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General News
Alberta Director Nomination
Feb 5th
I wish to nominate Garry Naylor VE6FGN for Alberta Director. A Garry with two R’s, how can you go wrong?
Please see below:
Good day- Garry, VE6FGN here. I’m a Husband, father, and most importantly a grand father. I joined the Canadian Army in 1977 as a tank driver, was injured in the early 90’s and became an air traffic controller. One of my secondary duties was to handle emergencies on the Wing.
I became interested in Amateur Radio in 2004, when Alberta Amateurs assisted us at an airshow. I was extremely impressed with these volunteers, and decided that when I retired I would become involved.
In 2005 I was medically released and found work in the Cold Lake area. I joined the local club and earned my Basic with honours. I joined solely to volunteer for my community, however I was surprised to find I really enjoyed the hobby, and the people in our club. I’ve met a bunch of Amateurs in other clubs, learned a lot from them, and enjoyed their company.  I really enjoy supporting local events- from Marathons to kid’s runs to ATV rallies- all are great fun, and great training for ARES.
I’m currently serving as the ARES EC for Cold Lake, and am a past president of our club.
I’ll be honest here- I’m not really big on being the big cheese. A lot of what has happened in big organizations doesn’t impress me- and I think a lot of the problem is too many people want to be the big cheese.  If you choose me to represent Alberta Amateurs to RAC, I’ll do the best I can, but you’ll have to do your part. Let me know what you think is wrong, give me some options on how you want to see it done, and I’ll fight on your behalf.
I will identify one thing I want to see change- and that is how we all get along together. If you elect me, I intend on travelling and meeting as many of you as I can. My message will be simple- don’t take this too seriously: we’re amateurs, this is all about enjoying the hobby, and providing a public service when necessary (and getting out of the way when it’s not). I’ll encourage everyone to get on the air: ragchew, Dx, check in to Nets, foxhunt, whatever- thing is to do it, have fun, learn a lot, and enjoy each other’s company.
Cheers- Garry
VE6FGN
Please see me at coffee or at the flea market to sign the nomination form. It has to be soon because it needs to be signed by Garry and mailed (no fax or email allowed) to RAC by Feb. 19, 2016. Thanks…Garry VE6CIA
Voltage Regulator Modules
Dec 30th
A whole range of small regulator boards or modules are available from your favorite on-line shopping sites for very little money. Â I gave the most recently arrived unit a quick once over.
The on board voltmeter is fairly accurate but if you need to adjust voltage exactly I suggest a good multi-meter.
I measured quiescent current at 25 mA (compared to 5 mA with a 7805).
Voltage regulation was good; switching an 11 ohm load at 5 volts did not result in a noticeable drop. Â The regulator IC stayed cold – at least until the load resistors started smoking.
I put my scope across the load and found an interesting [Eastern Rockies] waveform about 0.5 V at 10 KHz.
There is one 220 uF electrolytic across the output. Â The scope suggests that some additional output filtering is in order.
All in all a useful piece of kit for only a very few dollars.
RAC Bandplan Dec.1, 2015
Nov 29th
http://wp.rac.ca/wp-content/uploads/files/pdf/RAC%20Bandplan%20December%201%202015.pdf
New CAARC Executive for 2015 – 2016
Nov 24th
The Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday Nov 18th at the Red Deer Search and Rescue. Congratulations to the members who were elected to the new executive.
CAARC Executive for 2015 – 2016
Past President   Bob King VE6BLD
President– Stephen Lee VA6SGL
Vice President– Rod Lins VE6XY
Secretary-Â Sandy Jacobs VE6SND
Treasurer– Karen McKinney VA6LDY
Directors
- Brian Davies VE6CKC
- Garry Jacobs VE6CIA
- Greg McKinney VA6GMC
- Jeff Low VA6JL
- Mike Mailiot VE6MIM
 Appointments
Repeaters
Skip MacAulay VE6BGT
Emergency Coordinator
Jeff Low VA6JL
Publicity
Bob King VE6BLD
Webmaster
Bob King VE6BLD
Net Control
Bob King VE6BLD
using “bargain” coax connectors
Nov 18th
I bought a package of 10 SO-239 chassis connectors on eBay at a great price. Â The connectors looked good, teflon insulation, gold plated pins. Â However it was not possible to thread a PL-259 male connector on more than 2 or 3 turns.
I then understood why the price was so low. Â I decided that the solution was to re-thread the connectors. Â I looked for a die at local tool stores but no luck – Â I was told that 5/8-24Â was a thread used in electrical connectors but not commonly used by machinists. Â Checking on Amazon it became clear that the proper die was available at reasonable cost as a “gunsmiths” die.
As soon as it arrived I tried it. Â I did not have a holder for this size die so I used a “Quick-clamp” with rubber pads. Â I used lots of cutting oil and took my time cutting the threads. Â The result was a bare brass thread which easily took the Amphenol PL-259 connector.
I don’t know if the manufacturer in China used a 16 mm die in place of 5/8″ or if they failed to take the thickness of the nickle plating into account when cutting threads. Â Whatever the reason now I have the tool to make it right!
The photos tell the story. Â 73 and keep on building. Â Earl VA6TJ
Remote antenna tuner
Oct 11th
Remote tuners are offered by MFJ, LDG and others. Here is my brief review of the LDG RT-100 tuner.
I purchased the tuner new, at what I considered was a competitive price. As you can see from the photo I am using it to tune a horizontal loop antenna close to the feed-point.  The tuner is matching a short section of low loss open wire line and not a long section of coax.  The tuner requires 12V DC at low current so I powered it from a gel cell battery and a small solar trickle charger panel (CND$14). This remote solar power arrangement has been in operation for several months now without issue.
The tuner finds a match from 80 – 10 meters on the random length loop (~130m of #10 multi-strand insulated wire, 10m high).
I have found a few issues with tuning; i.e. failing to find a good match on a band or frequency. As per the instruction manual a tune can be “forced†by changing bands, re-tuning and then returning to the frequency you want to operate on.
The second issue noted is a de-tune with changing weather / moisture conditions. For example rain or heavy dew on the antenna may cause the antenna to re-tune. This does not often happen but it is inconvenient there is a re-tune cycle in the middle of a QSO.
I experimented with different baluns and found that a 4:1 air core balun worked best for me. This balun is very easy and inexpensive to make using parts from the hardware store.   The antenna is maintained at DC ground through the balun and tuner. (Yes, the ground wire should have been green…major fail !)
Using the remote tuner I was able to operate on SSB effectively on multiple bands with a single wire antenna using only 100 W. The loop antenna was found to be very quiet as a receive antenna. On 20m a signal barely audible on a dipole was perfectly Q5 on the loop antenna.
So if your opportunities for erecting antennas are restricted my experience shows that a multi band wire antenna with a remote tuner and one feedline can be an effective way to operate HF.