http://www.oarc.net/blog/2022-04-30T18:13:19.601075+00:00When All Else Fails... Amateur Radio Works!2020-07-01T15:05:06+00:002022-04-30T18:10:33.609643+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/july-virtual-meeting-ed-sich-ve3wgo-will-continue-with-part-ii-of-5g-cellular-radio-and-how-we-got-here/

<p><strong><img alt="Ed Sich/VE3WGO our February Meeting Guest Speaker" height="622" src="https://www.oarc.net/media/uploads/ed_photo.jpg" width="637"/></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong>By popular demand, we've got him back!   Mark your calendars: July 8th at 19h30 EST.  Zoom details to follow.</strong></p> <p><strong>Ed will give us the second installment describing what is cellular radio and what are the differences between 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G systems. In the really interesting part, Ed will give us an overview as to what exactly is 5G cellular and what it isn't. He will also tell us about 5G antennas and how how they deal with the many bands involved from 400 MHz up to 40 GHz!</strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><em><strong>As of this posting the July Meeting recording and power point presentation are being prepared.  They will be posted on the website once we learn how to do it!</strong></em></p>

2020-04-09T01:26:32+00:002022-04-30T18:11:17.265965+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/member-survey-results/

<p>Our membership chair, Roger VA3EGY sent out a wonderful survey and many of you responded.</p> <p>Here are <a href="https://www.oarc.net/media/uploads/va3egy-survey.pdf" title="Member Survey">the results for you to think about</a>.</p> <p>73 de VE3BOW</p>

2020-03-14T20:18:34+00:002022-04-30T18:11:17.258136+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/next-meeting-and-covid-19/

<p>Friends, it has become more and more evident in the past month that life can no longer be considered business as usual.  I take comfort in the belief that we will soon see the better days that lie ahead.</p> <p>As a consequence all the regular monthly OARC meetings at <a href="https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall" title="Ottawa City Hall">City Hall</a> are cancelled until gathering as a group is again something we can do safely.</p> <p>The OARC executive have continued to communicate via email and vox at an increased rate. We are proud to announce that we had our first virtual meeting of the executive via computer videoconference last Tuesday. We discussed at that time if it would be possible to have a virtual meeting of the OARC via a broadcast or an interactive video.</p> <p>There is unfortunately little time to execute such a production for the regular meeting scheduled this week, so I invite you to meet me on VE2CRA Wednesday April 8th at 19h30 local (23h30 Zulu), for a brief roundtable to discuss what you might have brought to Homebrew night and following, to discuss how you might use the repeater more frequently and discuss having some special interest nets through the week, and noon has been suggested.</p> <p>We will continue to have our regular <a href="http://club.oarc.net/pages/resources-1/capital-city-fm-net/" target="_blank" title="Capital City FM Net Information">Monday Capital City FM Net</a> and we encourage all to check in.</p> <p>If you would like to participate in some alternative Ham Radio activities, I ask that you inform the executive committee of your preferences so that we can help you in a small measure to improve your amateur radio experience during this unprecedented period.<br/>73 by Dave, VE3BOW</p> <p>---</p> <p><span>Mes amis, comme cela est devenu de plus en plus évident au cours du dernier mois, notre vie a changé. Je suis sûr qu'après la pluie </span><span></span><span><span><span>viendra</span></span></span><span> le beau temps.</span></p> <p><span>En conséquence, toutes les réunions mensuelles de l'OARC à l'hôtel de ville sont annulées jusqu'à ce que la situation nous permette <span><span><span><span>à</span> nouveau de nous r</span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span>é</span></span></span>unir en groupe en toute securit</span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span>é</span></span></span>. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span>L'exécutif de l'OARC a </span><span>poursuivi</span><span> </span><span>sa communication</span><span> par courriel et aussi par la voix à un rythme accru. Nous sommes fiers d'annoncer que nous avons eu notre première réunion virtuelle</span><span> par vidéoconférence mardi dernier. Nous avons discuté à ce moment-là </span><span>de la maniere dont </span><span>il serait possible d'avoir une réunion virtuelle de l'OARC par une diffusion ou une vidéo interactive.</span></p> <p><span>Malheureusement, nous </span><span>manquons</span><span> de temps pour télédiffus</span><span>er</span><span> </span><span>la réunion de cette semaine, donc je vous invite à me rencontrer le Mercredi 8 Avril à 19h30 sur VE2CRA, </span><span>afin</span><span> d'avoir une brève table ronde pour discuter de ce que vous pourriez avoir apporté à Homebrew et pour discuter de la façon dont nous pourrions utiliser notre répéteur pour les reunions d'intérêts spéciaux tout au long de la semaine, peut-être </span><span>en milieu de journée.</span></p> <p></p> <p><span>Nous continuerons à avoir notre </span><a href="https://www.oarc.net/pages/resources-1/capital-city-fm-net/" target="_blank" title="Capital City FM Net"><span>Capital City FM Net</span></a><span> <span>habituel</span> et nous encourageons tous à vous enregistrer. Si vous souhaitez participer à des activités <span><span>radio amateur</span></span> alternatives, je vous demande d'informer le comité exécutif de vos préférences afin que nous puissions vous aider dans une <span>moindre </span>mesure à améliorer votre expérience de radio amateur pendant cette période sans précédent.</span><br/><span>73 de Dave, VE3BOW</span></p>

