Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
Club Events
CAARC 50th Anniversary Annual Picnic and Hamfest 2022
May 23rd
CAARC 50th Anniversary Annual Picnic and Hamfest 2022
The 50th Anniversary Annual Red Deer Amateur Radio Picnic and Hamfest
will be held on June 17, 18, and 19 , 2022.
The picnic and hamfest is sponsored by the
Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
Location: Shady Nook Hall
Directions from Red Deer:
Go west on highway # 11 Turn south on RR 283. Take RR 283 south to Township Road 380 and turn right (west) to the hall just past the feed lot. 52*13.904′ N -113* 56.823′ W
Click the blue more options on this map for a Google Maps view to get driving directions from your QTH>
Please click the following link to download a word document to present to businesses for possible door prizes for the picnic.
donor_letter_2022 in word format
click to download the picnic-poster-2022
Raffle tickets for the following draws.
First prize $500.00
Second prize $200.00
Get your raffle tickets from CAARC members for just $5.00 a ticket, tickets also available at the picnic site.
Planning on attending the CAARC Picnic in beautiful Central Alberta?
At the picnic there are plans for family activities, ladies crafts, childrens games and other entertaining ideas. Red Deer and area has many other interesting things to do for visitors. Red Deer has a beautiful walking or biking trail system and natural areas. There is lots of shopping and restaurants, we even have a craft beer tour! Many hotels, motels and campgrounds are available. Check out nearby Sylvan Lake, historic downtown Lacombe or even book a trip on a steam train in Stettler. Please go to www.visitreddeer.com or Travel Alberta https://www.travelalberta.com/ca/ for more info!
CAARC Picnic Tentative Schedule & Prices
June 17, 18 and 19, 2022
Please Note: We are unable to accept any credit or debit cards. Please use cash or cheques
Friday June 17
14:00 – 22:00 Registration and Special Events Station
19:00 – 22:00 Hospitality Hour – campfire, smokies and s’mores.
Saturday June 18
08:00 – 17:00 Registration and Operating SPECIAL EVENTS HF Station VE6QE
10:00 – 12:00 Ladies Coffee and Crafts
10:00 – Fox Hunt
10:30 – 12:00 Tail gate flea market, Vendor tables
11:30 – 12:00
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch SARA dogs
13:00 – 14:00 SARA meeting
15:00 – Fox Hunt
14:00 – 15:00 ARES Meeting
16:30 – 18:00 Main hall closed for pot luck supper preparations.
18:00 – 20:00 Main hall pot luck Supper with BARON OF BEEF ROAST provided by the club
– Please bring your own dishes and cutlery, as well as pot luck dish: eg. – salad, side dish or dessert
20:00 – bedtime! Bonfire (Weather and fire restrictions permitting)
Sunday June 19
8:00 – 9:30 Pancake Breakfast. Please bring your own dishes. (Cost – donation at the door)
10:00 -11:00 Kids Games and Egg Toss
11:00 – 12:00 Liars Contest, Raffle and Draw Prizes
Weekend Family pass – $40.00 – Single $25.00
Day Family pass – $20.00 – Single $10.00
Optional – Raffle tickets – $5.00
Have you paid your dues and confirmed your RAC membership to the executive?
Sep 17th
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
Field Day Pictures 2021
Jul 5th
Thanks to everyone who submitted these pictures. Be sure to check all four pages at the bottom of the first page for all the pictures.
These are the field day results as submitted to ARRL (Thanks VA6SGL ) Great job everyone!
Provinces and states worked.
RAC Canada Day Contest
Feb 3rd
I just received this in my in box today!
VE6BLD RAC Canada Day Contest 2020
Winter Field Day Fun VE6BLD
Jan 31st
I spent about 6 hours Sat and Sunday working the Winter Field Day. The bands were good until after 9 Saturday night. I slept in Sunday till 9:30 but managed a lot more contacts till noon.
Here are my results.
51 Sections, 38 States, 222 contacts, 1320 points,
80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 6m, 2m.
I hope to see some more results from others here.
Bob VE6BLD
CAARC 2020 Official Field Day Scores
Dec 16th
I finally looked in the December QST for the 2020 ARRL Field Day Results.
Boy, are there a lot of entries to read through this year.
Our Central Alberta ARC showed 7 entries for a total of 2,928 points. These were the participants that I could confirm in the listings (my digital copy had very small print and I don’t think it supports “Find”}:
(December 19, adding information VA6SJA)
Station Class Points
VE6CIAÂ Â Â Â 1DÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 644
VA6SJAÂ Â Â Â 1EÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 384
VE6WCEÂ Â Â 1DÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 56
VA6MPMÂ 1B 1 Operator Battery 155
Points accounted for 1,239.
