Education

CAARC sponsored classes to obtain your Amateur Radio License

Advanced Course

Apr 14th

Posted by VE6CIA in Education

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RAC Advanced Course for RAC Maple Leaf Operators: Summer 2021

Registration is now underway for the RAC Advanced Course: Summer 2021

https://www.rac.ca/rac-advanced-course-for-maple-leaf-operators-summer-2021/

Note: You need to be a RAC Maple Leaf Operator Member (present or future) to register for this course. See below for information.

In response to the global pandemic, Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio Course so that individuals can upgrade their qualifications while continuing to practise social/physical distancing.

With your Advanced Certificate, you can run higher power, operate a remotely-controlled station, obtain operating privileges when travelling overseas, set up repeaters, be the trustee for club stations and even become an Accredited Examiner (AE).

Course information:

The course will be 10 sessions in length and each session will be two hours long.

In order to offer maximum flexibility, we will be running two Advanced courses so students will be able to choose one of the following two options:

  • Sunday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm EDT (12 pm to 2 pm PDT) starting on Sunday, June 6 and ending on Sunday, August 15

Or

  • Monday evenings from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm EDT (5:30 to 7:30 PDT) starting on Monday, June 7 and ending on Sunday, August 16

Note: There will be no classes on August 1 or 2 because of the local holidays in some areas.

Course Instruction:

The course instructor is Dave Goodwin, VE9CB. Dave has been an Amateur since 1975, is an active HF Contester and DXer and his DXpedition to Point Amour Lighthouse was featured on the front cover of the November-December 2020 issue of The Canadian Amateur. Dave has also been a long-time volunteer at the national level and has served as the RAC President and as the RAC Director for the Atlantic Region. Since 2015, he has also has been teaching Basic and Advanced certification courses with the Fredericton (NB) Amateur Radio Club.

Course material pertaining to all topics covered in the course syllabus will be provided to all registered students and is available online at:

https://www.rac.ca/rac-advanced-course-for-maple-leaf-operators-summer-2021/

Course Requirements:

The RAC Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio course is being offered at no charge to RAC Maple Leaf Operator Members – both current and future as described below.

Participants in the course will need to meet all of the following requirements:
  1. Participants must already have the Canadian Basic Amateur Radio Qualification and a Canadian call sign.
  2. Participants must already be a RAC Maple Leaf Operator Member or become one by joining RAC at the Maple Leaf Operator level or upgrading to that level.
  3. Participants must have a copy of the Canadian Amateur Radio Advanced Qualification Study Guide provided by Coax Publications. For more information please visit the RAC Study Guides webpage.
  4. Participants must have a computer and Internet connection capable of using the GoToMeeting (GTM) conference platform. You do not need your own account on GTM to take part in this course, but you will have to download an applet from the GTM site to participate.
  5. Participants must have a working email address to receive course materials and links to the sessions.

There is room on the conference server for 200 participants in each session. Auditors are welcome to attend on a space-available basis, provided they are RAC Maple Leaf Operator members. You can sign up by following the instructions on the registration page. 

Other Amateur Radio Courses:

Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.

https://www.rac.ca/amateur-radio-courses/

 

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
RAC President and Chair

Alan Griffin
RAC MarCom Director

www.rac.ca
720 Belfast Road, #217
Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z5
613-244-4367, 1- 877-273-8304
raccomms@gmail.com

Spring 2021 RAC Basic Course

Mar 22nd

Posted by VE6CIA in Education

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Registration for Spring 2021 RAC Basic Course is now underway

https://www.rac.ca/rac-online-basic-amateur-radio-course-spring-2021/

For immediate release:

Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification while continuing to practise social/physical distancing.

The course will again be conducted with the assistance of the Annapolis Valley Amateur Radio Club (AVARC) of Nova Scotia.

This course prepares students for the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Basic Qualification Level Operator Certificate exam to operate on allocated Amateur Radio frequencies.

Course material pertaining to all topics covered in the course syllabus will be provided to all registered students. Students must have a copy of the Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Study Guide provided by Coax Publications. For more information please visit the RAC Study Guides webpage.

