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Special Callsign prefix to commemorate 25th anniversary of Terry Fox run (Sept. 1-30 2005) Industry Canada has authorized the use of special callsign prefixes to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Terry Fox's run across Canada. The prefixes are as follows and will be in effect from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30 2005. VE= XM
All Canadian Radio Amateurs are encouraged to use these special callsign prefixes for the month of September. (Thanks to Ernie VE3OU)
Special Callsign prefix to celebrate Alberta Centennial (Sept. 1-30 2005) Alberta Centennial Prefixes CK
for VE's and CJ for VA's for use by all Alberta Amateurs for
the period September 1 to 30th. September 1 is the official Alberta
100th Birthday. The notice was posted on Page 66 of the July-August
TCA.
(Thanks to Jeff VE6GJ)
Lakehead Amateur Radio Club Challenge (Sept. 9 2005) Fred Lesnick, VE3FAL, DEC Woods Western ARES reports.... "At our meeting last night (Sept 8 2005) The Lakehead Amateur Radio Club (Thunder Bay,Ontario) had a motion to make a $100.00 US donation to the American Red Cross towards the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. As a club we would like to challenge all other clubs across Canada to do the same either to match or better our donation to The American Red Cross. (RAC News Service)
Mississauga Amateur Radio Club (VE3MIS) (Sept. 24, 2005) The Mississauga Amateur Radio Club will be operating a Special Event Station from the Halton County Radial Railway Museum. A certificate will be awarded to those who QSL . Please note that non-Canadians will need to send either 2 green stamps or 2 IRC's as we cannot use US postage in Canada. Operating times: 1400Z-2000Z Sep 24 and 25 Frequencies(MHz): 7.227,14.240,21.315,28.480 +/- QRM For more information visit:http://www.marc.on.ca
Shuswap Mini-Hamfest 27th Annual
(September 16-18 2005)
Location: Sunnybrae Community Hall, Tappen, B.C.-- Proceed 15 km. west of Salmon Arm on TCHwy to the Tappen Coop. Make a right turn just past the coop and drive 4 km.to the hall on the Tappen-Sunnybrae Road along the shore of Shuswap Lake. Opens: for free RV parking [no hookup] on a first-come basis at noon on Friday, September 16th. This is an informal, relaxed weekend which includes an amateur cribbage tournament on Friday evening and late snack. On Saturday, September 17th, ladies' crafts, corn roasts, flea market, bean bag toss and horse races, pie auction, potluck supper, radio seminar, and a music jam session. Sunday, September 18th includes a pancake breakfast, raffle, auction, and draw prizes until noon. Prizes include a Yaesu FT-2800M Transceiver and another coveted blanket-chest, from the woodshop of Hans VE7BOD. Cost: Registration of $10 includes corn and coffee at lunch, snacks, and a free pancake breakfast on the 18th. $1 of each registration goes to the CNIB Amateur Radio Program. School age $5. Under 6 years free. Craft and flea market tables are free. Talk in: 146.760- or 147.020-. Information: Hans VE7BOD at 250-835-8324 or Ron VE7RLE at 250-832-2442 or ve7rle@rac.ca
Kingston Amateur Radio Club Annual Flea Market (Sept. 17 2005) The KARC will hold its annual flea market on Saturday Sept. 17, 2005 The event will be held at Drill Hall "A", CFB Kingston. Doors will open to vendors at 0730 and the public at 0900 Admission is $ 3.00. Tables are $ 10.00 including one admission. Commercial tables are $ 20.00 but will be given free with a door prize. Talk in: will be on the VE3KAR
repeater, 146.940 ( -600)
We will have a 50/50 draw to support the museum, many door prizes and possibly a major prize raffle. Door prizes include magazine subscriptions, dinner vouchers, sightseeing air flights, movie tickets, computer material, emergency radio etc. The Canadian Forces Communications and Electronics Museum will be open for all to visit as well. Free admission and only 5 minutes from the fleamarket) Tables are available by contacting: VE3TMT Max at mdonoghue@sympatico.ca
West Island Auction/Fleamarket
(Sept. 17 2005)
Hamfest centre du Québec (Sept.
