GUYWIRE                  MARCH 2004

Editor   VE5SC   sewert@sasktel.net


The online publication of the REGINA AMATEUR RADIO
ASSOCIATION is published monthly except July and August
and is distributed free of charge as a service of RARA
to all licensed hams in the Regina Area who have e-mail
addresses.  Anyone NOT wishing to receive future copies
should send an e-mail to the editor and your name will
be removed from the mailing list.

 The RARA WEBSITE can be found at
http://www.gpfn.sk.ca/hobbies/rara/index.html
It contains RARA news, repeater lists as well as links to other
amateur  resources.
Club meetings are held the 2nd Wednesday of each month, with
the exception of July and August, at the Science Center.

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NEXT MEETING - March 10th 7:30 PM  Science Center - Imax Boardroom
This is another combined RARA and ARES meeting.   This is the annual
general meeting and elections

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   CLUB NEWS

Amateur Classes - Bill VE5EE

Classes for Basic and Advanced licenses were held throughout January and
February.   Congratulations to John Jesse VE5FRW, Howard Robinson
VE5GSN and Scott Wright VE5SBW for acquiring their Basic licenses. 
We have not completed the testing for all the Basic and Advanced participants,
so I expect their will be a few more new amateurs and up-graded amateurs
in the near future.
We are fortunate to have such knowledgable instructors to provide the
classes - many thanks to Stan SC, George UU, Terry TLW, John MU,
Bruce RC and Rick RJR, for the time they spent inspite of the storms
and postponements.

   ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The nominating committee has come up with a slate of candidates for the
next club year.  Staying on will be George  VE5UU, Keith VE5AFK, Bill
VE5EE, Terry VE5TLW, Con  VE5CON and Stan VE5SC.  Volunteering
are new members Allen VE5LAT, John VE5SJA  and Harvey Smith VE52B
We have enough members to fill the 9 positions on the executive, however
the meeting will still accept nominations from the floor.  Wouldn't it be nice
to have an election for a change!   

If you know of any ham in the area who would like to receive Guywire, please
let me know and I will add them to the mailing list.
Also, anyone with news, interesting ideas or anything else that might be of
interest to local hams, please send it along to the editor for publication.

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   CONSTITUTION CHANGES

At the annual meeting we will be considering changes to the Constitution.
The following changes have been put forward by John VE5SJA

Article 1 Membership

Item 1.

First sentence amended to read:

1. Any person holding a certificate, licence or permit which grants the
holder amateur radio operating privileges in Canada may become a Full Member
of the Association upon application for membership and payment of the
prescribed membership fee and approval of the application by the Executive
Board of Directors.

Article 3.

Amend Item 2 to add:

...  These duties may be further delegated to any other member of the
Executive Board of Directors in the case of the in absence or inability to
act of both the President and the Vice President.

Item 5.

Insert clause to specify the term of service of the president shall be one
year.


Item 6.

Amend to read:

At the conclusion of his term of 2 years any Executive Board member may be
re-appointed to that board for one additional year after which he will not
be eligible for re-election or reappointment for a period of one year.


Item 6.1

Amend clause to allow treasurer to be re-elected without limit.


Article 5

A quorum for any regular meeting or shall consist of at least one member of
the Executive Board of Directors and at least 7 other full members which
count will include any other directors present.  These members must be
personally present.

Insert clause about quorum for special meeting.

A quorum for any special meeting or shall consist of at least one member of
the Executive Board of Directors and at least one quarter of the registered
full members of the club personally present.


End of proposed amendments.

I think that once we amend this constitution with amended bylaws we should
have a vote to adopt it as a whole and the after the minutes are adopted by
the next regular meeting and signed by the president the minutes and the
amended constitution should be registered or put on file with the provincial
Corporations Branch.  We should at least check on any filing requirements.


  
   PUBLIC SERVICE REPORT

Klondike Hike Feb 7, 2004 - Jim VE5CS

Another successful Scout Klondike Hike was held at Wascana Park
on Feb 7th. Thanks to the following amateurs:
Morning shift-
BBZ, IBK,WW,IC,RWW,ZG,UU,SHK,MU

Afternoon shift
GPM,HFD,TLW,IC (worked all day),BRB,RJR,BW,AEO,DCP

At net control RC, AAA,II,CS
Floater KL (he helped by delivering badges and doing basic relief at
checkpoints during day)
Mobile with the coordinator was CON


Red Dress Run - February 22 - Bill VE5EE

The following amateurs supplied communications for the annual Red
Dress Run on Sunday, Feb 22nd.  Approximately 80 runners in red
dresses ran around the lake in this event.  We were able to cover
every checkpoint and intersection due to the great support from our amateurs.
EE, MU, BBZ, IC, BW, KZ, DCP, SKI, AEO, UU, FRW, RJR, GPM       
UPCOMING EVENTS

April 25th  Police Half Marathon     VE5MU co-ordinating
May 3rd     Red Shield Campaign

   NEW ARES EMERGENCY CO-ORDINATOR

Bill Wood VE5EE has announced that Terry, VE5TLW has taken over the
duties of ARES Emergency Co-ordinator for the Regina  area.  He
is taking over from Bill who served untiringly in that capacity for many years.
Bill will continue as an assistant to Terry.
  
