GUYWIRE
JANUARY 2005
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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SOMETHING DIFFERENT THIS MONTH
THE MEETING THIS MONTH WILL BEGIN AT PRINCESS AUTO,
VICTORIA AVENUE EAST, AND THEN ADJOURN TO THE
SCIENCE CENTER AT 8 PM. PLEASE READ THE PRESIDENTS
REPORT FOR DETAILS.
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FROM THE PRESIDENTS DESK
I hope that each of you had a very happy holiday, enjoying your family
and
friends. It was nice to see you at the RARA supper gathering. I
wish you w
a happy new year.
RARA IS STILL SELLING 450 MHZ ANTENNAS
We are still selling 7 element 440 MHz Yagi antennas, cut for 450-470
MHz to
interested amateurs. These are Sinclair SLR307 antennas, specs are at
web
site http://www.sinctech.com/catalog/series.aspx?id=56
, look at the SY307.
The sale of these antennas will be restricted to RARA club members
until the
end of January. We will be selling them for $30.00 during this time, and
then the price will go up.
We also have access to 450 MHz 3 element yagis.
Contact Terry White, VE5TLW, at 586-1810.
PRINCESS AUTO CRAWL
We will be going to Princess Auto in Regina until 8:00 p.m. on January
12
(It closes then). We will not meet together there except for the chance
eyeball QSO. We will leave it up to you to have adequate time to shop,
to
talk and to have coffee. We will each buy treasures and take them
back to
our meeting room at the IMAX. Stan Ewert, VE5SC, and George Harwood,
VE5UU, will judge to see who has found and bought the most interesting
and unique item that fits with amateur radio. The first prize
will be a 450 MHz
7-element beam and a RARA jacket crest. The second prize will be an RARA
crest.
There will be a short business meeting once we get to the IMAX. Since
there
will be coffee at Princess Auto, we will not make coffee at this
meeting.
THE RARA MEMORIAL PLAQUE
Stan has found the selection criteria that the club had established for
the
plaque. I am quoting his e-mail to me.
From: "Stan Ewert" <sewert@sasktel.net>
Silent Key Plaque
Eligibility open to:
Any person who was a member of RARA at the time of his/her death.
Any person who was an active member up to two years from the date of
death,
but was unable to continue the hobby due to ill health in the
last two
years.
Any person who was a member of the club for a total of ten years in any
time
period.
Any person who has served on the executive of the club.
Following the death of a member, the executive shall have an inscription
made to be placed on the plaque, and at the first club meeting following
the death of a member, there shall be a one minute silence observed in
memory.
The plaque will be inscribed with the name only of the deceased.
The plaque will be displayed in the club station.
Presently on the plaque:
...snipped names previously published...
I could also suggest VE5MT J. Cheston
(2001?) and VE5BY Wilf Geber
(2004), both former members
73 Stan
The following names have also been suggested:
Tom Hill VE5TH
Glen Gorham VE5GG
Bill Nagy VE5DG
John Cheston VE5MT
George Bennett VE5BN
Lou Dupont VE5EU
Marsh Ellis VE5EJ
George Ferguson VE5WW
Lional O'Byrne VE5LU
Tony Lambrecht VE5TL
John Whitman VE5 ?????
Gordon Pearce VE5HP
Claus Hinck VE5KS
Wayne Pyne VE5LV
WM. Bourne VE5UQ
Frederick Burden VE5GD
John E. Sandison VE5AAS
Ina Brander VE5HO
Please consider whether you think that these criteria are
appropriate. Is
anybody else missing?
Bruce Rattray, VE5RC/VE5QRP has also set up a silent key page on the
RARA web site which could have different criteria.
ATTRACTING NEW PARTICIPANTS TO AMATEUR RADIO
The executive has decided to work towards a smaller poster/brochure (1/3
letter size) targetted towards getting the interest of high school
teachers
who take classes to the Science Centre and ultimately their
students. We
are going to ask for volunteers for a committee of two to work on this
brochure.
We also have to work on getting exposure in the community for more
events
than field day.
CLUB STATION
Shortly before Christmas one of the buildings maintenance staff of the
Science Centre phoned me. He asked me what we wanted for a hole
through the wall of the club room. I told him that we are
interested in
a two-inch conduit from the vicinity of the cables coiled on the roof
ledge
to the vicinity of the back of the radios. I have visited the club room
a couple
of times. There seem to be two new caulked up one and one-half inch
holes
through the outside cladding above and to the side of the door to the
roof.
I will be following this up with the Science Centre.
DEFICIT BUDGETS
The club has had a history of deficit budgets. In the past we have
tried to
make up the shortfalls by hosting periodic hamfests. If we are to
continue
to approve deficit budgets, we will have to continue to plan fundraising
activities. The executive is proposing to ask the SARL permission
to hold a
one-day hamfest in 2006.
CLUB VHF RADIO
I was attempting a 2 metre QSO from club station VE5NN with Terry,
VE5TLW, when he told me the voice signal was intermittently dropping out
from the club 2 metre radio. Stan, VE5SC, is going to check over
the
radio as soon as I get it from the club room.
