GUYWIRE
OCTOBER 2006
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
www.sarl.ca/rara
The website 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 OCT. 11th 7:30 PM SCIENCE CENTER
IMAX Boardroom Use IMAX entrance
There will be a presentation about the first high powered broadcast
transmitter in
western Canada and its amateur connections.
PRESIDENTS REPORT
Planning is well under way for the R.A.R.A. Flea Market.
Thanks to Bart VE5CPU for taking on the coordination of this project.
Thanks to everyone who is pitching in to help Bart. I believe that we
will have a very successful project. I have been hearing about our Flea
Market on 2 meter nets this past while and there seems to be a lot of
interest. At last notification Bart has 6 tables booked.
I am looking for volunteers to help a few hours to partake in J.O.T.A.
Jamboree on the air. October 21 and 22. At the time of this writing we
are still trying to get the name of the Scout group leader that was
interested in this program. If the person can be reached we will try to
have the ARES truck on site at Scout Headquarters on Broadway avenue.
Require some HF operators and some expertise with Digital Modes and a
few laptop computers. Also required will be 2 meter operators to help
with IRLP. We have an opportunity to showcase our enjoyable hobby.
Please email Darrell VE5SX to offer your help. VE5SX@accesscomm.ca
To find more information about J.O.T.A. start at this website. 49th
Jamboree on the Air - 21-22 October 2006 JOTA is an annual event in
which about 500,000 Scouts and Guides all over the world make contact
with each other by means of amateur radio. It is a real Jamboree during
which Scouting experiences are exchanged and ideas are shared, thus
contributing to the world brotherhood of Scouting The JOTA is a
world-wide event. Units may operate for 48 hours or any part thereof,
from Saturday 00.00 h until Sunday 24.00 h local time. It is for
members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), and
also for members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl
Scouts (WAGGGS). www.scout.org/wse/jota.shtml
www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/jota.html
Amateur Radio Classes for Basic have started. Welcome to the new
students. This year there are more evening classes so that the students
are not rushed and have more time to prepare for the exam. This course
is based on the R.A.C. manual. But it is the personalities and the
passion of the instructors that shines through. Thanks to all the eager
Amateur operators who have taken time from their busy schedules to
teach the students. This is the start of building a stronger Amateur
Radio community in Regina.
Burnside site painting is deferred until the spring. We ran out of time.
I hope to see you at our next monthly meeting on Wednesday October 11
at the Science Center Board Room.
73's
Darrell VE5SX
FALL REGINA FLEA MARKET
The Regina Amateur Radio Association will be holding their Fall Flea
Market on Saturday Nov. 4, 2006. It will be located in the SGI Claim
Center (North)
- (kitty-corner NE from Sherwood Mall ). The address is 1121 McCarthy
Blvd. North Regina, SK.
The Flea Market will be open from 9:00 am to Noon.
There is no charge for admission
Coffee & Donuts
Flea market tables will be $10.00 each Contact VE5CPU
PUBLIC SERVICE EVENTS
November 12 is the date of the Santa Parade. Once again I am looking
for volunteers for this event. We require about 14-16 hams for this.
Let me know if you can help out.
Santa Parade - Sunday Nov 12 - 12:00 noon - 2:30 pm
- on station by 10:30 am
Thanks,
Bill EE
160 METER EXPERIMENTS
160-Meter Experiment Will Explore Marconi's 1901 Transatlantic Success
(Oct 5, 2006) -- A 160-meter beacon will take to the air this fall and
winter from Cornwall, England, to explore how Guglielmo Marconi was
able to span the Atlantic by wireless for the first time on December
12, 1901. Radio history says that's when the radio pioneer at a
receiving station in Newfoundland successfully copied the Morse code
letter "s" sent repeatedly by his team in the Cornwall town of Poldhu.
The latter-day venture is a cooperative effort of the Poldhu Amateur
Radio Club (PARK) in Cornwall and the Marconi Radio Club of
Newfoundland (MCRN). The Poldhu club's Keith Matthew, G0WYS, said the
2001 centenary of Marconi's achievement reopened discussion into the
mechanism by which the 1901 spark transmitter signal propagated. "The
winter of 1901 coincided with a sunspot minimum, and it was realized
that this coming December 2006 should show similar conditions to those
of December 1901," he said. Just how Marconi was able to receive the
transatlantic transmission has long been a topic of discussion and even
controversy, especially given the frequency Marconi is likely to have
used, thought to be between 800 and 900 kHz, and the time of day,
afternoon in Newfoundland -- not to mention daytime absorption levels.
