Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
RAC Basic amateur radio course
Dec 31st
Registration for Winter 2021 RAC Basic Course is closing soon
https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-amateur-radio-course-winter-2021/
For immediate release:
Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification while continuing to practise social/physical distancing.
Date: The course will start on Thursday, January 14 and will finish in late March. Registration is still open but it will be closing soon.
Time: Classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6 pm to 8:30 (1800 – 2030) Eastern Time (1900 – 2130 Atlantic Time) and Sunday afternoons 1 pm to 3:30 pm (1300 – 1530) Eastern Time (1400 – 1630 Atlantic Time).
Cost: The registration fee for the course is $50 plus GST/HST. The cost of the Basic Study Guide is extra and an order link will be provided upon completion of payment.
Background information:
The course will again be conducted with the assistance of the Annapolis Valley Amateur Radio Club (AVARC) of Nova Scotia.
This course prepares students for the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Basic Qualification Level Operator Certificate exam to operate on allocated Amateur Radio frequencies.
Course material pertaining to all topics covered in the course syllabus will be provided to all registered students. Students must have a copy of the Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Study Guide provided by Coax Publications. For more information please visit the RAC Study Guides webpage.
It is essential that all students have the necessary equipment and bandwidth capable of taking the course – at least a tablet or PC and a DSL broadband connection.
Instruction:
The course will use the GoToMeeting web-based service. Students will receive instructions on how to log on to the online sessions once they have registered for the course. Classes will be recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.
The course instructor is Al Penney, VO1NO. Al was first licensed in 1977 and has been active in many areas of Amateur Radio including contesting, DXing, VHF/UHF weak signal, satellites, emergency communications and DXpeditioning. He has served as the President of six different Amateur Radio clubs in both Canada and the United States and currently chairs the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Band Planning Committee. Al has taught the Basic Qualification Amateur Radio Course since 1994.
Complete information about the course and a downloadable copy of the course syllabus are available at:
https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-amateur-radio-course-winter-2021/
Other Amateur Radio Courses:
Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.
https://www.rac.ca/amateur-radio-courses/
Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
RAC President and Chair
Alan Griffin
RAC MarCom Director
www.rac.ca
720 Belfast Road, #217
Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z5
613-244-4367, 1- 877-273-8304
raccomms@gmail.com
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL USERS
Dec 24th
Santa visited the International Space Station (see link below)
Click link below for full video
https://www.space.com/norad-tracks-santa-claus-trip-to-international-space-station?jwsource=cl
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
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
VE6CIA 1D 644
VA6SJA 1E 384
VE6WCE 1D 56
VA6MPM 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
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
Have you paid your dues and confirmed your RAC membership to the executive?
Nov 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
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.”
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.
Preparations for Field Day 2020 at VA6SJA
Oct 27th
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.
I have always enjoyed Field Day since my introduction to the ARRL sponsored annual event as a new amateur in 1994.
To adapt CAARC’s 2020 Field Day efforts to today’s COVID reality, as CAARC appointed Field Day leaders, Paul VA6MPM and I decided to encourage participation from individual stations this year rather than gathering in a big group to set up and operate a Class A station. This resulted in amateurs participating from their regular home stations, either using commercial power or using emergency batteries or generators, or participating in portable stations of 1 or 2 participants (Class B).
Here is the story of my setting up my 2020 Field Day Station.
Partly because of my family’s frequent moves, I do not have a permanent outside amateur radio antenna infrastructure. More >
WORLD 2020 CONTEST SCHEDULE, QRP ETC.
Oct 21st
World 2020 contest schedule, if anyone is interested.
WA7BNM Contest Calendar
