Tonight the club had a presentation from Eric, VE3EI, from ICOM on D-Star digital communications.

Eric’s presentation included a slideshow. Here’s the address of the main D-Star link at www.dstarusers.org

Field Day plans are underway and anyone interested should contact Mike, ve3qsk for info.

These ideas fit into a pattern;

Services – which are the shared resources of the club, things like the Repeaters or a Remote HF station that can be controlled by any member. These are resources that most of us would not, or could not build for ourselves. They are, in fact, better as community resources because they are built with shared talents.

Programs – These are ongoing, planned activities such a Courses (Basic, CW, Advanced) or Speakers or Skill Clinics…

Projects – These are the few selected “Moon shots” that a club can take on to draw the club together and usually result in new, sustainable Services or Programs

Why are these important? Because they are the very reason (beyond camaraderie) one joins – and enjoys a club. In a sense, Amateur Radio can be a solitary hobby, but it is also a hobby of continuous learning and challenge – and that’s where a club can make a big difference.

We have over 200 licensed amateurs in the Oakville area.  Wouldn’t be great to add to our talent pool?  Having a robust set of Services, Programs and Projects revitalizes the club and makes it attractive to new members.

Here are some the ideas we came up with:

Services

• VHF Repeater (Current)
• UHF Repeater (Current)
• DSTAR (New)
• APRS
• Packet
• Website
• Blog (New)
• linking to other repeaters
• IRLP
• insurance (strictly liability, only covers club activities, but we will look at individual)

Programs

• Membership Drive
• Courses (Basic)
• Clinics / Workshops
• Elmer Program

Projects

• DSTAR repeater / Infrastructure (with the new IC-31A?)
• Courses (Basic)
• Clinics / Workshops (SAT, Packet /APRS, Antenna installation, Show & Tell, Contest Setups)

Special Interest Groups

• ARES
• Contests

Announcing the ARES “Orange Box Challenge” for 2012!

This is the second annual ARES challenge event, open to all
challengers, is to produce a functional VHF or dual band transportable
station suitable for EMCOMM deployment. The Catch? it has to fit in a
standard “Orange Box”, a rugged waterproof container measuring only
12x6x9 inches (internally)!

Entries can be produced to fit inside a “standard” Orange Box
(Action Products Sport Utility Dry Box 15×7 3/4×11 1/2 inches Model 5602,  available at Bass Pro Shop, Canadian Tire and other locations ) or a “half size” Orange box

New for this year – ” Matching Power” category – build out an external
source of power (that will fit into an Orange Box) that will operate a rig. This is likely to be battery / Gel Cell based, but we are prepared to be impressed by solar, wind power, steam or nuclear entries…

Compulsory features
You have to use a standard orange box – I love
creativity, but just painting it Orange does not count!
Functional 2meter rig (or signal band?)
External antenna connectors
External battery connectors
Power pole connectors to ARES standard

Possible features
Antenna incorporated
Dual band
Internal battery with estimated run time
Swr / Power meter, battery monitor
Lighting

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts (if we can find any) and
prizes awarded (however modest)

Entries will be submitted for the May ARES meeting, but may be
set up  at a Field Day display…

It’s a great opportunity to modify an existing spare rig or breathe
life into a fleamarket find or create new options for your current
beast.. In the end you’ll have a deployable ARES unit and off the grid
power for it…

have fun!

There are local, regional, national and international contests. CW, SSB, RTTY, digital signals abound and can be heard coming from around the world.

Contests can be as short as four hours to 48 hours or even longer. Power levels vary from QRP to QRO and everything in between. Most contest stations run either 100 watts or 1KW but QRP can be very effective depending on conditions.

Here’s a link to one of the best online contest calendars.

But what’s the attraction? 

First of all contesting is fun. Regardless of how simple or sophisticated your station you can work a contest.

There are even contest-only clubs like Contest Club Ontario.

During a contest you get to hear and perhaps work remote exotic parts of the world. Often groups of hams will travel to remote locations just to setup a contest station specifically for an individual contest.

For example, several hams have travelled from Toronto to the edge of James Bay (It’s a 1500 kilometre drive north of Montreal.) so as to operate from the rare Zone 2 area. (CQ magazine divides the world into 40 zones for its international contests.)

One of the unusual aspects of contesting is the sense of being part of an event that’s happening around the world. As you operate during a 48-hour contest (taking time off to sleep – although a few don’t) there’s an experience of being directly influenced by the solar activity as it affects the ability of you signal to propagate (or not) around the world. Different parts of the world open to your location just like clockwork (if conditions allow).

