Update: January 1, 2018
The Polar Prince departed Victoria, British Columbia on December 8 and is currently sailing past the Turks and Caicos Islands on its way to Halifax via the Panama Canal. The WSPR beacon continues to transmit on 40, 30 and 20 metres, now with the call sign VE0EXP.
Tracking maps are available online at:
https://www.qrp-labs.com/c3.html
https://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map (“update VE0EXP”)
The aprs.fi postion for VE0EXP now has a direct link to its QRZ webpage when you view the details of the position. If the details are visible “click” on the “3” in the map.
https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVE0EXP&timerange=604800&tail=604800
Note: Amateur Radio Newsline has posted a great update about the Polar Prince on its website.
Update: December 22, 2017
The Polar Prince departed Victoria, British Columbia on December 8 and is currently sailing past El Salvador on its way to Halifax via the Panama Canal. The WSPR beacon continues to transmit on 40, 30 and 20 metres, now with the call sign VE0EXP.
Tracking maps are available online at:
https://www.qrp-labs.com/c3.html
https://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map (“update VE0EXP”)
The aprs.fi postion for VE0EXP now has a direct link to its QRZ webpage when you view the details of the position. If the details are visible “click” on the “3” in the map.
https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVE0EXP&timerange=604800&tail=604800
Note: Amateur Radio Newsline has posted a great update about the Polar Prince on its website.
Update: December 17, 2017
The Polar Prince departed Victoria, British Columbia on December 8 and is currently sailing past Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on its way to Halifax via the Panama Canal. The WSPR beacon continues to transmit on 40, 30 and 20 metres, now with the call sign VE0EXP.
Note: Amateur Radio Newsline has posted a great update about the Polar Prince on its website.
Tracking maps are available online at:
https://www.qrp-labs.com/c3.html
https://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=11&call=a%2FVE0EXP&timerange=518400&tail=518400
https://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map (“update VE0EXP”)
Update: November 23, 2017
With the successful completion of the Canada C3 Expedition culminated upon the Polar Prince’s arrival in Victoria, British Columbia it has 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 returns to the East Coast via the Panama Canal. For this unique Amateur Radio opportunity, the Polar Prince is now transmitting with the call sign VE0EXP.
Michael, VE7XMC, a graduate student from the University of Victoria where they are currently assembling an Ultimate 3, undertook and made the necessary call sign change. We invite all Amateurs to continue tracking the Polar Prince as it completes the circumnavigation of North America.
The voyage of the Polar Prince, circumnavigating Canada from Toronto to Victoria, British Columbia via the Northwest Passage, came to an end with the following post on the Canada C3 website:
After 150 days, we made it to Victoria! Thank you for following our journey from coast to coast to coast.”
On October 28, the Canada C3 Expedition’s Polar Prince sailed into Victoria Harbour on schedule after completing the 25,323 kilometre 150-day voyage along the three coastlines of Canada. A spectacular achievement after visiting all the planned communities, historic sites and significant points of interest on schedule. The CG3EXP WSPR beacon was privileged to be along for the ride and Canada’s coastline gained the attention of Amateurs on all continents except Antarctica.
The Ultimate beacon transmitter made a total of 64,800 transmissions that resulted in 397,964 receptions that were upload to the WSPRnet.org and maintained in a database. The location of the received signals and their signal-to-noise ratio have been compiled by Graham Collins, VE3GTC and presented to the Canadian Space Weather Research Laboratory in Ottawa. Graham’s report and charts will be published in the January-February 2018 issue of The Canadian Amateur magazine.
Permission has been granted to utilize the CG3EXP special event call sign until the end of the year as the Polar Prince makes a return to Halifax, Nova Scotia via the Panama Canal. Thanks to Michael, VE7XMC, the Ultimate 3 has been assigned the new call sign VE0EXP for the return voyage to the East Coast of Canada. Michael is a graduate student at the University of Victoria where they are currently assembling an Ultimate 3.
The CG3EXP WSPR team would like to thank all those stations that tracked the Expedition, uploaded their receptions and applied for eQSLs and award certificates.
RAC Operating Awards Manager John Scott, VE1JS, has emailed certificates for the Canada C3 Expedition Award to 40 Amateurs in North America and Europe. It is expected that there will be many more before the deadline of Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 23:59 UTC.
If you have made a submission and have not yet received a certificate, please resubmit your application to John at with a note indicating that it is a resubmission and he will be happy to process the application.
The RAC Canada 150 Award program will continue until December 31. To date, nearly 45,000 QSOs have been logged by the volunteer operators, with almost two months yet to go. Certificates for this award are downloaded directly from the log search section on the RAC Canada 150 Award webpage at: https://www.rac.ca/rac150/. Just click on the “Log Check” link at the top of the page and insert your call sign in the form. Award chasers have until 2359 UTC on December 31, 2017 to accumulate contacts with the RAC stations in pursuit of this award.
The RAC Operating Awards Program and its five major awards – Canadaward, Trans-Canada Award Provincial Capitals Award, Seaway Award and Worked All RAC – continues to be enjoyed by Radio Amateurs worldwide.
For more information on these Awards please visit:
Canada C3 Expedition Award: https://www.rac.ca/operating/rac-awards/canada-c3-expedition-award/
RAC Canada 150 Award: https://www.rac.ca/rac150/
RAC Canada 150 Award Operations: https://www.rac.ca/rac150/operations/
RAC Operating Awards: https://www.rac.ca/operating/rac-awards/