2019-11-12T20:55:19+00:002022-04-30T18:12:01.247559+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/november-meeting-two-wheeled-mobiles/

<p>A presentation on bicycle mobile is the focus of November's meeting. Norm VE3LC, Dave VE3TLY, and Arthur VA3BIT will describe their bicycle mobile setups and experiences. Arthur will also describe his motorcycle mobile setup. (Photo by K9SWX)</p> <p><img alt="2 Wheeled Mobile" height="183" src="https://www.oarc.net/media/uploads/2-wheeled-mobile.jpeg" width="275"/></p>

2019-09-30T19:00:35+00:002022-04-30T18:12:01.304089+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/october-meeting-the-importance-of-showing-up-bryan-rawlings-ve3qn/

<p><img alt="" height="300" src="https://www.oarc.net/media/uploads/ve3qn-picture1.png" width="401"/></p> <p>Entitled “The Importance of Showing Up” the presentation will cover the principal agenda items impacting amateur radio which will be considered at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) which will take place later this year in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.</p> <p>Additionally, however, the presentation will provide an overview of the history of international radio regulation, the roles played by Canada’s telecom regulator and by the International Telecommunication Union based in Geneva. There will be ample photos of the ITU facilities, the delegates, our amateur representatives and the setting in Geneva. Also illustrated will be the ITU’s amateur station 4U1ITU.</p> <p></p>

2019-06-04T15:37:41+00:002022-04-30T18:12:55.664140+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/field-day-site-update/

<p>A quick note to say due to popular demand, the OARC will be holding the field day activities at the Corkery Community Centre.  VE3YTZ was able to book it for us: Thanks Greg!</p> <p>If you are interested in operating or supporting the team over the field day weekend, please see our <a href="https://www.oarc.net/pages/field-day/" title="Field Day information page">Field Day</a> page,</p> <p>Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.</p>

2019-05-30T01:37:04+00:002022-04-30T18:12:55.671643+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/bbhn-node-mount/

<p>John Vorobej at "A Complete Fabrication" made us a beautiful custom Stainless Steel mast mount for the 3 BroadBand HamNet "BBHN" nodes to be installed at the Camp Fortune Repeater Site.  The square mounting plates are canted off vertical at about 5.5 degrees to match the taper of the structure it will mate with.  The SS has been bathed in etchant to galvanically neutralize it against corrosion.</p> <p>John is available for custom fabrication recently including custom industrial kitchens, racing wheelchairs, logging helicopter crown-cutters, bespoke bicycles, towers and antennas.</p> <p><img height="768" src="https://www.oarc.net/media/uploads/ss_bbhn-mount.jpg" width="768"/></p>

2019-05-10T19:32:08+00:002022-04-30T18:13:12.213677+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/june-meeting-election/

<p>This meeting is your opportunity to find out about the behind the scene administration of your club, voice your aspirations about future direction of the club, and if you are so inclined, to become a member of the executive.<br/>Margaret VA3VXN will deliver the yearly review of the club's financials and we will have various reports on member activities over the previous month.<br/>Additionally we will discuss plans and requirements for 2019 ARRL Field Day which will be on Saturday and Sunday, June 22-23.</p> <p>We are still in final negotiations for our FD site so please stand by, more details will soon follow.</p>

2019-05-10T19:00:38+00:002022-04-30T18:13:12.476398+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/september-meeting/

<p>Michael Christensen, VE3QMC will be about EM &lt;Emergency Measures&gt; and SAR &lt;Search And Rescue&gt; from his professional vantage as a Director of Mobile Engineering for Industry Canada and his personal experience as an amateur radio operator.</p>

2019-05-08T15:23:03+00:002022-04-30T18:13:12.750244+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/may-meeting-ve3lc/