FEBRUARY MEETING
On the agenda at next month's meeting will be the appointment of a
"member
auditor" to review the club's financial transactions for 2004-2005. The
2004-2005 financial statement will be approved by the Executive Board of
Directors at the March Executive meeting, sent to the Saskatchewan
Corporations Branch, and published in the March Guywire.
That's all for this month. Send me an e-mail at borjallen@accesscomm.ca
to
tell me what you think about any aspect of the club.
73
John Allen, VE5SJA, RARA President
IRLP NEWS
Report from the IRLP/Amateur Radio International Space Station
project team.
I am very happy to announce that the ARISS team has formally
endorsed IRLP as a means of distributing ISS contact with schools. We
have completed several successful demonstrations and have already
begun creating a package in which to get the contact audio to the IRLP
system.
This is great news because most ARISS contacts involve the news
media and descriptions of the event setup are always announced and
talked up to the media. This will include IRLP. Contacts are done via
two methods, telebridge (phone line) or direct contact. We have
established a setup for the telebridge types and have official access
to those resources to inject the audio into a IRLP reflector. We will
be designing a system that will intergrate with the direct contact
setups in the near future.
Testing was done on the Saskatoon reflector 9307...many thanks to Chris
VE5BAR for providing this and reflector control access. ARISS gave
us access to the telebridge, here in Halifax, where we brought it off
the phone line to a phone patch, into our local repeater and on to our
node and the reflector.
I am also happy to say that for the last two contacts in Ottawa and
Ireland, we were joined on the relfector by student stations involved
in the Youth Education Program. This meant that many students in
Calgary and Victoria got to listen to the contact, as well as the
ARISS mentor evaluators.
These have been carried on IRLP for demonstration purposes only,
thusfar. ARISS has whole heartedly embraced IRLP as a means to
furthering their presence to the amateur community and to starry eyed
students that may now be interested in becoming amateurs.
There is much more work to be done now, since we are at a fork in the
road. My goal is to someday see students with radios in classrooms
across the world talking over IRLP to a groundstation that's in
contact with the ISS.
The control abilities of IRLP are really what is shining here, so keep
up the good work....73
- Rob VE1KS
NEW YEARS ON IRLP
The VE5WM repeater was connected to the Crossroads Reflector on
New Years eve to hear the New Year come in across the world. Many
Canadian and U.S.stations, as well as stations in Australia,
South Africa,
and many European countries took part. In all, 240 nodes were
connected
to the reflector at some time during the event and the highest
instantateous
count was 103 nodes. This was a good test of what the system
might be
asked to deal with in an emergency and it worked flawlessly.
At the peak of the event, the reflector was pushing between 4.5 and 5
megabits/sec outbound to the Internet.
Gopal, VU2GMN in Madras India briefly dropped in on the reflector to
pass
along New Years greetings before returning to his disaster relief
duties.
CENTENNIAL YEAR
This is Saskatchewan's centennial year. Has anyone any ideas about
celebrating it with a special events station, or special
prefixes? Should
it be restricted to Regina or should it be province wide? Any
Ideas?
Anyone want to take this on as a project?
PUBLIC SERVICE REPORT
A short note to let you know that the annual Scouts Canada Klondike Hike
will be held on Sat. Feb 5, 2005. Hams interested in participating in
the
required communications should contact Jim (VE5CS) at
jsandercock@sasktel.net or 586-3725
- Jim Sandercock (VE5CS)
Also upcoming are the Red Dress Run Feb. 13th?? and the half
marathon in April.
MAKE YOUR HAMFEST PLANS
The 2005 Saskatchewan Centennial Hamfest will be held July 22 to 24th
in Saskatoon. It is sponsored by the Meewasin Amateur Radio
Society
and will be held at the Travelodge, 106 Circle Drive West. As
plans
develop, information will appear on the website www.saskhamfest.com
LAST MONTHS PUZZLER
What is the Maunder Minimum?
ANSWER:
A period in history from approximately 1645-1715 when little or no
sunspot activity was noted. Bill Wood provided an interesting
side-
light to this. Apparently the weather at the time was also
affected and
the growth rings of trees were very close together making for very dense
wood. The famous violin makers, Stradivarious and Amati were
making
their instruments at that time and it is thought that the use of that
wood
is the reason no one has been able to duplicate the tone of their
instruments to this day. For more information, check
www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/lisa3/beckmanj.html
THIS MONTHS PUZZLER
You hear two signals coming in to your receiver. One registers S8
on the meter, the other 10 db over S9. What is the difference in
signal levels between the two stations in dB?
Answer next month.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
To join or renew, fill out the form below and follow the instructions
at the bottom. Support Ham Radio in Regina.
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R.A.R.A. MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Name __________________________________ Callsign___________
Mailing Address ___________________________________________
E-Mail Address _____________________________________________
I enclose _____ Single membership ($25.00) New _________
_____ Family membership ($30.00) Renewal______
Give this application with your membership fee to
the club treasurer VE5LAT 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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