Even QRP and certainly 100-watt stations running modest antennas are capable of working 100 DX stations in one weekend. Also, if you pick your category carefully, there’s a good chance at winning an award and maybe even some wallpaper.

But contesting is much, much more than just getting on the air.

Building a contest-quality station can take years of effort and learning. This is especially true of single-operator stations that are capable of running all modes on all bands

QRO stations bring their own  challenges. Running a KW of power will instantly make obvious any issues with coax cables, improperly soldered connectors, non-resonant antennas, the need for big external antenna tuners, heavy-duty grounding, RF suppression in the shack and a host of other troubles.

Even 100-watt stations can present challenges for the contester. At this medium power level you need to erect the best resonant antennas possible. On suburban lots this can limit your ability to erect resonant antennas to 40 meters or 20 meters and up.

(Resonant antennas are antennas which don’t require turning to work. When contesting non-resonant antennas such as shortened dipoles or trap verticals on 160 or 80 meters especially require tuning every few kilohertz. This is impractical and annoying for other stations during contests. That’s not to say it can’t be done but it’s not fun.)

QRP stations require even more work and often QRP contesters take to the field (or the van or tent) to find contest-friendly locations such as salt marshes (as found along the eastern sea coast of the US and the Caribbean) or mountain tops (as found in B.C.) or away from cities (and all the noise they generate).

Antennas for QRP contesting should be full-size resonant dipoles, verticals or best a beam erected at least a quarter wavelength off the ground or higher (You can go too high!) for maximum efficiency.

You can even work contests running mobile and some contests have specific categories for mobile stations in stationary and mobile situations.

One of the easiest ways to get started in contesting is partner with an experienced contester by running a multi-transmitter, single operator station in a contest that has this category.

While one operator operates the run station (calling CQ), the other operator runs the multiplier station (on a different band calling only stations that are in parts of the world not yet worked by the run station).

Running two transmitters requires both logging computers be linked and using software like Writelog or N1MM that merges the databases.

This linking logging computers can get really really complicated at some of the big multi-multi efforts (multiple transmitters and multiple operators).

BTW you need headphones to run a contest. I’m using noise cancelling headphones from Bose that isolate all the other noise in the room (the TV, FM radio, the XYL).

But it gets worse Some guys are now operating a new category where they operate two transmitters simultaneously (one signal in each ear) on different bands for 48 hours.

Some contest stations cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to setup. Here’s OH8X and its famous three-element 160-meter rotatable beam. On the other hand I’ve worked the ARRL Field Day contest with a Ten Tec R4020 and end-feed wire antenna.

Q signals started back in 1909 with commercial radiotelegraph communications who called the Q signals the brevity code.

Hams adopted the Q signals as a way of asking questions or making statements in simple three-letter code that was much easier to transmit using primitive equipment.

The Q signals are still used today to aid in the transmission of information and speed up communications. CW traffic nets use special Q signals.

The ability to use Q signals is the sign of a top-notch operator.

Here’s a PDF of Q signals thanks to the ARRL

QSL.

Highly recommended viewing.

What really caught my attention was the memo line on the Cheque – “Support for repeaters and digi” – which reminded me of the importance of Services in a club. Sure Programs such as courses and Field Day provide important learning and social opportunities, but Services, such as the repeaters & various bolt-ons (like linking or digital technologies) are an opportunity to pool our resources and have access to better tools than we could deploy ourselves.

Plus there is a social element to building out these resources. We are blessed in this club to have an abundance of clever folks and a diverse set of talents. as I look around the table, I’m reminder that, given a goal, there is little in Amateur Radio that this crew could not pull off if we set our minds to it.

Mr Smith’s cheque memo line is a reminder that these services an important reason to join a club – we need to pay attention.

Thanks Jim!!!

Now with the no-code license a lot of new hams are missing a great part of Ham Radio.

So why CW?

You can build a working CW transmitter kit for $25. (The Tuna Tina CW transmitter (on left) is a 330-milliwatt 40-meter crystal controlled rig that works with any receiver.) Talk about cheap! Used CW transmitters like the DX-60 (in photo) can be had for a few dollars at a flea market.

CW is much easier to use during contests. Some contesters only run CW and hate SSB contests saying it’s too noisy and annoying.

CW is actually faster than talking when it comes to making contacts and passing information. It’s a lot easier on the ears. 

Learning CW is relatively easy and once you know the letters and numbers there are lots of slow CW nets for you to listen to daily. Here’s a guide to learning CW. If you want to improve your CW, Morse Runner is a free downloadable contest simulator.