Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
Jun 17th
Left to right… Neal Sunderland VE6NL the new Section Emergency Coordinator for Alberta, often seen driving around the province visiting members in his Holiday Rambler Class A RV, Jeff Low VA6JL Red Deer Emergency Coordinator and veteran of the recent floods as well as Garry Jacobs VE6CIA Alberta Section Manager. Inset, Ian Burgess VA6EMS Emergency Coordinator for Calgary. [1]
Jun 17th
The Special Event Amateur Station will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the first RCMP owned and operated radio-to-patrol-car dispatch system that was commissioned in the fall of 1939 using the call sign VY8T and thus initiated a continuing Radio Support-Service within Force. Â VE3RCMP during Field Day will be operated by current and retired members of what is currently known as the RCMP National Radio Services Directorate, Ottawa.
The last time VE3RCMP was obtained for field day operations was in 1989 during the the 50th anniversary. We hope the 4 letter suffix will not cause too much confusion to other FD contest station operators.
Special QSL cards are being prepared to confirm contacts with VE3RCMP.
Jun 16th
Web link with photo: http://wp.rac.ca/red-deer-hamfest-central-alberta-amateur-radio-club/–
Rac Comms
Jun 9th
The Brazilian Amateur Radio League – LABRE – has filed a request and obtained special permission from ANATEL, the Brazilian Telecommunication authority for foreign amateurs wishing to operate during the FIFA World Cup.
Radio amateur operators who visit Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup will be able to be on air without bureaucracy. During June and July, any foreign amateur will be able to operate in Brazil regardless of the existence of reciprocity agreement between countries. No IARP or CEPT license are necessary and no fees are required.
Amateurs who wish to operate in Brazil must send to LABRE the following documents
– Copy of a valid passport (identification pages)
– Copy of amateur radio license of his/her country
– List of cities in which he/she intends to operate and the respective periods
– Email address for contact
The documents must be scanned and sent to executiva@labre.org.br
For further information, contact George Gorsline, VE3YV RAC International Affairs Officer.
VE3YV@rac.ca
Jun 8th
Radio airwaves get buzzed from pot By Trevor Hughes,
A few years ago, retired electrical engineer Tom Thompson noticed it was
getting harder and harder to hear his friends across the country talking to
him on their ham radio sets. So Thompson built a portable antenna system to
track down whatever was interfering with his radio transmission.
The culprit? Marijuana grow operations, whose powerful grow lights can emit
interference blocking radio broadcasts on the ham and AM spectrums.
The first grower he encountered wasn’t pleased to know Thompson, now 73,
could tell what was going on. “He said, ‘What are you going to do, call the
cops?’ Thompson said. “And I said, ‘Well no, it’s a federal matter.
‘ With 22 states and the District of Columbia allowing medical marijuana,
and Colorado and Washington permitting recreational use, there’s been an
explosion in the number of people growing their own pot, much of it indoors.
With that growth has come increasing interference from the grow lights,
which suck down huge amounts of electricity to shine upon budding marijuana
plants. Growing pot indoors is usually more secure and gives the grower more
control over light, water and insects, which results in higher-quality
plants commanding a premium price.
The interference problems from one type of system have gotten so bad that
the amateur radio association, ARRL, filed a formal federal complaint on
behalf of the country’s 720,000 licensed ham operators. The problems are
worse in Colorado and California, said Sean Kutzko, an ARRL spokesman.
The interference is caused by what are known as “ballasts,” electronic
systems controlling the grow lights. Unless they’re properly shielded, the
ballasts can throw off a wide range of interference. “We’re seeing numerous
cases … and that’s causing us a problem,” Kutzko said. “We just want to
make sure the manufacturers are in compliance with FCC laws. The FCC has the
power to regulate anything that interferes with licensed radio
transmissions, such as ham sets, but also cellphones and AM radios.
