Quarter
Century Amateur Radio Club / Whitecourt Amateur Radio
Box 473, Edmonton, AB, T5J 2K1 Email: mail@qcarc.net website: www.qcarc.net QCARC WCAR Membership Form
Membership dues and donations support these QCARC WCAR owned repeaters:
VE6QCR 146.640 Stony Plain--VE6BOX 146.730 Athabasca--VE6PP 146.820 Whitecourt--VE6SS 146.880 Pigeon Lake All have 100Hz tone and offsets are all -600 KHz
Weekly Newsletter and Swap & Shop Listing 8/10/2022 by Paul, VE6UFO
IF YOU HAVE ITEMS TO DONATE FOR THE CLUB TO SELL CONTACT VE6UFO 780-232-7012 or mail@qcarc.net
ALL QCARC MEMBERS RENEWED FOR THE FOLLOWING YEAR OR BEYOND BY MARCH 31 HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN $250.00
QCARC Membership Form
THE
QUARTER CENTURY CENTURY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB IS HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THE
OFFICIAL FORMATION OF A NEW SUBSIDIARY BRANCH OF QCARC CALLED WHITECOURT AMATEUR RADIO. THIS GREAT GROUP OF AMATEURS IN THE WHITECOURT AREA HAS HAD A REPEATER AND WEBSITE WCAR.CA
FOR A FEW YEARS NOW AND HAS EXPRESSED A DESIRE TO EXPAND ON THEIR
ACTIVITIES AND THIS WILL HAPPEN UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF THE
QCARC.
NEWSLETTER FORMAT
NEWER CONTENT APPEARS DIRECTLY BELOW AND ITEMS AFTER THE SWAP & SHOP LISTINGS ARE OLDER. IF THIS NEWSLETTER IS NEW TO YOU PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE LIST TO RECEIVE THIS NEWSLETTER WEEKLY, PLEASE EMAIL TO mail@qcarc.net
VE6UFO's WEEKLY COMMENTARY
This
week's newsletter is being composed from a picnic table at a campsite
west of Edmonton, where I am hanging out this week. The weather is
supposed to be great and it is sure nice to get away from town for a
bit. Other than a few mosquitoes life is good out here and I have
already been having fun running portable on 40 and 80 and even a bit on
2m simplex.
NEW FEATURE -- SHOW AND TELL!
SHARE PICTURES OF YOUR HANDYWORK TO HELP INSPIRE OTHER HAMS TO DO SOME BUILDING.
EMAIL mail@qcarc.net
NOTHING NEW THIS WEEK - WHEN THERE IS SOME NEW STUFF I WILL LET YOU KNOW AND THEN YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SHOW AND TELL PAGE
IF
YOU HAVE ANY ITEMS OF
INTEREST LIKE PICTURES, A PERSONAL STORY OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THIS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, EMAIL mail@qcarc.net
73, Stay well and
be safe. Have a good week!!
Paul VE6UFO, QCARC Secretary Treasurer and Net Manager and Newsletter Authour and Website Guy....
There are 2 new bands available to Candian amateurs! Details at https://www.rac.ca/two-new-
Special Callsigns are available in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Special Call Signs Available in Honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (rac.ca)
There
is a new VARA FM WIDE Winlink RMS, VE6HM-11 on 145.090 MHz at the VE6HM
repeater site in east Edmonton. There also a digipeater, VE6MM-1
available on that frequency that can be used to connect to VE6HM-11 if you are not quite close enough to connect directly.
EZNEC Antenna Software by W7EL is now free. Grab a free copy of EZNEC - Ray is making it available as he has retired.
