyond 1300, we shut down just after noon, and were clear of the room by 1230.