Full story is available on the ARRL website.
JAMBOREE ON THE AIR
The annual Scouts Jamboree on the Air will be held October 21 &
22nd. Anyone with connections to the scouting movement should look into
hosting a Scout group and allowing them to talk to other scouts around
the world. Contacts can be made on the HF bands but you can also
participate using the IRLP system on the VE5WM repeater. Details on
which reflector will be used, will be released later.
BROADBAND IN GAS PIPES
A San Diego company says it has found a way to send high-speed
broadband and TV programming through the gas pipes used to warm homes
and cook dinners. Nethercomm predicts its "Broadband In Gas"
-- or "BIG" technology -- could aggressively compete with cable and
phone companies while reaching 62% of the nation's households, and says
field trials will begin next year.
-CGC Communicator
SASK. HAM WORKS SPACE TOURIST
VE5NED from Davidson was in the right place at the right time. He heard
space tourist Anouseh Ansari call CQ from the International Space
Station on RS0ISS. She was on an 8 day visit to the station and
returned Sept. 25th. Ned was the first ham to work her. Needless to
say, bedlam broke out after they signed off.
MORE AUSTRALIAN HAMS
According to the Wireless Institute of Australia ( WIA, the down under
equivalent of RAC here in Canada), July was a big month for producing
new Radio Amateurs. The examination service processed 90 foundation
licence assessment, 84 of the 90 passed, 23 standard assessment and 22
of the 23 passed and 6 advanced assessments, 3 of them passed.
Around 70% of the standard and advanced grade assessments where
upgrades from the foundation licence and combined this gave us just
over 90 new amateurs for the month. The WIA examination service has
processed 870 successful foundation licence assessments since the first
examination in late October. There now seems little doubt that the WIA
examination service will process more than 1000 successful candidates
in the first full year of assessing foundation licence
candidates.
-courtesy RAC
ARRL GRANTED EXPERIMENTAL AUTHORITY AT 505-510 KHZ
The American Radio Relay League, the national association
for amateur radio, has been granted a Part 5 experimental license
(WD2XSH) on behalf of a group of ham radio operators interested in
investigating spectrum in the vicinity of 500 kHz. The two- year
authorization permits experimentation and research between 505 and 510
kHz (600 meters) using narrowband modes at power levels of up to 20 W
ERP.
-ARRL
RADIO RAGE: CB'ER KILLS CB'ER IN CANADA
A Vancouver, British Columbia CB operator died Saturday, September 30th
. This, after he was shot in the parking lot of a local mall following
an argument that allegedly began over the radio. According to news
reports, police responded around 1:30 a.m. to reports of multiple shots
fired in the mall parking lot. Officers arrived to find 47 year old
Keneth Eichhorn in his pickup truck with gunshot wounds. He died
following surgery at a local hospital. A little while later police say,
that 44 year old John Loveless called 911. He admitted being involved
in a shooting. Authorities say that they then arrested Loveless, on
suspicion of second-degree murder. According to investigators, the two
men apparently did not know each other. They believe that they had
gotten into an argument on the air which escalated and lead to their
fatal meeting in the mall.
-QRZ
JAPANS' HITSAT LAUNCHED
HITSAT is a 12cm cube with a mass of 2.2 kg. It carries a 100 milliwatt
CW beacon on 437.275 MHz and an FM transmitter on 437.425 MHz with a
145.980 MHz uplink. t was launched from the Uchinoura Space Center on
the M-V-7 rocket as a sub-payload and is in a sun synchronous orbit
with an orbital altitude of 250km at perigee and 600km at apogee with
an inclination of 97.79 degrees.
WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
HITSAT Homepage http://www.hit.ac.jp/%7Esatori/hitsat/index-e.html
R.A.R.A. Membership Application 2006 - 2007
(Please write clearly and enter Y or N in boxes as required)
Name: _____________________________________________
Call Sign: ______________ Current RAC membership
Mailing Address: _____________________________________
_____________________________________
e-mail Address: _____________________________________
Renewal or New Membership
Single Membership ($30) ____ Family membership ($35) ____
I have enclosed $____ for ____ membership(s) indicated above. Please
include this application with your fee to club treasurer Allan Tidball
or mail cheque to Regina Amateur Radio Association
(VE5LAT) Box 153 Station Main
Regina, Sask. S4P 2Z6