The newest version, EZNEC Pro/2+ v. 7.0, is available as of Jan 14, 2022 Here is the link: EZNEC Antenna Software by W7EL
The current edition of the Surrey Amateur Radio Club Newsletter is available at The Communicator Digital Edition: The July-August 2022 Communicator Periodical (ve7sar.blogspot.com)
OTHER CLUBS AROUND THE WESTERN PROVINCES
SOUTHERN ALBERTA REPEATER ASSOCIATION (saralink.ca)
SASK ALTA RADIO CLUB Sask Alta Radio Club (saskaltarc.ca)
NORTHERN ALBERTA RADIO CLUB The Northern Alberta Radio Club (narc.net)
NORTH CENTRAL ALBERTA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB North Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club - (ncaarc.ca)
AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICES EDMONTON ARES Edmonton and Area – Amateur Radio Emergency Service
CENTRAL ALBERTA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB CAARC « Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
FORT SASKATCHEWAN AMATEUR RADIO CLUB www.fsarc.com
PEACE COUNTRY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Peace Country Amateur Radio Club | VE6ARC
CALGARY AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION (caraham.org)
FOOTHILLS AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY Foothills Amateur Radio Society (fars.ca)
COLD LAKE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY CLARS - HAM (clares.ca)
MEDICINE HAT AMATEUR RADIO CLUB (mharc.ca)
SOUTHERN ALBERTA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Southern Alberta Amateur Radio Club (saarc.ca)
NORTH OKANAGAN RADIO AMATEUR CLUB Home - NORAC
ORCHARD CITY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB | The Orchard City Amateur Radio Club (ocarc.ca)
WANTED
The Northern Alberta Radio Club is in need of a small (6x6) building that was or can be used as a repeater shack at a potential new site. If you have or know of something that is available please contact Mitch, VE6OH ve6oh@narc.net
A presentation about the new RAC Auxillary Communications Service is available at https://www.rac.ca/auxiliary-
Winlink Wednesday information is at WCAR.CA and Winlink Wednesday emails can be sent via Winlink to Bill VA6RQ.
SARA CLUB MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
PLEASE SUPPORT THE SOUTHERN ALBERTA REPEATER ASSOCIATION. SARA
IS DEDICATED TO PROVIDING THE AMATEUR COMMUNITY IN ALBERTA WITH A
RELIABLE NETWORK OF LINKED REPEATERS. MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION AT www.saralink.ca
THE ALBERTA PUBLIC SERVICE NET WEBSITE HAS A LOT OF GREAT INFORMATION INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:
General Net Information
Several Alberta KiwiSDRs - Direct links, just click and go. These help when reception conditions are poor
Net Control Information
CHECK IT OUT AT http://www.apsn3700.net/
THE QCARC WCAR 2M NET TAKES PLACE EACH WEDNESDAY AT 8:30 PM ON THE VE6QCR AND VE6PP REPEATERS
WA7BNM Contest Calendar: 12-Month Calendar
Edmonton Area 5 day WX Forecast
Wednesday 8/10 Sunny High 28 Low 13
Thursday 8/11 Mix of sun and cloud High 27 Low 16
Friday 8/12 Mix of sun and cloud High 26 Low 16
Saturday 8/13 Sunny High 26 Low 16
Sunday 8/14 Cloudy, showers High 23 Low 13
AUGUST BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES,
ETC.
If you or an amateur
you know is celebrating something let me know and I will list it here….
Birthdays
Bill VE7KDK
Lorne VE7LWK
Denny KI6DL
Al VE6OA
FUNNY OF THE
WEEK
Tonight we're having Himalayan Rabbit Stew for dinner. We found himalayan in the road.
DID YOU KNOW?
Named for its miraculous abilities, the Amazon's "Jesus Christ Lizard" can run over water.
To list something here, please email Paul, VE6UFO at mail@qcarc.net or call/text 780-232-7012
ANOTHER GREAT BUY AND SELL RESOURCE IS HAMSHACK.CA
PRICE REDUCED!!! For Sale by Al VE6AH Dual band amp. With 10 watts in it puts out 20w on 70cm and 30 watts on 2m. Now asking 50.00 ve6ah.g@gmail.com
3 inch mag mount 2/70 mobile antenna (SMA) with coax 60.00
BNC Female to PL259 adapter 5.00
For
Sale by Bill VA6RQ If you are interested in Bill’s
items please email him at va6rq@rac.ca
Used
SCS Pactor Modem PTCII-EX with P3 licence. Comes with cables for the
Yaesu FT857 (Computer to Radio for CAT control and Radio to TNC) $700.00
New in Box Hygain VB-64DX 4Elm 6M Beam
ant for $195 Radio
World price - $225
New in Boxes (2) Cushcraft
A148-10S 2m 10El yagi ants $195
each Radio World price -$259 if
you buy both it comes with a used co-phasing harness
USED Hygain Ham III med duty rotator well used (new bearings) $100
Listing by Blair VE6AGH - ve6agh@yahoo.ca 403-327-8207
Update Blair is looking for a 19 inch Enclosed equipment rack.
As
usual Blair
is looking for military radios of any kind but below is a list of some
specific items. Blair will be at the Edmonton Flea Market,
so you can arrange ahead of time.
Military Sets:
Marconi CSR-2, CSR-5, CP-24, CP-34, CP-44 or an AT-12 RCA Aircraft Transmitter
Let him know what you have.
Also Blair is trying to find an Anson WWII aircraft wing. If you know where such a thing exists please let Blair know.
