Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
May 3rd
The club has purchased a few Motorola MTR2000 VHF repeaters to replace the very old and aging GE-2 radios that we have been using in all the repeater sites for around the last 30 years.. The old GE-2’s are great radios but the last time we tried to peak one up the capacitors on the xtal multiplier board just snapped off.. These old parts have seized solid on the circuit boards so it is time to upgrade I guess.. These new MTR2000 are not brand new but are more of the latest technology, every thing is set up by a computer and there is really now adjusting of parts anymore.. In order to be able to connect these units into our controllers I had to remove the old J5 interface connector and build a new circuit board for having things isolated between circuits.. This required unsoldering a 96 pin plug and then creating a new circuit board and drilling the 96 holes into it for the plug to resolder into, that was fun I tell you…
Motorola MTR2000.
Front cover removed to show laptop and other connections.
Rear View of the radio..
New Interface board with the 96 pin connector..
Completed Interface assembly.
In the next few days I will be going up to the repeater site to check for mounting and cable lengths that need to be built. Then after that we will install it and see what happens. Stay tuned.. Skip, VE6BGT.
Apr 27th
A few weeks ago I was at my son’s place in Okotoks and he helped me try his new Electric Unicycle. It was a very cold and windy day but after 3 tries I managed to go a few hundred feet! What a blast!
Click these links for my 3 best tries…
Dad’s 2nd Good Ride on Michael’s EUC This would be easier on a flat lawn with no wind!!
Apr 18th
Antennas finally up on the new tower. Many thanks to Rod ve6roh,Jim ve6jhk,Bob ve6bld and Tom va6ta for all the expert assistance. Top antenna is a 24 element looper for 1296,below is the new 2m – 70cm Dual Band EME Yagi Antenna PA144-432-34-6-2CBGP Two Separate Connectors followed by the Cushcraft 5 element for 6.Once again thank you to the guys from the Red Deer area for all your help. Bob va6zo.
Apr 14th
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Apr 14th
Jim VE6JHK passed this information video on to me after we had a discussion on the air with a few hams the other day. Thanks Jim.
Mar 19th
Is there by chance anyone here with an old Kenwood HF rig? I have an MC-60 and an MC-50 mike that I wonder if anyone would be able to test for me.
Mar 18th
VE6BLD 144 MHZ SSB horizontal Antenna install. We had a beautiful March plus 15 degree day to get my SSB Quagi antenna up the tower. Many thanks to VE6CIA Garry, VA6MPM Paul and VE6MIM Mike for helping with this rather difficult install. I have quite a few other antenna that could have posed a problem but we found a hole to pull up the 14 foot long Quagi and get it installed above the HF beam, 2 m Quagis, 70 CM Quag-v antennas. Garry climbed to stand on the top plate of the tower and then stood on the HF antenna boom to be able to reach above the 440 MHZ Quagi. He was able to install the new quagi on the verticlal mast of the 14 foot long vertical folded dipole I used for my commercial antenna for my business. He would have been reaching up to about the 63 foot height! The antenna checked out with a great SWR. Thanks all three of you for all the great help!! I should now be able to work Calgary and Edmonton easily on SSB simplex with the other weak signal hams. I an barely remember when VE6BGT Skip and I with Sarina’s and some other hams help built the whole tower and antenna 32 years ago! Check out the great pictures Sarina took in this Gallery.
After you close the picture browser you will have to refresh your page to go back( New problem I have to figure out now !!)
On Sunday, April 18, 2021, Radio Amateurs of Canada is organizing a special on-air event to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day.Every year on April 18, Radio Amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of Amateur Radio and to commemorate the formation of the 
