Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
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
Xmas DX Contest
Nov 13th
New Award and Operation Alert
The Israel Amateur Radio Club (I.A.R.C) is proud to announce a new national award program entitled: Holyland Christianity On The Air (HOCOTA).
This program will include amateur radio operations from numerous sites of major Christian significance. The sites were selected based on well documented research and archeological history as documented in the Holy Bible and other Christian works. We believe that the connection of operating from these holy sites will not only appeal to Christian amateur radio operators but to amateurs of all faiths and beliefs.
The program accreditation will be built from ‘blocks’ of sub-awards derived from specific geographic locations. Activities will run throughout the year with special operations mainly during Christmas and Easter.
The HOCOTA Program will commence during Christmas 2016 (23-25 December) by Four special event multi operator stations. The current sub-program is called the ‘Jesus Miracles Award’. Within this block of the HOCOTA Program we’ll start with some of the most significant miracles that Jesus Christ performed around the Sea of Galilee.
Therefore, the Christmas 2016 operation shall include:
- 4X9XMAS-Tabagha- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabgha
- 4X7XMAS- Kursi- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursi,_Golan_Heights
- 4X3XMAS-Mount of Beatitudes – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_of_Beatitudes
- 4X2XMAS- Yardenit- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yardenit
QSL information as well as program rules will be published separately.
Awards – Our goal is to enable automatic award opportunities and we are also considering the availability of an impressive, unique plaque.
4Z4DX 4Z1RZ
Dov Gavish Zurial Rienstien
IARC Special Events Manager IARC President
Gallery Editing Unavailable while being repaired
Nov 2nd
The Gallery is experiencing a PHP problem after our hosting company updated their PHP CMS software. (Nov 7 th) You can now view the Gallery by clicking the Gallery drop down menu but you cannot add or edit anything in your gallery. We are trying to resolve the problem.
Bob
Webmaster
CAARC
Repairing a Bird “Termaline” dummy load and watt meter
Oct 28th
My prized Bird watt meter stopped giving reasonable readings last year. A check revealed that the resistance had changed from 50 ohms to approximately 65 ohms. Opening up the dummy load I found that the cooling oil reservoir was empty. I emailed Bird to ask for a quote on a replacement resistor element but received no reply. I then canvassed my ham friends and was lucky to find that Dov, 4X1KP had an exact replacement resistor.
The photo below shows the new resistor next to the burnt original.
I polished the inside surface of the metal funnel that contacts the far end of the resistor element and cleaned all contacts with contact spray, then inserted the new element. An ohmmeter check showed just a fraction over 50 ohms.
I then purchased a liter of paraffin oil (mineral oil) at the pharmacy. Refilling was carried out on a disposable aluminum roasting pan (to contain any oil leaks). I filled the reservoir with approximately 150 ml of oil and left the dummy load on the aluminum pan, to check for leaks (photo, below). I then continued filling.
After more filling I noticed that the rear seal was leaking. On disassembly and cleaning I discovered a tear in the rubber expansion diaphragm sealing the rear port of the oil reservoir. The function of this diaphragm is to allow for oil expansion with heating.
I could not locate a diaphragm of this size in town so I made a temporary repair using a sheet of rubber from a mountain bike inner tube and an O ring of the right size. The seal, so far, is holding. This tear in the diaphragm is obviously the root source of the whole problem with oil loss resulting in heating of the resistor element.
If you have any concerns that the oil in your dummy load contains PCBs – write it off and take the dummy load, intact, to a chemical waste disposal site.
Paraffin oil from the pharmacy requires no special precautions – just don’t make a mess that will get the XYL on your case.
Moral
Before applying power to that dummy load you bought from the “junk” (electronics surplus), check the oil level.
Kenwood HF Radio TS 440 S
Oct 23rd
Kenwood TS 440 S is in mint condition. Has internal antenna tuner. Output is 100 watts. c/w microphone, DC power cord and manual.
asking $600.00 plus shipping if required.
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
MS Bike Tour 2016 – UPDATE
Aug 28th
A big “THANK YOU” to all those amateurs who helped organize and/or participated to provide comms support for the MS Bike Tour this year. Your dedication and commitment is a credit to each of you as individuals and also to club.
Thank you.
73
Steve VA6SGL
CAARC President
After the rain
Aug 9th
Mushroom at VA6TJ
At VE6EGN
At VE6HPY
To have your Fungal Photo posted email it to VE6BLD
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Letter or email of Thanks to Radio World Central
Jun 27th
I won a couple of prizes at the 2016 CAARC picnic that were donated by Radio World. I will be in touch and thank them, but I see they have a page on their web site full of appreciation from various organizations. I think it would be appropriate for someone from the executive or the organizing committee to write an email of thanks. Come to think of it, I bet it has happened already.
John, VA6SJA