Wanted Mitch,
VE6OH is looking for a good used 4X4 truck preferably diesel with
trailer towing package and an RV around 25 ft. Contact Mitch at
780-446-8958 or
email ve6oh@rac.ca
Wanted by
Ric, VE7CUP remote antenna switches, working or not. If you have any
for sale, please
email ricmartin@telus.net
BELOW IS OLDER CONTENT THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN IF THIS IS NOT YOUR FIRST TIME READING THIS NEWSLETTER
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
The
Edmonton Area 2M SSB
net is on 144.200 USB Sundays at 10:00am and 8:00 PM
Winlink Wednesday emails can be sent via Winlink to Bill, VA6RQ. Instructions on how to do this are on the website www.wcar.ca
AR100 Hamfest - The celebration of 100 years of amateur radio in Alberta. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN DELAYED. When there is a new date further information will follow.
QCARC
ANNOUNCEMENTS
JOIN QCARC OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP BEFORE
MARCH 31 AND TO BE ENTERED INTO THE DRAW FOR OUR 250.00 EARLY
BIRD CASH PRIZE
QCARC Membership Form
Membership dues and donations can be e-transferred to mail@qcarc.net
THANKS
VERY MUCH TO ALL THE MEMBERS WHO CONTINUE TO SUPPORT QCARC WITH
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS AND
DONATIONS!!
When
needed, QCARC helps amateurs or the famly of silent keys with tower
work and station dispersals. We
can sell your items for you at the flea markets or swap and shop. If
you would rather not be bothered trying to sell items you can donate
them to QCARC. If you need this
type of assistance contact VE6UFO at 780-232-7012 or mail@qcarc.net
Another benefit of being a
member
is that you can purchase items at MRO Electronic Supply with your proof
of
QCARC membership. There is a 25.00 minimum.
QCARC SELLS DONATED ITEMS AT FLEA MARKETS TO RAISE MONEY TO OPERATE OUR REPEATERS AND KEEP MEMBERSHIP DUES LOW. IF YOU HAVE ITEMS TO DONATE PLEASE ARRANGE PICKUP WITH PAUL VE6UFO AT mail@qcarc.net OR 780-232-7012. THANKS VERY MUCH TO ANYONE WHO HAS RECENTLY DONATED ITEMS TO THE CLUB.
QCARC has 2 ISED accredited
examiners:
Ernie VA6EJR va6ejr@gmail.com
Mitch VE6OH ve6oh@rac.ca
QCARC weekly 2 meter net
Wednesday 8:30PM on VE6QCR and VE6PP repeaters. After
the net,
stations are encouraged to stick around for a fun round table ragchew
QSO
session.
Do
you know of a new ham or a ham getting back into radio after years away
from the hobby that needs equipment and/or help getting a station set
up? We can help!!! mail@qcarc.net
RAC NEWS
Stephen Lee VA6SGL is the
RAC Director for
AB NT NU.
If you are not a RAC
member, please consider
joining as RAC helps protect and advance amateur radio in Canada and
around the
world. RAC members who are also members of RAC affiliated clubs such as
QCARC
get special insurance coverage. Details of this coverage are found at https://www.rac.ca/insurance/
The movement of the International Space Station can be tracked in real time at Live Space Station Tracking Map | Spot The Station | NASA
Here is a link to a page on the WCAR website
about understanding propogation: https://www.wcar.ca/education/up/
Don VE7DXE in Victoria, BC has
established www.hamshack.ca
which is a
great site with a fully functional buy and sell feature and other
new
resources being added all the time. Check it out often!!
The Surrey Amateur Radio Club has a great newsletter and the latest edition can be found at www.ve7sar.net
If
you are trying to learn Morse code or increase your speed, there is a
great YouTube resource. Search for HamradioQRP which will get you to
the site. These videos are a terrific help.
Another good resource
including solar conditions is https://www.wm7d.net
Know someone interested in becoming a radio amateur? Resources for home learning include Hamstudy Basic available through Amazon, and Coax Publications for Basic and Advanced study manuals https://www.coaxpublications.ca/ Further, Cold Lake Amateur Radio Society (CLARS) hosts a training website http://www.clares.ca/va6hal%20training.html for Basic and Advanced. RAC also has an Advanced course available at no cost for members that have a Gold Leaf Membership.
MISC. TECH INFORMATION
A garden hose reel works well for hanging up those rolls of spare coax. They can be found at garage sales for a buck or two.
"QUICK DISCONNECT" mounts are available to easily change resonators for your HF mobile antennas. There are also some good multi-band mobile antennas out there.