It is essential that all students have the necessary equipment and bandwidth capable of taking the course – at least a tablet or PC and a DSL broadband connection.

Schedule and Cost:

Date: The course will start on Thursday, April 15 and will finish in late June.

Time: Classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6 pm to 8:30 (1800 – 2030) Eastern Time (1900 – 2130 Atlantic Time) and Sunday afternoons 1 pm to 3:30 pm (1300 – 1530) Eastern Time (1400 – 1630 Atlantic Time).

Cost: The registration fee for the course is $50 plus GST/HST. The cost of the Basic Study Guide is extra and an order link will be provided upon completion of payment.

Instruction: 

The course will use the GoToMeeting web-based service. Students will receive instructions on how to log on to the online sessions once they have registered for the course. Classes will be recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.

The course instructor is Al Penney, VO1NO. Al was first licensed in 1977 and has been active in many areas of Amateur Radio including contesting, DXing, VHF/UHF weak signal, satellites, emergency communications and DXpeditioning. He has served as the President of six different Amateur Radio clubs in both Canada and the United States and currently chairs the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Band Planning Committee. Al has taught the Basic Qualification Amateur Radio Course since 1994.

Complete information about the course and a downloadable copy of the course syllabus are available at:

 https://www.rac.ca/rac-online-basic-amateur-radio-course-spring-2021/

Registration: 

If you would like to take part in this course please register now by completing the registration form provided on the RAC website at:

https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-course-registration-form-spring-2021/

Other Amateur Radio Courses:

Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.

https://www.rac.ca/amateur-radio-courses/

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
RAC President and Chair

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Even More CW Learning Aids

Feb 21st

Posted by VA6SJA in Education

1 comment

As I was watching Paul VA6MPM’s very interesting Zoom presentation about Summits On The Air the evening of February 17, Ken Smith VE6AGR caught my attention by mentioning that CW is commonly used for SOTA and that he is using the internet to practice. What? Another group using CW!

I had made an earlier post to this site about the CWCOM system for practicing Morse Code via the internet, and I am interested what applications Ken is using. I got Paul VA6MPM to ask Ken on my behalf how he is practicing CW on the internet. I have edited Ken’s responding email a little, I hope without destroying his message.

The internet-based learning aid that he mentioned in the Zoom meeting is VBand which allows Practicing sending solo or sending & receiving with a few buddies, on the internet, with no embarrassment of actually transmitting on the air

Find it at https://hamradio.solutions/vband/  . You can make certain keys on your computer mimic a key or paddle but by far the best way to use this site is to buy the optional interface dongle they sell, which enables you to connect a proper iambic paddle to the computer.  Some people have trouble with latency, though, so it’s not foolproof.

Other Learning Aids:

Android apps with no data connection required

For listening rather than sending practice:

Morse Machine — good tool for initially learning the characters and main punctuation signs

Morse Mentor – a next step from the above, adds prosigns & generates random-length groups of random characters. Is great for call sign practice, because you don’t get to infer things by anticipating the rest of words.  Has Farnsworth timing options as well as the usual adjustable character speeds.

QSOSender3 — generates 2-minute or so messages with content from typical QSO’s – call signs, signal reports, QTH, rig info, 73 & other pleasantries, etc.

Downloadable Windows applications,

no internet connection required to actually use:

G4FON Koch Morse Trainer

Web site resources requiring an internet connection

ARRL Code Practice files (Code Practice Files (arrl.org)) – are great to practice receiving long blocks of actual text from old QST magazines.  Various speeds available.

LCWO on-line (https://lcwo.net/)  and Rufzxp.net seem to get good reviews in lots of places but Ken hasn’t used them.  The latter apparently allows you to inflict noise and interference on yourself to really hone your skills.

Practice sending and receiving anywhere, anytime

Build the code trainer kit from QRP guys:    https://qrpguys.com/qrpguys-code-trainer  Ken says, “This kit was so easy I even built one and it worked on the first try – which is something I cannot say about ANY of my other pathetic forays into electronics.” Use whatever paddle you like with this tiny keyer kit (great for travel):

Ken wishes us good luck with our CW learning exercises.