          
   IRLP NEWS

During the last big blizzard, VE5WM was connected to several other provincial
IRLP repeaters  This was done as an aid to travellers as it increased the
number of potential ears that could be called on for assistance in the event
someone encountered difficulties on the road.  We will continue to do this
whenever there are severe weather conditions.  It is hoped that some formal
agreement can be reached with repeater operators to make this a standard
procedure.

We still have occasions where someone is dialling up IRLP nodes and failing
to identify themselves.  It is not only bad operating practice but also very
illegal to fail to identify when accessing a repeater, and made even worse on
a linking system where two or more repeaters may be involved.

The log of the IRLP node shows that there are quite a few incoming calls
from all over the world that have gone unanswered.  While Regina is
certainly not what you would call a hotbed of amateur activity, let's not
let the rest of the world think that ham radio is dead here.  The solution to
this is scanning.  By scanning you won't miss activity on any of the 4 local
repeaters.  A surprising number of people don't even know what the Scan
button on their radio is for.

NOTICE TO BUILDERS

Keith, VE5AFK has donated an Electro-Source catalog to the club.  This is
a source directory for all types of electronic components and should be of
interest to anyone doing experimentation or construction.  Contact the
editor if you want to borrow it or have something looked up.

REVIEW OF THE MRX CW COMMUNICATOR   - John  VE5SJA

I have not yet been able to set up an HF radio at my house. I have been
avoiding EchoLink because I thought that it would remove all incentive
for me to set up an HF station. I have been trying to learn Morse code for
years. But it is more fun tapping Morse code when you are actually trying
to tell someone something.

I had subscribed to the "MorseMail" mailing list, where I saw a message
about the program and system CW Communicator - MRX Software has
developed a FREE CW chat program to communicate across the Internet
or over a LAN. Oh, oh, an Internet amateur radio chat room, a Morse code
chat room!

There is a master server in Australia, which reflects our Morse code
messages in near real time (a second or two). On your PC there is a screen
which displays the translated text version of the Morse code, or at least it
would if it could understand my code. It translates at the code speed that
it expects and it is somewhat adaptive, leading to some amusing text. 
Incoming code is also translated to text, which does not always help us learn
to listen to the code. The signal is very clear, there is no interference
or noise. This is not like the HF radios that I have been listening to.
Or, we can connect locally from one computer to another.

Sending is with your choice of the down arrow on the keyboard, or the
mouse as a key or paddle, or a key or a paddle connected to either a
joystick port or a COM port. Information is given on building interfaces
for each.

One good feature is that when you get very frustrated by your lack of
ability with code, the system allows you to continue the QSO by typing
on your keyboard. The people who hang out on the system regularly are very
patient and helpful. They are mostly hams.
So if anyone wants to try to improve their Morse code skills or is willing to try
to decipher what I am trying to send download the program
( http://www.mrx.com.au/ ) and set it up. There is a run time option to
either log into the Australian server or to set up a local connection between
two PCs. If you want to try this I will be very interested.

   RAC NEWS

Spoofed e-mails have been circulating for several days apparently made
to look that they are coming from Radio Amateurs of Canada.  The
contents makes you think that something is wrong with your alias (rac.ca)
or with your membership even if you do not utilize the service or you are
not a member of RAC.  The senders of the e-mail encourage you to
open the file or an attachment to the e-mail.

Be aware that the e-mails of this type contain for the most part variations
of worm viruses, MyDoom, Bagle and Netsky.

If you open these messages and your computer is not protected by an
updated antivirus program, you risk infecting your computer that in turn
will create infected e-mails and send them to all the addresses that are
found in your address book.

RAC is not the only one to be affected.  The whole world is targeted.
According to the computer press, the authors of these electronic worm
viruses have declared war on each other to find out who can create
the most virulent virus and this leaves the editors of antivirus programs
almost helpless.

   NEW MORSE CODE CHARACTER

The International Telecommunications Union has designated a new
Morse code character to represent the @  (at).  This is to allow easier
transmission of e-mail addresses by CW.  The new character is
. - - . - . (AC).  It looks like the ITU hasn't given up on cw completely.

   LAST MONTHS PUZZLER

If you have your Basic and 5 wpm qualification can you use a
Heathkit transceiver to operate on HF?
Answer:  No.  It is not commercially built equipment.

   THIS MONTHS PUZZLER

Who first came up with Ohms Law?

Answer next month.




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R.A.R.A.  MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Name __________________________________ Callsign___________

Mailing Address ___________________________________________

E-Mail Address _____________________________________________

I enclose      _____   Single membership  ($25.00)

                     _____   Family membership  ($30.00)

Give this application with your membership fee to
the club treasurer  or send it to: 
Regina Amateur Radio Association
Box 153
Regina, Sask.  S4P 2Z6

The membership year runs April 1st to March 31st.

SUPPORT AMATEUR RADIO AND YOUR LOCAL CLUB

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