Jun 5th
May 4th
Reprinted from AMSAT NA
Phase 1 Fox satellites are 1-Unit CubeSats. They each include an analog FM repeater that will allow simple ground stations using an HT and an “arrow†type antenna to make contacts using the satellite. This was the mode made so popular by AO-51. The Phase 1 CubeSats also have the capability of operating in a high-speed digital mode for data communications. Two of our phase 1 Fox satellite projects have already been accepted into the NASA ELaNa program for free launches.
We now have a launch for Fox-1 in 2014. These Keplerian elements approximate the perigee, apogee, and inclination of the orbit. They have been tested in several popular tracking programs, and will give a good feel for the availability and footprint to be expected. Other details will depend on the launch site and deployment profile.
FOX-1
1 99999U 13001AÂ Â 13115.03159480Â .00000000Â 00000 0Â 00000 0 1Â Â Â 14
2 99999Â 64.0000 106.4735 0200000 270.0000 180.0000 14.81480000Â Â Â 10
With the IARU coordination received, the uplink frequency will be 435.180 MHz, and the downlink frequency will be 145.980 MHz. For those using the SatPC32 tracking program, you can add the following line to the DOPPLER.SQF file:
FOX-1,145980,435180,FM,FM,NOR,0,0,Preliminary
We will update these as the launch approaches and more specific information becomes available.
Apr 21st
Apr 8th
Why Amateur Radio is Important
Roger Hunt, K7MEX
A version of this story appeared in the March 2014 edition of All Ears, the newsletter
published by the Escondido Amateur Radio Society (EARS) in California. I spoke with the
primary person involved in this incident, got some corrections to the original version of the
story, and the corrected version appears below.
There is a large off-road 4WD event in the Lake Havasu area held the third weekend of
March each year. Called Desert Run Havasu, it was March 13-16 this year, and involves
4-wheeling runs over trails of varying difficulty. One indvidual who participated this year
was retired attorney Bruce Boogaard, a new ham with the call sign KK6DKJ. Bruce got his
technician license less than a year ago, in April 2103, and admits he has never even been
on a repeater before, using his radios for simplex communication with other 4-wheelers.
Participating in the Desert Run Havasu, Bruce was navigating through an area with a large
group of off-road enthusiasts, and as he had been taught to do, kept his eyes on the
vehicle both in front and behind him. While most of the group used CB radios, Bruce and
another ham named Scott Connelly also kept in touch on a VHF ham frequency. Scott was
near the front of the group, while Bruce was near the rear. The group became widely
separated, with nearly two miles between the first and last vehicles in the group. The
distance proved to be a problem in the difficult terrain and some of the vehicles using CB
radios lost communication. However Bruce and Scott were able to maintain contact with
their ham radios.
Bruce eventually noticed the second vehicle behind him was driving erratically and falling
further behind. When the vehicle made a strange turn up the side of the wash, Bruce
contacted Scott and asked that he relay a message to the group leader by CB radio to stop.
Bruce turned back and checked on the driver, discovering he was incoherent and obviously
having some kind of medical emergency. Bruce updated Scott as to the problem and
stated they needed to get this guy to hospital as soon as possible. There was no cell
service in this remote area, but Bruce had brought with him the frequency and PL tone of
a nearby repeater. Though Bruce had never used a repeater, he was preparing to put the
information into the radio when he received a call on the simplex frequency, 146.550 MHz,
that he had been using to talk to Scott.
As luck would have it, a group of hams belonging to the Family Motor Coach Association
(FMCA) were having an RV ralley in the Lake Havasu area and were using the same
simplex frequency. He heard Bruce’s call to Scott, and since he had cell service where he
was located, offered to call 9-1-1. An ambulance was dispatched to the nearest trail head,
and the 4-wheelers were able to get the man there in about 20-25 minutes. The man was
transferred to the ambulance and later transported via Life Flight to a hospital in Phoenix.
It turned out the man had a blood vessel burst in his brain, but survived, partly because of
the quick action of the amateur radio operators involved. This incident is a classic example
of why ham radio helps save lives, and works when all else fails.