Rough running gas powered generator? This problem is often caused by gas with ethanol added. Small engines don't like it so run straight gas or add fuel stabilizer to the tank.
When re-assembling a used yagi or vertical antenna made of aluminum make sure to remove any oxidation at the joints using a ScotchBrite pad or equivalent and use new stainless steel hardware.
Always keep your signal and audio cables as far away from the power cords as possible. If you have them all bunched together, you will have problems one day.
A way to check a long run of coax for loss is to use a dummy load and wattmeter at the radio and at the antenna end of the coax and compare the output readings. If the loss is very low the 2 readings will be very close to the same on either end.
Lay down those radials the easy way! Using a lawn edger for putting down radials!
Do not set an external tuner directly on top of your HF rig or you could have distorted TX audio on some bands. Make a 2 inch separator out of non-conductive material.
If the fan on your power supply or rig comes on a lot, add a small external fan on the back of the unit to help keep things cooler.
Have you ever gotten into your vehicle to find that your battery was dead because you forgot to turn off your mobile radios? Modern rigs have a programmable Auto Power Off (APO) that you can use to make the radio turn itself off after a pre-set period of inactivity.
On vehicles with roof racks, a tiltover mount for your HF mobile antenna can be easily made by attaching the L part of a mirror mount antenna bracket to the roof rack with a single bolt just tight enough that the mount will move by hand 90 degrees as required. For pickup trucks, you can mount the bracket to a pole in the box or on the bumper or trailer hitch. Ensure proper grounding.
To make it easy to see what you are doing when trying to work with connections at the back of all the various pieces of gear on your operating desk, mount a mirror on the wall behind the equipment. I saw this years ago when visiting the station of Dave VE6KD. Great idea, Dave!!
Here is a link to plans for an inexpensive and easy to build 5 band HF Vertical Antenna N5VEG 5 Band HF Vertical "Wonderstick" Antenna (hamuniverse.com)
Directional Finding (Bunny
Hunting)
Techniques and plans for building a high gain cubical 2 meter quad
antenna and
sniffer
http://www.qcarc.net/VE6OB%20Bunny%20Hunting%20Article.pdf
When
building a station, it is important to determine
the correct coax to use. Transmission line losses must be kept at a
minimum to
achieve optimum performance.
Here
is a link to some coax loss charts. https://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html
If you are re-using coax make sure there is good continuity and check
it with a
wattmeter and dummy load - MOST USED FLEA MARKET COAX IS GOOD
FOR THE SELLER,
NOT THE BUYER!!
Here is a link to a handy dipole antenna length calculator and various
other
resources:
Dipole Antenna Length
Calculator
(everythingrf.com)
Need to find the grid
square for your QTH? Try this: Amateur Radio Ham Radio
Maidenhead Grid Square Locator Map
(levinecentral.com)
Here is a listing of some of the
nets and other gatherings that take place regularly:
There is a lot of
activity on the 2 meter simplex frequency 146.490 in Edmonton.
Various 40 and 80 meter
ragchew groups take place all morning long from about 7:00AM until 10
or later.
Look around the bands for an opportunity to join in on an interesting
QSO.
Saskatchewan weather net
8:00AM Sask time 3.753 MHz
Aurora Net 2300
UTC 7.100 MHz
Saskatchewan Net 0100 UTC
3.735 MHz
Alberta Public Service
Net 0130 UTC 3.700 MHz
BC Net 0130 UTC 3.729 MHz
160 meter ragchews take
place 9:00 PM or later usually on frequencies above 1.890 MHz.
Weekly
Alberta ARES Net Sunday
9:00AM mountain time 3.750 MHz
Edmonton Area 2 meter SSB
net Sunday 10:00AM and 8:00 PM 144.200 MHz USB
Trans Canada Net Sunday 2:00PM
18:00 UTC 14.140 MHz
Sunday
6PM VE6KM B linked to ref001C is the international DSTAR Net
Sunday Evening Aurora Net
9:30PM Central time 7.100 MHz
Monday
8:00PM on VE6KM B linked to reflector REF016B is the Alberta DSTAR
Net
Monday Amateur Radio
Information Net 3.729 MHZ right after the BC net about 0230 UTC
NARC weekly 2 meter net
Tuesday 7:30PM on VE6HM repeater 147.060 -600
IRLP Trans Canada net
Wednesday 9:00AM on VE6HM repeater 147.060 -600
Winlink Wednesday
please check out www.wcar.ca
for information
Friday
7:00PM on VE6KM B linked to ref001C Canadian Dstar Net
i