Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
Club Events
CAARC Field Day 2019 has Come and Gone
Sep 12th
By John VA6SJA CAARC Field Day Chairman 2019
We had a field day! It happened because of the participation of interested people. Good job everyone! There are many stories, and I don’t have space to tell them all and there are some that I probably don’t know. Feel free to post your story.
CAARC had sponsored a Class 1F Field Day held at the Red Deer County Emergency Communications Centre in June of 2018.
BOB VE6BLD advocated for a fun Field Day with generators at the October 2018 CAARC general meeting. I had hoped there could be a repeat of last year’s County Class F Field Day as well as to hold this Class A Field Day. But this first independent CAARC Class 3A Field Day took a lot of organizing, and Ryan VA6DSJ, who could allow us access to the County’s Emergency Communications Centre was on emergency assignment dealing with an Alberta wildfire. So, this year’s Class F Field Day was cancelled and this Class 3A Field Day had to do for this year.
I had made a participant and visitor log book allowing for 35 entries and there weren’t enough lines! Hams and former hams came from as far away as Canmore and Edmonton. More hams and family members came for the roast pork supper. At least one couple came because they saw the Field Day signs on the road,
And we got photos that help tell our story! View them on this site.
All the participants worked together to make this event happen. A good example is the set up and troubleshooting needed to get everything working, including improvising on the spot. For one instance, on Friday afternoon Bob VE6BLD and Darcy VE6DDD looked around to find a way to replace the missing centre insulator for the driven element on the Mosley TA-33 Jr. beam that Garry VE6CIA had lent us. They found a discarded snow shovel with a fiberglass handle. Darcy spliced it into place with the help of cable ties and electrical tape and the crew put it in place on top of one of Bob’s masts that could be assembled from the bottom.
Field Day 2019– 99 pictures.
Jun 28th
I finally found a new Gallery widget to add multiple pictures at a time!! Check out the field day pictures by clicking the Field Day 2019 TAB right of the Swap and Shop. Thanks to Bob VE6BLD, John VA6SJA and Ray VA6RSO for the pictures.
Click any picture or click View Slideshow below the pictures.
Bob VE6BLD
Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, SK
Apr 16th
Amateur Radio in Space Pioneer Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, SK
04/15/2019
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.
Report on CAARC 2018 Field Day
Jul 18th
Well, ARRL Field Day is over for another year. Some Central Alberta amateurs operated this event from the Red Deer County EOC Amateur Radio Station. I would like to thank CAARC for encouraging me in this venture. I also thank Rod, VE6XY, and Stephen, VA6SGL, for trying to keep me grounded. And a special thank you to Brian for helping me understand the radios and correcting the aim of the HF beam antenna and for serving as Safety Officer. Ric Henderson, now Assistant County Manager of Red Deer County, found a way to let it happen. Ryan Mysko of Red Deer County served as the Red Deer County EOC member of our planning team. And a big Thank You to him for being patient with the preparations and testing and facilitating our access to the county’s radio station.
Jack Humphries VE6JRH/VA6IX Silent Key
Apr 15th
It is with sadness we announce the passing of Jack Humphries VE6JRH/VA6IX from Olds. Jack received his Amateur Radio license in June 2001 and had been very active on the bands ever since. Jack was very instrumental in helping many hams obtain their licenses and he made many friends on HF and VHF. Jack worked many stations around the world on various bands and was always listening and ready to engage everyone in a meaningful conversation. He will certainly be missed.
Jack’s funeral service will be held on Friday April 20th at 11:00 A.M. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3802 57 Ave. Olds.
The following is from a profile of Jack, written on the CAARC web site October 30, 2003.
I grew up on a farm southwest of Drumheller, Alberta, just south of the Horse Shoe Canyon. I came down with Diabetes Mellitus in 1947, which certainly changed my way of life.
My father took ill in 1950 and my work load at age eight got considerably heavier, with lots of chores to do. Dad then suffered a stroke in 1952 and work around the farm got a lot harder. I started driving truck and hauling grain when I was ten years old. Dad passed away in 1953 when I was eleven. I had a younger brother and two younger sisters.
I met my XYL in Calgary during 1960 and we went our separate ways until we married in 1965. We lived in Calgary, on 42nd Street SW, had two children, a boy and a girl. We subsequently moved to Olds, Alberta in 1969. We bought a shoe store in 1974 and sold it during the devastating inflationary early eighties. I presently work in Life Insurance and Mutual Funds as an independent broker.
Please click this link to read the complete profile of Jack.
CAARC Members receive awards for volunteering during the last year.
Dec 20th
CAARC Members receive awards for volunteering during the last year. Congratulations to the members who received Volunteer Service and Volunteer Service with Excellence awards.
Congratulations to Doug VE6DJC on winning the GIZMO! We look forward to seeing what he adds to it for next year’s Christmas dinner!
The new MSR2000 for VE6UK at Big Valley is now on 145.43MHz and still full time linked to VE6QE.
Have you paid your dues?
Nov 13th
CAARC Membership
We have noticed that there are a lot of members who have not paid their annual membership dues over the last couple of years. Please help keep your repeaters and club active by submitting your membership dues at the Picnic, the November meeting or the December pot luck supper. You 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
Amateur Tower Protocols
Sep 26th
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