24, 2005)
London Amateur Radio Club 28th Annual Fleamarket (Sept. 25 2005) Sunday, September 25, 2005, located at the Western Fair Grounds Special Events Building, London Ontario. 9:00am to 1:00pm Vendor setup at 7:30am. Admission: $6.00 , tables $ 10.00 Free parking, Air conditioned, commercial dealers, snack bar facilities, wheelchair accessible with handicap washrooms Inquiries: email: hamfest2005@hamster.foxhollow.ca
or phone / mail to Doug Tompkins, VE3IDT (519) 439-5113
Website:http://larc.ca/newsletter/LARC-HAMFEST-2005.pdf
Hamilton Amateur Radio Club "HAMFEST
2005" (Oct. 15 2005)
Greenwood Annual Flea Market
(Oct. 15 2005)
Montreal Hamfest 2005 (Oct.
22 2005)
York Region Hamfest (Oct.
29 2005)
For more info visit: http://www.yrarc.on.ca
Ham Radio, Electronic & Computer
Swap Meet (Nov. 6 2005)
Nova Scotians.....Preparing For Flooding (Sept. 16 2005) The provincial Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) is reminding Nova Scotians that flooding can occur at any time following heavy rainfalls. Nova Scotia is expecting heavy rain and gusting winds this weekend (Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18) as tropical storm Ophelia approaches. The former hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday, Sept. 15, after battering North Carolina. Craig MacLaughlan, executive director of EMO, says Nova Scotians should continue to listen for updated weather information or public safety bulletins as the storm progresses but that residents should also take steps to protect against the risk of flooding -- especially if they live in areas prone to the problem. "It can be as simple as moving furniture and personal property away from possible flood water and securing property that might be swept away or damaged by a flood," said Mr. MacLaughlan. Residents are also encouraged to ensure that they have access to drinking water in case their regular supply is unavailable or becomes contaminated. In the event of a flood, EMO says:
Any food that has come in contact with flood water must also be discarded. This includes fresh or frozen food, food in boxes or jars, all bottled drinks and any cans that show signs of damage. For more information on preparing for a weather-related emergency, visit EMO's website at www.gov.ns.ca/emo Mike Myette
Adverse weather conditions expected from Tropical Storm Ophelia (Sept. 16 2005) The Newfoundland and Labrador Emergency Measures (NLEMO) has been advised by Environment Canada that the province could be affected by adverse weather conditions caused by Tropical Storm Ophelia which is expected to pass over the Burin Peninsula and just north of St. John's Sunday evening and Monday morning. If this track holds the south coast, central Newfoundland and the east coast could see heavy rainfall, 30 to 50 mm of rain are expected for this area, with a possibility of up to 100 mm in localized areas. Latest forecasts indicate that high winds are expected over the Burin, Bonavista and Avalon Peninsulas, the heaviest seas are anticipated along the south coast of the Avalon and in particular in Placentia Bay, Trepassey Bay and St. Mary's Bay. Gusts could be around 100 km/hr. Please note that the forecast track and storm intensity may change over the course of the next two days. The public is advised to monitor forecasts closely throughout the weekend. Given the impacts of recent events such as Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf coast of the US and closer to home during Hurricane Gabrielle in September 2001, the flooding in Badger in February 2003, flooding on the west coast in March 2003, as well as the damages in Nova Scotia caused by Hurricane Juan which resulted in millions of dollars in damage and great personal loss, the general public are advised to take appropriate actions to mitigate against possible damage. Municipalities, home and business owners and fish harvesters are advised to take every precaution to prevent damages that could be caused by any potential flooding and high winds and seas. The public should be listening for updated forecasts and act accordingly. Some steps to follow are:
For more weather information specific to your area contact the following websites. In the St.John's area call 772-5534. Canadian Hurricane Centre
Radar Imagery
Satellite Imagery
(Municipal and Provincial Affairs)
ARES Ontario HF Net Return to Service (Sept. 12 2005) It has been reported by the Ontario Section Emergency Coordinator (Robert Gammon VA3RX) that the Sunday evening ARES Ontario net will return to operation at 8:30pm on 3.742Mhz.