In addition, by some technical glitch, it appears that the VE6BLD entry was not recorded. He sent in his entry and used the club name Central Alberta ARC. That station had 372 voice QSOs which would have added 372 points to our total.
As a matter of interest. there were scores as low as 2 in the 1D category and 46 in the 1E category. So, you should not have felt that your score was too low to submit.
Did you participate under the Club Name of Central Alberta ARC? Would you like to add your statistics here?
If you cannot look up your own score, send your claimed score to me at va6sja@rac.ca and I will try to confirm it.
John VA6SJA
CAARC Participation in 2020 ARRL Field Day
May 21st
Paul VA6MPM has agreed to co-chair distribution of information for CAARC members’ (and any other interested amateur’s) entries in the ARRL Field Day.
We encourage your participation in the 2020 ARRL Field Day on June 27 and 28, and your submission of your individual station score to the ARRL. The 24 hours of on-air operations start at 1800Z June 27. You may operate for any convenient part of that period.
We are going to publish what we hope are bite-sized chunks about participating in Field DayThe official ARRL Classes for one or two participants are (from easiest to hardest), choose one:
- Home station using only one of your own call signs (Class D). Another licenced household member may also use this station equipment with only one of their own call signs for a separate entry. Class D stations may not count contacts made with other Class D stations. Using emergency power for a home station changes your class to Class E and allows you to claim a bonus and also allows contacts with any Field Day Station to be counted.
- Vehicular Mobile (Class C): Stations in vehicles capable of operating while in motion and normally operated in this manner. Normally used by one operator with his own call sign.
- Small group portable (Class B) set up and operated by no more than two persons. This can be your regular equipment set up so as to operate from your back yard, and I believe, your garage if it is not your regular operating position. A variant is Class B – Battery, in which All contacts must be made using an output power of 5 Watts or less and the power source must be something other than commercial mains or motor-driven generator. Set-up must start later than 0000 UTC on the Friday (Thursday afternoon or evening local time) preceding the Field Day period. Set up your station up with an effort of a total of 24 hours or less.
In the QST Field Day results each class is listed in in its own category, so in essence, you will compete with similar stations.
We will make further posts, about:
- Which QSOs can be counted and what you have to record for each QSO,
- Point score for each type of QSO
- Multipliers and bonuses
- Reporting your score
Background, official rules, and many hints can be found at http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2020/2020%20Field%20Day%20Packet(1).pdf .
Comments or questions to Paul VA6MPM (find his email on QRZ.com), or John VA6SJA, va6sja@rac.ca .
John VA6SJA and Paul VA6MPM
Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club Fathers Day June Picnic
Apr 12th
Please be advised, the Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club Fathers Day June Picnic has been cancelled till 2021 due to Covid-19.
CAARC participation in ARRL Field Day 2020
Mar 17th
On a posting on February 23 I had asked anyone interested int CAARC’s participation in ARRL Field Day 2020 to come to the March meeting of the Central Alberta Radio Club to establish an organization.
Because of all the commotion about the COVID-19 virus and because I am part of the vulnerable population, I will not be going to the club meeting.
If the club wishes to proceed with participation in Field Day, providing that it seems wise at that time, I am willing to provide advice and support to the extent that I have time. I do think however, that it is time for a new set of “doersâ€, including the chairman, etc.
If you can’t go to the meeting and wish to indicate support, I will collect your comments and advice to send to a member of the club executive. It would be best that I compile these comments before the meeting tomorrow evening.
Please you send me any of your thoughts by noon MDT tomorrow, March 18 AT va6sja@rac.ca ..
John VA6SJA
CAARC Participation in 2020 ARRL Field Day
Feb 23rd
We had a lot of fun on Field Day 2019.
Should CAARC have an entry in the 2020 ARRL Field Day on Saturday-Sunday, June 27-28? If you want it to happen, come to the CAARC general meeting on March 18. We will be deciding if there will be a CAARC entry at that meeting. If so, we will need help; we will start creating a planning and organizing structure and distributing responsibilities.
We decided this at the general meeting on February 19.
Note: : There would probably also be participation on Friday. Up to 24 cumulative hours of set-up for an emergency powered portable station is allowed to start up to 42 hours before the start of the 24 hours of on-air operations at noon (MDT) on Saturday.
John Allen, VA6SJA
