Calgary Amateur Radio Association The President's Message

President's Message, Feb 2026

Patrick — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Well here we are with a new year and a new President (ME!). I have served CARA in many capacities over the years both on the Executive and as a member. I had no desire to be President but when duty calls what can you do. I will be serving until our next AGM and do my best to keep the wheels rolling or perhaps the radios humming is a better analogy.

We have a local rally coming up in March which is my specialty. I’ve been contacted by a US rally I worked a few times, they are looking for 150 radio operators. Olympus is a huge rally normally but they are celebrating a 40th anniversary of Group B cars and going all out. The rally is a huge task since it’s south of Seattle but I’ve signed up. Anyone interested in a unique rally drop me a line.

Back in our own neck of the woods, we have a number of events to show case our club. Super Train, Outdoor show and Boat show are all planned for 2026. I will work on getting us into the Millarville fair as well There is talk that we may participate in the Maker Faire again. There is of course the swap meet on April 11th. Rocky Mountain Rally is being held at the end of May this year, which is our preferred time. 2026 is going to be a busy year.

With such a diverse club as ours, plus the wide variety of events and projects there is no shortage of places to volunteer. The club is only a great as the members and many hands make light work so I recommend getting out there and volunteer.

Harry Maylor
VE6HRY
President

President's Message, Oct 2025

Patrick — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 04:00:55 GMT

I am Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

Our next General Meeting will be on October 18th and it will be the AGM. There are several items on the agenda for the meeting. We will be presenting a financial report to the membership, we will be electing a new Secretary, and we’ll be presenting some proposed Bylaw changes for consideration by the membership. We will need quorum for the election and for acceptance of the financial report so please make an effort to attend.

If you are interested in serving on the Executive as Secretary, please let the Executive know at Executive@caraham.org so that we can put your name forward to the membership. Three years in good standing is a prerequisite for serving on the Executive.

The Kananaskis Rally will take place on November 9th, 2025 and registration is open. For anyone who wants to volunteer for that event, you will need either a year pass or a day pass for that event as it will be, not surprisingly, in Kananaskis. Rally event support is a part of how we pay the rent for the club station so if anyone can participate, it is much appreciated.

The SARA Flea Market will take place on October 25th 2025 at the Eastside City Church. Doors open to vendors at 8AM and to shoppers at 9AM. If you’re interested in reserving a selling table, please contact SARA at tables@saralink.ca . General admission is $5 and tables are $10 each.

The club station is still undergoing renovations. The latest pictures that Art showed me at the last Sunridge Coffee Klatch assured me that when it’s all said and done, our world class station will be a much more inviting place to visit.

Speaking of coffee klatches, there are two every Saturday morning at roughly 10AM (although many show up earlier). One takes place in the food court at Chinook Mall and the other takes place in the food court at Sunridge Mall. I regularly attend the Sunridge Mall Coffee Klatch if you need to bend my ear about something. The discussions can vary widely and are not just about amateur radio. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend and membership in CARA is not required

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7PM on VE6RYC 2M. Anyone who wishes to check in on either of these two nets is most welcome.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about. 73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ, President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message, Sept 2025

Patrick — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:38:08 GMT

I am Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

Our next General Meeting will be on September 20th. We’ll be doing a presentation with lots of pictures from the activities everyone participated in this summer. If you want your pictures included, please make sure I get them. Get out there and play radio folks. Enjoy what’s left of the summer!

The Rocky Mountain Rally has been cancelled this year due to labour issues in British Columbia. Those issues meant the Calgary Sports Car Club still didn’t have the permits for the event so given the short time remaining before the event, they reluctantly chose to cancel it. I’m sure we’ll be able to assist the CSCC with the RMR again next year. Many thanks to those who volunteered, you know who you are, before we got the word.

The next rally we’ll be providing support for will be the Kananaskis Rally later on this fall, dates to come. For anyone who wants to volunteer for that event, you will need either a year pass or a day pass for that event as it will be, not surprisingly, in Kananaskis. Rally event support is a part of how we pay the rent for the club station so if anyone can participate, it is much appreciated.

The AGM will be held in October. We’ll be presenting a financial report as well as holding the CARA annual elections for the CARA Executive for year 2025-2026. Elections were to be held in May 2025, which did not take place.

If you are interested in serving on the CARA Executive, please let the CARA Executive know at executive@caraham.org so that we can put your name forward to the membership. Three years in good standing is a prerequisite for serving on the Executive. We will also require a quorum to elect all executive members, so please make an effort to attend the October Annual General Meeting.

The club station was shut down for the first two weeks of September so that the renovations could be completed. I‘m hoping the new look will be much more inviting for folks to come in and use the station.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ, President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message, April 2025

Patrick — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 19:00:00 GMT

I am Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

Our next General Meeting will be on April 19th, 2025 at 1PM.