Simulated Emergency Test (Oct. 1-2 2005) The Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is a North America-wide exercise in emergency communications, administered by ARRL and RAC Emergency Coordinators and Net Managers. Both ARES and the National Traffic System (NTS) are involved. The 2005 dates are Oct. 1 and 2. ARES units and other groups are free to conduct their SETs anytime between September 1 and November 30 if an alternative date is preferred. The activity period should not exceed 48 hours. After their chosen SET weekend, participating ECs and Net Managers must send reports to RAC by January 31, 2006. For more information see: www.rac.ca/fieldorg/ARES_set.htm (RAC)
Annual Fall QCWA QSO Party
(Sept. 17 2005)
Frequencies: The following
15 Bands may be used:-
Any station may be contacted on any or all of the 15 bands for a maximum of 15 QSO’s per station, with no more than one QSO per Band. Any station in your home QCWA chapter may be counted only once, for a maximum of one QSO per station. No contacts on WARC bands are permitted (10, 18 and 24 Mhz Bands). No Cross Band or Repeater Contacts are allowed. Suggested Starting Frequencies:
Information Exchange: Fill Columns on the Log Form. For the "year" column, indicate the last 2 digits of the year the station operator was first licenced. If the contacted station does not belong to a QCWA chapter show only the State, Province or Country of its location. The latter would apply to Non QCWA members as well as to QCWA members who are not affiliated with a local chapter. Do Not mention the term "At Large" (AL) as was done several years ago, as this can be confused with AL for Alabama. For Band info, simply indicate one of the above 15 Bands in the "band" column. MODES: You may choose to work all MODES or Only Phone or Only Digital (which includes CW). Certificates will be issued for each Mode of "Cw/digital", "Phone", or "Mixed" . Scoring: Each Phone QSO is worth one contact point. Each CW QSO or other Digital Mode QSO such as RTTY,PSK31, MFSK etc. is worth 2 contact points (show 2 points in the QSO Points Column on the Log). A Multiplier of one point is given for each QCWA Chapter worked and for each State, Province or Country reported from stations not belonging to a QCWA Chapter. A total of only one multiplier point will be given for each State, Province or Country. A Multiplier of 3 points will be given on each of the 15 Bands for working our Special Events Station W2MM. It is hoped to have this station active throughout the two parties. Stations within 50 miles (80 Kms) of W2MM, may work W2MM only once for a total multiplier of 3 points. Sample logsand a summary sheet may be requested from QCWA Headquarters with an SASE. The address is P O Box 3247 Farmingham, MA 01705-3247 USA. They are also on the internet at www.qcwa.org . Contacts with QCWA Memorial Station W2MM count as three multipliers on each of the 15 bands. Note: For 2005 HQ Station W2MM is being operated by Chapter 162 in Southeast Wisconsin. Members of that chapter, and non chapter Members within 50 miles (80 kms) will be permitted to work W2MM only once for a total of 3 Multiplier points. Awards: Certificates will be issued for the top 3 World Scores in each category. A certificate will also be issued for the top score in each category in each participating Country Send Logs to: W2OD, Robert Buus, 8 Donner Street, HOLMDEL N.J. 07733-2004, U.S.A.or as an e-mail attachment to : w2od@aol.com For more information visit:www.qcwa.org George Roach-VE3BNO
New Six Metre Repeater for Collingwood Area (Sept. 8 2005) A six meter repeater has been installed and is now fully operational near Collingwood, on the 52.150 / 53.150 pair. PL of 156.7 is required to access. The receiver is situated in a prime location (on Niagara escarpment) about 10 air miles from town, and overlooks the "valley" extending from York region up through to Muskoka / Parry Sound. The transmitter is situated remotely, in the Town of Collingwood proper, and until a better site (or a good duplexer) is found, the transmit range is severely limitted. However initial testing has revealed S9 mobile signals as far away as Midland / Penetang. Please feel free to test / use the system. It is linked full time into the 443.8 VE3RMT repeater in Collingwood, and once the "bugs" are ironed out (tonight or tomorrow), I'll throw the switch, and it will be linked full time into 147.105 VE3MBR repeater in Goring as well. (Bob VE3INY via Ontars)
Maritime Swap Shop The Maritime Swap Shop is held every Monday at 7:30pm local time on 3.750 MHz. All station are invited to checkin and post their wants and items for sale. The Maritime Swap Shop list can be found on many places on the internet, here are just a few: The Loyalist City Amateur Radio Club , hfradio.net , VE1AIC's Home Page and Truro Amateur Radio Club Please Note: The Maritime (on-air) Swap Shop, which was formerly held on Tuesday evenings, will now take place on Monday evenings at 1930 local time on 3750.