Thanks to Ken Smith VE6AGR for all this information!

John VA6SJA

 

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RAC Basic amateur radio course

Dec 31st

Posted by VE6CIA in Education

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Registration for Winter 2021 RAC Basic Course is closing soon

https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-amateur-radio-course-winter-2021/

For immediate release:

Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification while continuing to practise social/physical distancing.

Date: The course will start on Thursday, January 14 and will finish in late March. Registration is still open but it will be closing soon.

Time: Classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6 pm to 8:30 (1800 – 2030) Eastern Time (1900 – 2130 Atlantic Time) and Sunday afternoons 1 pm to 3:30 pm (1300 – 1530) Eastern Time (1400 – 1630 Atlantic Time).

Cost: The registration fee for the course is $50 plus GST/HST. The cost of the Basic Study Guide is extra and an order link will be provided upon completion of payment.

Background information:

The course will again be conducted with the assistance of the Annapolis Valley Amateur Radio Club (AVARC) of Nova Scotia.

This course prepares students for the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Basic Qualification Level Operator Certificate exam to operate on allocated Amateur Radio frequencies.

Course material pertaining to all topics covered in the course syllabus will be provided to all registered students. Students must have a copy of the Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Study Guide provided by Coax Publications. For more information please visit the RAC Study Guides webpage.

It is essential that all students have the necessary equipment and bandwidth capable of taking the course – at least a tablet or PC and a DSL broadband connection.

Instruction: 

The course will use the GoToMeeting web-based service. Students will receive instructions on how to log on to the online sessions once they have registered for the course. Classes will be recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.

The course instructor is Al Penney, VO1NO. Al was first licensed in 1977 and has been active in many areas of Amateur Radio including contesting, DXing, VHF/UHF weak signal, satellites, emergency communications and DXpeditioning. He has served as the President of six different Amateur Radio clubs in both Canada and the United States and currently chairs the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Band Planning Committee. Al has taught the Basic Qualification Amateur Radio Course since 1994.

Complete information about the course and a downloadable copy of the course syllabus are available at:

https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-amateur-radio-course-winter-2021/

Other Amateur Radio Courses:

Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.

https://www.rac.ca/amateur-radio-courses/

 

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
RAC President and Chair


Alan Griffin
RAC MarCom Director

www.rac.ca
720 Belfast Road, #217
Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z5
613-244-4367, 1- 877-273-8304
raccomms@gmail.com

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Have you paid your dues and confirmed your RAC membership to the executive?

Nov 17th

Posted by VE6BLD in ARES

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CAARC Membership

Club memberships are due in November. Please submit your dues as shown below. 

Club memberships are $25.00 each or $30.00 for a family and are due now.  You must be a paid-up member to be eligible to vote at the Annual General meeting in November.  Cheques may be mailed to Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club, Box 1103, Red Deer, AB, T4N 6S5.  If you prefer, Garry VE6CIA has also agreed to accept e-transfers for club memberships at ve6cia  at gmail  dot com.  This is what we did for the club raffle earlier this year.

Club insurance is due.  Please also confirm your RAC membership by email ( ve6cia  at gmail  dot  com ) so we can get  the best rate for the club.

can also download the CAARC membership and renewal  form under the “Site tools” tab and send your dues by snail mail to the listed address on the bottom of the form or bring it to the meeting. Your support helps keep your repeaters operating and your club active.
Thank you from your executive
73 CAARC Executive

 

 

Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, SK

Apr 16th

Posted by VE6BLD in ARES

1 comment

Amateur Radio in Space Pioneer Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, SK

Owen Garriott W5LFL first ham in space
W5LFL operating 2 meters
Bob King VE6BLD Calling W5LFL on the Spacecraft Columbia on Dec 5, 1983

04/15/2019

Audio received in 1983 from the Columbia Space Shuttle by Bob VE6BLD using a home made turnstile antenna on the roof

The US astronaut who pioneered the use of Amateur Radio to make contacts from space — Owen K. Garriott, W5LFL — died April 15 at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. He was 88. Garriott’s ham radio activity ushered in the formal establishment of Amateur Radio in space, first as SAREX — the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment, and later as ARISS — Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.

