1. Installed On The Canada C3 Expedition Icebreaker
The Story of A Weak Signal Propagation Reporting System Tracking Beacon
Installed On The Canada C3 Expedition Icebreaker
The Polar Prince
Presentation
To QCWA

3. The Canada C3 Expedition
Canada C3: Coast to Coast to Coast a Canada 150 Signature project. Described by the organizers as “An Epic Journey to Celebrate Canada and Connect Canadians”, it was a 150-day expedition from Toronto to Victoria via the Northwest Passage. It succeeded to inspired a deeper understanding of our land, our peoples and our country

4. The Canada C3 Expedition a unique 150 day voyage of a
retired Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker commencing in Toronto travelling down the St. Lawrence River and following the three coastlines of the Atlantic ,Arctic and via the North West Passage to the Pacific terminating in Victoria.
The expedition was to carry passengers on 15 legs of the journey and to conduct experiments and visit and draw attention the magnificent coastlines of our country.

5. Canada C3 Expedition Route Map

6. The Canada C3 Expedition How a Whisper Became a Shout
Barrie Crampton and John Gilbert submitted a proposal to the Canada C3 Expedition.
An Amateur Radio Initiative, installing an HF Radio Beacon Transmitter on board the C3 Expedition vessel the Polar Prince.
The objectives were:
To operate a Weak Signal Propagation Reporting beacon transmitter to draw national and international attention to the Expedition and to the Coastlines of Canada by having the Amateur Radio fraternity follow the voyage and observe the location of the ship and of the coastal communities, land masses and spectacular coastline features of our country
For the Amateurs, to hold a national event that would showcase the newer technologies available to the hobby
To collect never before available HF propagation data from a vessel moving through the Canadian Arctic

7. Weak Signal Propagation Reporting system is a software protocol developed by Astrophysicist Professor Joe Taylor The kit built beacon transmitter outputs a 900 Milliwatt beacon every 20 minutes on the 20, 30, and 40 Meter Amateur Frequencies

8. Antenna Preparations and Options
Requirement was for an antenna resonant on 40, 30 and 20 meters
Anticipated options were:
An existing HF vertical scouted out by Lowell Demond in Lunenburg
A commercial 130 foot end fed dipole recommended by Dr. D. Conn
A home built end fed balun and wire antenna by VE3EFF and VE3CIQ
A home built 3 band resonant fan wire dipole by VE3BSB

9. The Polar Prince In Prescott

11. After Negotiating With The Expeditions Technical Officer
We ended up using the matching transformer from the commercial antenna and 47 feet of wire

12. Luc VE3JGL
Luc climbed the midship tower and installed the 46 foot wire to the highest point

14. Port Side Railing Above the Bridge
GPS ANTENNA
End Fed Matching Transformer

15. Proximity To Large Iron Mass of Tower

16. The Radio/Server Room

17. Hammond Cabinet

18. Data Reception and Processing
Individual receiving stations with HF receivers process the demodulated data audio in an application called WSJT-X developed by Joe Taylor and contributing developers.
Receiving stations use this application to automatically upload their reports to a host website.
The website is WSPRnet.org and is open to the public.

19. The Weak Signal Propagation Reporting signals are received by existing Amateur Radio Stations and uploaded to the Internet

20. DuckS in a row
An interesting propagation condition where we frequently saw where there were stations east or west of those shown that were not receiving the CG3EXP signals

21. The WSPRnet.org displays and maintains a database of all received WSPR signals
Timestamp
Call
MHz
SNR
Drift
Grid
Pwr
Reporter
RGrid km az
  :30 
 CG3EXP 
   
 -10 
 -1 
 CO54ax 
 0.2 
 WA6OURKIWI 
 CN87xo 
 986 
 143 
   
 -2 
 VE6JY 
 DO33or 
 1118 
 90 
  :28 
 1 
 -26 
 K6SRO 
 CM88ql 
 1915 
 160 
  :10 
 -8 
   
 -6 
   
 -22 
 VE7THZ 
 DN09 
 961 
 125 
  :08 
   
 -5 
   
 -21 
 2 
 VE6OG 
 DO33fn 
 1075 
 92 

22. Grid Square Location FN25BI

23. Data Collected
As of November 14, 2017 there were 425,445 WSPR reports for CG3EXP.
That being the total number of WSPR reports on all bands from beginning to the completion of the Expedition.
Reports have been received from every continent except Antarctica.
Data has been collected and reported by Graham Collins VE3GTC.
The vessel’s location is based on using the Maidenhead grid square algorithm.
VE3GTC

24. VE3GTC

25. VE3GTC

26. VE3GTC

27. Graham VE3GTC has been compiling signal strength and location data for the Entire voyage John VE3CXL has arranged for The data to be analyzed by the Natural Resources Geomagnetic Laboratory

28. Gaps In Reception

29. Reception Reported by USA Station K9AN

30. Live Camera

31. Live Tracking

32. Michael Gilbert’s Presentation Musk Ox Geoff Green Expedition Leader

33. Victoria Arrival 28 October 2017

34. Epilogue
With the successful completion of the Canada C3 Expedition culminating with the Polar Prince’s arrival in Victoria, it had been necessary to retire the CG3EXP special event call sign. An opportunity arose   to have the Polar Prince carry the Ultimate 3 WSPR beacon as the ship returned to the East Coast via the Panama Canal.

35. CG3EXP and VE0EXP Circumnavigates North America
For this unique Amateur Radio opportunity, the Polar Prince transmitted with the call sign VE0EXP.
Michael VE7XMC, a graduate student from the University of Victoria, where they were experienced with The QRP-Labs Ultimate 3, undertook and made the necessary call sign change.

36. In The Caribbean 29 December 2017

37. Signal Loss January 4 19:22 UTC
On January 4 as the Polar Prince was west of Bermuda WSPR signals were no longer being received.
This was during the period that the east coast of the U.S. was being plummeted with hurricane force winds.
WSPR data received immediately before the signal loss indicated that the Polar Prince had slowed to one third speed and there was some frequency drift of the transmitter.
NOAA Atlantic weather maps indicated that the ship would have been in gale force winds and seas of 12 to 20 feet

39. Wave Heights 12 to 20 feet

40. Concern about the ship’s safety
We ed our Canada C3 Expedition contacts and advised about the signal loss and emphasizing it was more than likely an equipment failure.
The next morning we were advised that the Polar Prince owners had been in touch with the ship and all was well
The Polar Prince arrived in Lunenberg on January 9.
This arrival meant that the Polar Prince had successfully circumnavigated North America
The third vessel every to make such an historic voyage

41. Postmortem
Lowell Demond a friend of John Gilbert VE3CXL lives near Lunenberg
In May 2017 he had undertaken a reconnaissance of the Polar Prince to determine if there were existing vertical antennas we could use.
On Monday January 15th he again visited the ship and found the Ultimate U3 had fallen off the cabinet and the power supply had disconnected.
VE0EXP is now back on the air

42. Polar Prince Circumnavigats North America
RCMP St Roch; 1940– 1942 and 1950; first vessel to circumnavigate NorthAmerica
HMCS Labrador ; 1954; first vessel to circumnavigate North America in a single voyage

43. WSPR Data Statistics
GG3EXP and VE0EXP has made 103,680 transmissions of 2 minutes each
CG3EXP data was uploaded 425,445 times by amateurs from around the world.
VE0EXP data was uploaded 228,617 times by amateurs from around the world. Most recently by DP0GVN in Antarctica

44. Antarctica DP0GVN