<p>Norm VE3LC will be presenting on his experiences with his Hydundai IoniQ, a fully electric car he recently purchased. Norm's substantial expertise in all things electronic will no doubt lead to a fascinating journey into the future of personal transportation. </p> <p>Arthur VA3BIT will be presenting an after action report on the CN Cycle for CHEO which happened on Sunday May 5th</p> <p>There will be a short slide show on the state of the VA3ODG-VE2CRA MMDVM/BBHN working group's activities.   Pictures from Camp Fortune of our existing repeater site, the proposed augementation of the Amateur Radio services that will be made available and the design considerations for upgading a BBHN backhaul link for data and command/control of the repeaters.</p> <p>OARC has recently received two MMDVM dual-radio HATs for RaspberryPI designed by Florian DF2ET which will be on display during and after the meeting.</p> <div>These devices have the multimode digital voice modem with a separate 10mW transmitter (10dbm for those who still have a slide rule) and a receiver with as yet uncharacterized sensitivity; as well as being a Tier-2 DMR compatible hotspot, this device is able to be configured to mimic the behaviour of a MMDVM repeater stack, yet the entire mechanism is only the size of a pack of playing cards. </div> <div></div> <div>The working group is using them as a test bed to develop the software configuration for the end-state MMDVM repeater to be installed at Camp Fortune later this year.</div> <div></div>

2019-03-14T21:26:07+00:002022-04-30T18:13:14.183375+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/april-meeting-homebrew-night/

<h5>Come on down and show your handiwork for fun, prizes and the respect and admiration of your ham radio compatriots.</h5> <p>The most fun part of Homebrew night is in the sharing of your projects, so please come down and show your friends what you have been working on.  While there are some very inspiring tinkerers in the club, all homebrewing is welcome. </p> <p>The submissions are scored according to these criteria:</p> <h5>OARC Home Brew Scoring Sheet Guidelines</h5> <h5>Originality (30%)</h5> <ul> <li>10 – not original, circuits and applications in most amateur publications, kits, existing software.</li> <li>20 – modifications to published circuits and applications, modify existing software, modifications and additions to kits.</li> <li>30 – new original concept and/or application, little or no info in most amateur publications, develop new software, mathematical calculations, not a kit.</li> </ul> <h5>Complexity (30%)</h5> <ul> <li>10 – simple, few parts/components, dimensions, layout and lead lengths not very critical or easily measured, multimeter instrumentation, make in a day or less.</li> <li>20 - fair number of parts/components, chassis, circuit board, some attention to dimensions, layout and lead lengths, simple software program, use vswr meter, signal generators etc., construction time between one day and a week.</li> <li>30 – relatively large number of parts/components, one or more circuit boards, critical layout, dimensions, write and debug software programs, more advanced instrumentation, time more than a week.</li> </ul> <h5>Craftsmanship (15%)</h5> <ul> <li>5 – very simple tools, crudely constructed</li> <li>10 – more advanced tools, nicely constructed</li> <li>15 – beautifully made, clean, labeled.</li> </ul> <h5>Presentation (15%)</h5> <ul> <li>5 – short or rambling presentation, few details or explanation.</li> <li>10 – reasonable explanation about item, how it works and was constructed.</li> <li>15 - very well thought out short and concise description of how item was developed and constructed, hand out information available.</li> </ul>

2019-02-27T20:19:05+00:002022-04-30T18:13:16.079405+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/chasing-6-meter-dxcc-with-ft8-by-ron-ve3vn/

<div> <div><i>DXCC on 6 meters is hard even during a solar maximum and the current lack of sunspots makes it harder still. A contester and 6 meter enthusiast resorted to FT8 and worked 56 countries in 8 weeks during last summer's sporadic E season. Find out how he did it, and how you can too.</i></div> <div><i>You can view Ron's very informative and wide ranging posts on his <a href="http://ve3vn.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" title="VE3VN">website</a></i></div> </div>

2018-11-01T21:40:22+00:002022-04-30T18:13:19.601075+00:00David Scobiehttp://www.oarc.net/blog/author/VA3AE/http://www.oarc.net/blog/november-meeting-time-and-frequency/

<p>November 14th, 2018  - Honeywell Room: Bill Hoger, custodian of CHU and member of the Frequency &amp; Time Group at the National Research Council.</p> <p>Bill will discuss the care and feeding of the transmitters at CHU and give us some background on the world's most advanced metrology delivered on behalf of Canadians by the fine NRC scientists from buildings M36 and U99</p> <p><a href="https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/time/index.html" title="Time">Click here to go to the Frequency &amp; Time Web Page</a></p> <p></p>