“Owen Garriott was a good friend and an incredible astronaut,” fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted. “I have a great sadness as I learn of his passing today. Godspeed Owen.”

An Oklahoma native, Garriott — an electrical engineer — spent 2 months aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 during a 1983 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. It was during the latter mission that Garriott thrilled radio amateurs around the world by making the first contacts from space. Thousands of hams listened on 2-meter FM, hoping to hear him or to make a contact. Garriott ended up working stations around the globe, among them such notables as the late King Hussein, JY1, of Jordan, and the late US Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA. He also made the first CW contact from space. Garriott called hamming from space “a pleasant pastime.”

“I managed to do it in my off-duty hours, and it was a pleasure to get involved in it and to talk with people who are as interested in space as the 100,000 hams on the ground seemed to be,” he said in an interview published in the February 1984 edition of QST. “So, it was just a pleasant experience, the hamming in particular, all the way around.”

Although Garriott had planned to operate on ham radio during his 10 days in space, no special provisions were made on board the spacecraft in terms of equipment — unlike the situation today on the International Space Station. Garriott simply used a hand-held transceiver with its antenna in the window of Spacelab-1. His first pass was down the US West Coast.

“[A]s I approached the US, I began to hear stations that were trying to reach me,” he told QST. “On my very first CQ, there were plenty of stations responding.” His first contact was with Lance Collister, WA1JXN, in Montana.

ARISS ARRL Representative Rosalie White, K1STO, met Garriott when he attended Hamvention, “both times, sitting next to him at Hamvention dinner banquets,” she recounted. “Once when he was a Special Achievement Award winner, and once with him and [his son] Richard when Richard won the 2009 Special Achievement Award. Owen was unassuming, very smart, kind, and up to date on the latest technology.” Garriott shared a Hamvention Special Achievement Award in 2002 with fellow Amateur Radio astronaut Tony England, W0ORE.

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, was a private space traveler to the ISS, flown there by the Russian Federal Space Agency, and he also carried ham radio into space.

EMO worker tries to drum up enthusiasm for ham radio

Oct 14th

Posted by VE6BLD in ARES

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EMO worker tries to drum up enthusiasm for ham radio

In an emergency, ham radio is an essential form of communication, Mike Johnson says

Nathalie Sturgeon · CBC News · 

A free workshop about ham radios will be held in Sackville on Oct. 22. (Nicole Williams/CBC)

A ham radio probably isn’t the first form of communication a person thinks about in an emergency, but sometimes, it’s the only one that works.

Ham radios can use wireless transmission to send messages to battery-operated radios.

And they can be useful when large storms knock out telecommunications, says Mike Johnson, the Cumberland Regional Emergency Management co-ordinator.

He is partnering up with EOS Eco-Energy and the West Cumb Amateur Radio Club to hold a free workshop in Sackville to try get more people interested in ham radios.

Different technology

Johnson, who is also a member of the WestCumb club in Amherst, N.S., said that when we lose essential communications such as cellphones, landlines and the Internet — a ham radio can come to the rescue. Hurricane Michael, which struck Florida this week, devastated normal channels of communications.

Storms that knock out telecommunications for long periods of time create more problems for co-ordinated emergency response, he said.

He said he’s already seen how ham radios could help in New Brunswick.

In January 2017, a massive ice storm knocked out power to thousands in the northeast for days.

Operators dwindling

“It became very difficult,” said Johnson.

Today, ham radios are considered a hobby more than a necessity, and not many people know how they work.

“Our numbers are dwindling,” Johnson said of the amateur radio clubs.

But younger members are needed, especially since the clubs’ services may be needed even more as the climate changes.

“We still use Morse code to this day,” he said.

Requires a test

Johnson said there are a few steps to becoming a ham radio operator.

“You need to study, take the test, once you pass it’s a one-time cost,” he said. “It’s good for life.”

After that, it’s just buying the equipment to use. Equipment for amateur radio costs between $300 and $5,000.

The workshop will be held at the Sackville Royal Canadian Legion on Monday, Oct. 22, at 6:30 p.m.