Well the place to visit is the 'Ontario Swap Shop' held every Sunday at 12 noon on 7055 kHz and 7:00pm on 3755 kHz. Nick VE3NJG and Ken VE3YK host the hour long program and all amateurs are invited. The Swap Shop list is posted every Monday on the Trans Provincial Net website, Ontario Swap Shop Listings , the swap shop list can also be found on packet by calling up VE3DID Introducing the "Ontario Swap
Shop Club" a place where you can record your e-mail address or phone
number where it will always be available even if you have nothing currently
listed on the swap shop.
(Nick VE3NJG)
The Manitoba Repeater Society
Swap & Shop
Building Interest /
Levelling the Playing Field
Now that there are literally thousands of newly qualified Hams on the HF bands in Canada, isn’t it high time that there was a concerted National approach to building the contesting and DXing aspects of our hobby. While I have always considered myself to be a competitive type-A personality, it has only been within the past few years that I have really gotten fired up about contesting. And to a large extent this has been due to my exposure to contesting at the VE1JF super contest station in Victoria Beach Nova Scotia, and to the wonderful mentoring that I have received from the seasoned ops that work that station. Don’t get me wrong. I am not yet, and don’t expect ever to be one of those guys who spends each and every single weekend working one of the myriad contests that are available world-wide. My better half would certainly not approve, and besides, "I have a life" – sailing in the summer and early fall is priority number one for me, and I also enjoy photography throughout the year. On the amateur radio side, I am the secretary of the Halifax ARC, I work with the EMO Amateur Radio Communications Group in Metro Halifax, and I try to write the odd piece for the "Bulletin". This spring and summer I have been on two DX-peditions, worked the RAC Canada Day contest, helped to organize the Maritime DX Forum, and I will be taking part in two Amateur Radio-related special events here in Metro Halifax over the next month. But, as the summer comes to an end, and the boats start to disappear from our Cove, I know that I will start thinking more about Amateur Radio, and particularly about contesting as we get closer to the CQ WW DX phone test in late October. In fact, as I walked the dog this morning and watched the birds gathering together in preparation for their flight sough, thoughts of got me thinking about how we might build this aspect of our hobby by encouraging our newly-commissioned HF Hams to get involved. So….what could be done to make contesting in Canada more interesting for all HF-capable Hams? For one thing, I think that the playing field needs to be levelled. What do I mean by that you ask? Well, I really don’t believe that the very many of the newly approved HF operators that have been grandfathered onto the HF bands without the necessity of learning Morse code are going to be very interested in contesting. Why? Because without the ability to work CW, phone-only ops are just never going to be capable of getting the necessary number of multipliers to be even remotely competitive in the majority of our Canadian contests. If you can see that you are never ever going to win the race, are you likely to ever start to run? The American Radio Relay League has for some time now recognised the need to build interest in our hobby, and they have taken steps to address the issue of contesting by having separate CW and Phone tests for their big events. I think that it is time for RAC to do something similar with the RAC Winter and Canada Day events. There are several possible ways of addressing this issue. RAC could set up two separate contests for each of their events – one weekend for CW and another for phone. Or, they could simply establish three categories within each of the tests – one for CW; one for Phone and a mixed category for both CW & Phone. Clubs need to become more actively and directly involved in promoting contesting too. Not just talking it up! There is a need for both education about contesting and a need for team building. For example, the Halifax ARC organized a full-day contesting workshop in mid June with the focus on improving our Club’s competitiveness in the 2005 Field Day event, and from what I can determine from our submitted score, it worked big time! Clubs should seriously consider setting up a series of contesting workshops with the objective of not only promoting contesting, but educating the uninitiated about this aspect of our hobby. What else? Well, most of us learn best by doing, so why not expand the workshop approach to include Club participation in some upcoming contests? There is no better way to get people excited about contesting and at the same time putting them at ease behind the microphone, than to give them an opportunity to watch a seasoned contester handle a pile-up and then to sit down at the microphone with a coach at your side and work the contest yourself. Perhaps RAC could be encouraged to become directly involved in the promotion of contesting at the Club level by becoming the co-ordinating body for Canada-wide Club-based contesting. Just a thought. So in summary - to our Clubs from St. John’s to Victoria I strongly encourage you to take some time to consider how you might encourage the involvement of your newly-minted HF ops in DXing and Contesting. And to RAC I say, let’s follow the ARRL lead and make some changes in the RAC contest rules that allow for HF-only (and for that matter CW-only) contesters to be more competitive, and at the same time, why not consider the promotion of contesting at the Club level in Canada.
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