I was up in Toronto to visit a few friends and had some time in the early morning to activate a peak in the VE3 region before driving back to Pittsburgh. Just over an hour north of Toronto near the town of Barrie is this drive-on SOTA peak, which had been activated 7 times so far. The 412m elevation hilltop is unnamed and is the site of a few radio towers. The forest surrounding the summit is part of the Simcoe County Forest, so access is not an issue.
There was a lot of blowing snow on the drive north, and a couple of inches of fresh snow on the short unpaved road leading up to the forest site. I went in low gear and made it up without a problem. A snowplow came by at about 8:30 am local time to clear the access road, so it appears it is maintained in the winter.
I walked a bit away from the parking area into the woods up and was able to completely plant my support mast into the snow, which was between 2-3 feet deep. There are some low-hanging powerlines supporting the radio tower, so one should be mindful when setting up. This was the first activation that I used the automatic message function on the KX2, so I wouldn’t keep forgetting to send AA3TZ/VE3, and this was a really useful feature in the cold.
I find these early morning activations to be a bit slower, since most of my chasers on 20m are mostly on the west coast. F4WBN chased me on both 10m and 20m, and I worked EA4R on 10m. Gary W0MNA and Martha W0ERI came through on 20m as usual, so I’ve now worked them over 30 times each on my activations!
VE3 was a new association for me, so this makes 10 different associations so far!
- Trailhead: 44.53303, -79.66129 : Entrance to unpaved road from Oro-Medonte Line 3 North, then it’s a drive up
- Map: [Simcoe County Forest Tracts] – This tract is named “SOUTH BARR”
- Route: Drive 200m along forest road to summit site. Activation zone is large and extends partly to the subdivision just north of the site. It’s flat around here!
- POTA: None
Tom Zajdel 
Tom, looks like you enjoy the SOTA fun in the winter. What a great activation and new addition to the list. POTA is popular but SOTA is just as fun with more DX stations calling.
73s
John VE3IPS
Yes, winter SOTA is just fine from an operating perspective, and HF conditions are usually very good. The real issue is road conditions! That limits the kinds of summits I attempt in the winter.
Hello Tom, John pointed me to your blog post because I am planning on making some SOTA activations during Field Day this year (2026). I live in Southern Ontario but I’m planning on travelling to Algonquin Park in order to activate. I am wondering if you have activated any other summits in the VE3 association and if so have you written about it? I’m looking for any information that I can find on summits in the VE3 association.
73 Chris VA3CJW
Chris, this one here is the only summit I’ve activated in the VE3 region so far. Information on summits in Ontario is relatively light, so you’ll be a pioneer!
I would be interested to know what you do choose to try to activate in Algonquin Park, as I’ll likely be returning to Toronto June 2027 for a conference. I think it would be amazing to spend a couple days in the park afterwards, as it will be right around Field Day.
I’ll try to chase you on 40m this year!