Amateur Tower Protocols

Sep 26th

Posted by VE6BLD in Club Events

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A good one for the web. Its for Calgary but the laws are federal.
Rick

VE6RAK

This message for our members in Calgary, Forwarded from Wally:

Hello all,

I was asked to help find some info on what exactly the rules for towers were within the City of Calgary. I finally tracked down the brochure from the City regarding towers and it is attached.

Bottom line is they do not have direct authority over towers but encourage some protocols be observed (kind of a good neighbour policy). There is a City phone number to call if needed as well.

Basically, towers that do not exceed 15m, and with associated antennas that do not exceed 18.75m, do not require any consultation but Amateurs are encouraged to follow the notification guidelines in the document.

There may be restrictive caveats in some neighbourhoods though, and those should be listed in the property documents.

This would be a great document to have available to all hams via their respective club websites. If anyone sees that there are other clubs that are not represented in this email please forward a copy to them or send me their contact info and I can pass it along.

Thanks,

Dave VE6GAD

73 de VE6LK/AI7LK

..Vince

city-of-calgary-protocols-concerning-amateur-towers-1

 

Picnic prizes

Jun 20th

Posted by VE6CIA in Club Events

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Congratulations to Brad VA6BMK, winner of the $500 raffle draw and Brian VE6CKC winner of the $200 raffle draw at the 46th Annual Red Deer Picnic June 19, 2016.

20160620_113423[1]20160620_113408[1]Pictured here (right) John VA6SJA receives from Garry VE6CIA the Yaesu FTM 3200DR and the Celestron weather station draw prizes donated by Radio World Central which he won from the main draw and the Canwarn training draw.

Other prize winners include: Eric VE6HFF winner of an FTM 3100R donated by CAARC, Darren VA6WNG winner of an FTM 3100R donated by VE6HPY and VE6CIA, Rick VE6RAK winner of a Sangean Weather Alert Radio donated by Radio World Central, Pericles VA6PTA winner of the Raspberry PI2 donated by KoHen, and many others too numerous to mention.

Some of the ladies: Sheila (xyl of VE6HFF), Linda (xyl of VE6DE) and Brenda (xyl of VE6BLL) won the 2 beautiful hooked wall art and knitted blanket created and donated by Sylvia VE6SYL.

Special thanks go out to Greg VA6GMC and Karen VE6LDY for the super tasty pig and all the hard work that comes with preparing, cooking and presenting the wonderful pork that was on our plates. Also thanks to all the other donors of the wonderful food at the pot luck.

Chalk up another successful Ham Radio Pignic thanks to all of you that participated and made it all worth while.

 

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Canwarn Training

Mar 24th

Posted by VE6BLD in ARES

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CANWARN, acronym for CANadian Weather Amateur Radio Network

Please note that CANWARN is not about storm chasing, it is about putting trained eyes at the local level to confirm what is happening under severe weather and communicating that information to the Meteorological Service of Canada.Here’s how CANWARN works in Central Alberta. When the regional weather forecast office (for the prairies this is the Prairie Storm Prediction Centre in Winnipeg, MB) would like to get ground observations of potentially severe thunderstorms they telephone the CANWARN person whom they have listed as the call-out person for the area of interest. In Central Alberta this will be the same people that are listed as ARES emergency coordinators. All Central Alberta and Olds ARES EC’s are trained CANWARN network controllers. The mechanics of how the net operates, local hams are notified and how their weather reports are forwarded to the forecast office are up to the CANWARN net controller. CANWARN Net Control may relay the observations or may elect to use a phone  to put the forecasters and amateur observer in direct contact.Typically, the person contacted by the Meteorological Service of Canada notifies the affected-area CANWARN hams who then radio their weather reports to their CANWARN Net Control Net. Net control then forwards the weather observations to the weather forecast office on a dedicated 1-800 phone number. As the storm moves along, reports would hopefully still come in from either stationary or mobile spotters allowing weather forecasters to continually compare the Carvel and Strathmore Doppler radar to what is being observed at ground level (below the radar horizon) and adjust their weather forecasts, Watches and Warnings accordingly.
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