Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
General News
January vhf contest
Jan 13th
Here is a link for the January vhf contest. Lets get on the air and have some fun and put CAARC on the map and in the logs.  http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf
Bill VE6OLD SK
Jan 1st
Hello – I received a phone call this morning from Carole Guthrie with the sad news of Bill VE6OLD’s death. Bill Guthrie was a long time member of CAARC and was very active in club activities until ill health slowed him down. Bill was a fixture at club picnics, serving up SARA dogs with a smile! He always had lots to sell at any of the flea markets and was on the air all the time when he was still working, driving from one job to another. Bill was a past president and one of the founding members of SARA. Bill’s voice will live on, on the VE6REP repeater controller. He will definitely be missed!
Because of Covid restrictions, there will be a small family service. Condolences can be posted on the Wilson’s Funeral Home website on the Tribute wall. Donations maybe made in Bill’s memory to the Canadian Cancer Society
Obituary posted for Ian “Bill” William Guthrie. See http://www.wilsonsfuneralchapel.ca/obituary/IanBill-Guthrie
73’s
Sandy Jacobs
CAARCÂ President
Earthlings and astronauts chat away, via ham radio
Dec 24th
Earthlings and astronauts chat away, via ham radio
The International Space Station cost more than $100 billion. A ham radio set can be had for a few hundred bucks.
Perhaps that explains, in part, the appeal of having one of humankind’s greatest scientific inventions communicate with Earth via technology that’s more than 100 years old. But perhaps there’s a simpler explanation for why astronauts and ham radio operators have been talking, and talking, for years.
NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock was just a few weeks into his six-month mission at the space station when feelings of isolation began to set in.
Wheelock would be separated from loved ones, save for communication via an internet phone, email or social media. At times, the stress and tension of serving as the station’s commander could be intense.
One night, as he looked out a window at the Earth below, he remembered the space station’s ham radio. He figured he’d turn it on—see if anyone was listening.
“Any station, any station, this is the International Space Station,” Wheelock said.
A flood of voices jumbled out of the airwaves.
Astronauts aboard the space station often speak to students via ham radio, which can also
SOTA Activations, Short Video Example
Nov 20th
If you have been curious about what a SOTA activation looks like, this video is typical of our beautiful Canadian mountain SOTA activations.
Paul Mower
VA6MPM
VE6BLD’s solar pop can heater to warm your shack from the sun.
Nov 11th
In 2014 I found a video on you tube of a man in Newfoundland who had built a solar pop can heater. I decided I would build one for my big shop in the back of my large town lot. There is a south facing wall to install it on a foot away from the wall for safety reasons as it can produce 80 -90 degree C! I had an old double pane window in the shop that was about 3 by 7 feet. So the project began. I also had the aluminum frame from a score clock which had been removed from a school gym which turned out to be the perfect depth to fill with rows of pop cans after being insulated with 2 inch styrofoam. The metal frame also had a perfect indentation on the front to install the double pane window. See the pictures in the link below for how I built this pop can heater. I used a small squirrel cage fan on the inlet in the garage and another one on the outlet in the garage. There is a temperature sensor 
at the top of the outlet pipe connected to an adjustable digital temperature control ($8.00 on ebay). I can set any temperature to turn on the fans and I can also adjust the differential to turn off. As soon as the sun comes up and shines on the heater it will quickly come to the set temperature I programed of 32 C. The heater was tested to produce up to +180 degrees F (+80 degrees C) before I installed the fans. This is a good reason to have 2 fans so it will not melt the heater if one fan quits! Today Nov 11, 2020 the sun was very low (temperature – 12 degrees all day) but the heater quickly rose to +32 C and the thermostat turned the fans on. The heater produced a steady +18 C temp into the garage all day until there was no more sun shining on it. ! Darn nice free solar heat.
Click the pictures in the gallery
Click this link to see the picture gallery of this project
Field Day 2020 Operations at VA6SJA
Nov 1st
- My First ever HF QSOs from my home station under my own call sign
- My relatively vintage equipment worked!
- I copied the ARRL Field Day Bulletin a few times and reconciled the copies
- My first ever Field Day message to my Section Manager
- But some of my things needed fixing
This is some of my Field Day story. What is yours? Anyone else who participated in Field Day is welcome to post about their efforts to this web site.
This post is a follow-up my post of October 27, “Preparations for Field Day 2020 at VA6SJA.â€
Although I have participated in or visited a Field Days operation every year except four since 1994, this is the first time that I have set up and operated my own station for Field Day.
I regularly carry my cellular telephone around with me, alas, my first reaction is not to take photos when something happens. So unfortunately, I have no photos off this period
Since I was operating Class 1E, all radio operations including receiving the Bulletin would have to be under emergency power, from any of my gasoline generator, my truck battery (in my truck), and a small gel cell, as well as my laptop battery. I did however plug my laptop in to my generator power.
WORLD 2020 CONTEST SCHEDULE, QRP ETC.
Oct 21st
World 2020 contest schedule, if anyone is interested.
WA7BNM Contest Calendar
VE6BLD multi-coax junction box on my tower
Oct 16th
I have just completed building and installing a multi-coax junction box on my tower. I have 9 coaxes coming down the tower and feeding through a 4 inch pvc conduit to the basement. Every time a thunderstorm approached I would have to go behind my operating desk in the shack and disconnect them all. Two of the lines are 7/8 inch hardline with 1/4 inch solid core center conductor. Any lightning strike would have a direct path to the shack- not great!! I had an old aluminum weather proof box which was used for a chart recorder in a town pump house. Please see the pictures for the construction and finished product. There is also another WP box three feet away to connect the coaxes from the house to a grounding bar during bad weather. The red banana plugs ground the disconnected coax coming down the tower after they are disconnected. This way there is no path for the lightning to enter the house through the coaxes.
Stolen repeater
Oct 4th
The Border Communications Group suffered a loss of equiment a short time ago. 1- Yaesu DR-1X repeater, 1- Arcom 210 controller, 1- CDM750 UHF and 1-CDM 1550LS Motorola mobile radios and 1 Solar Panel Charge Controller from an active repeater site. All interface cables also were taken. Cables were custom configuration to allow special features. (Southern Alberta)
Anybody hearing of a great deal on a Yaesu repeater and / or controller . . . .be aware. It may be stolen.
Transformer Balun for SOTA
Oct 1st
My buddy in the US has designed this transformer for SOTA activations. It is light weight, good to 50 watts and looks “cool”, BNC connector. I am placing an order for winter antenna projects, they are about $10 each so please let me know if you would like me to increase the order for your needs. I use one on my EFHW 20/40 meter SOTA antenna. 