The topic will be a trailer orientation. Peter VA6RPL will have the trailer at the Calgary Sports Car Club and the indoor part of the meeting will also be available over Zoom. Any new amateur operators are most welcome to attend whether or not you are a member of CARA.

The Cochrane Winter Rally was a surprising success. All stages were completed and the event finished on time. Some of the changes we had implemented were very successful and others will require more tweaking. The green light protocol and the emergency procedures protocol were very well received. Keeping the radio coordinator (me) doing only radio coordinator things rather than stepping in to other roles is something we’re going to work on more as discussed at the debrief meeting. The next CSCC rally will be the RMR now in September in Invermere BC.

Both the Outdoor Show and the Supertrain show have completed. Both were a smashing success in getting the word about Amateur Radio out there as there were lots of visitors at each one.
The Manna 80 Event will be coming up soon at the Bomber Command Museum in Nanton on April 26th and is based on an eighty year ago event from World War II.
Operation Roadlink will be on May 10th and will be a hands-on exercise with many goals, one of which will be supporting the gravel cycling ride happening that day.
The Kids Cancer Care: Ride of Courage will take place on July 11-12. Our summer Field Day will be on June 28-29.

The spring AGM is coming up and that means some positions in the Executive will be coming open. If you are interested in serving, please let the Executive know at Executive@caraham.org so that we can put your name forward to the membership. Three years in good standing is a prerequisite for serving on the Executive.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ
President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message January 2025

Patrick — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 20:15:28 GMT

Greeting from Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

Our January meeting has been cancelled by the Executive as we will be holding our Winter Social that evening.

Our next General Meeting will be on February 15th, 2025 at 1 PM. It will, as usual, be held at the Calgary Sports Car Club and it will also be available over Zoom. Any new amateur operators are most welcome to attend whether or not you are a member of CARA. If anyone has any ideas for topics for future meetings, please give us your ideas at executive@caraham.org. I am also often at the Saturday morning Coffee Klatch at the Sunridge Mall Food Court if you want to bend my ear.

Some people have suggested moving our General Meeting to the fourth Saturday of the month. I would really like to hear your thoughts on whether or not that would work for you.

The Cookie Race and the Cochrane Winter Rally are coming up. The Cookie Race will be held on February 22nd, 2025 and the Cochrane Winter Rally will be held on March 9th, 2025. We’ll begin to see some changes in how we do things for the CWR based upon the feedback session we had with the CSCC. We’ll be looking for volunteers soon and I’m already looking forward to both the Cookie Race and the CWR. Just so that everyone is aware, our participation in the CSCC rallies is a big part of the rent we pay for our club station.

Our Winter Social will take place at 5:30 PM on January 18th, 2025 at the Garden Court of the Glenmore Inn at 1000 Glenmore Court SE. There will be a gift exchange (max $20 value) and a special guest will also be in attendance. Please RSVP to VA6RPL Peter Lagrandeur at VA6RPL@techworld.ca by January 17th to ensure your seating. If you have any questions, please contact VE6NRO Neeroo at VE6NRO@gmail.com.

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1 PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7 PM on VE6RYC 2M. Anyone who wishes to check in on either of these two nets is most welcome.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a Coffee Klatch that takes place in the food court at Sunridge Mall every Saturday morning. Although my own calendar has it starting at 10 AM, many operators arrive much earlier. We usually sit near the A&W in the food court. There is also a much smaller Coffee Klatch that also meets near the A&W in the Chinook Mall food court, which meets at the same time, so you have options on which one you would like to attend. The conversation at these klatches is always interesting and it’s a good way to share knowledge on how we do things.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ, President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message March 2024

Patrick — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Greetings from Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

In a few months we’ll be having elections. Treasurer, Stephane Raimbault, VE6NR will be stepping down so we’ll need a replacement Treasurer. Stephane tells me the time commitment should be no more than ½ hour every few days. He will be available from time to time to help out whoever becomes the new Treasurer to become familiar with the role. To serve on the Executive, membership in good standing for at least three years is required. Anyone interested is asked to please let the Executive know.

Going forward the General Meeting has moved to the third Saturday of the month at 1 PM. However, due to a scheduling issue with the CSCC this month (their AGM), we need to schedule our meeting one week later for the month of March only. This next meeting is now scheduled for March 23rd. Ben,VE6SFX will be doing a presentation on his antennas.

The Cochrane Winter Rally 2024 certainly had some challenges this year. The biggest challenge was snow. There was so much of it that a number of radio volunteer blockers could not get in to their position. I didn’t learn of this until I arrived on site Sunday morning, otherwise I would have spread the word. We started late (again due to snow), but got caught up running all stages, and finished on time. A very big thank you for the efforts of our net controls Bob, VA6BM and Stephane, VE6NR, our blockers and those riding with race officials. I’m betting Peter VA6RPL really had a lot of fun with his tactical call sign for the day. Even though it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed the Radio Coordinator role and am already looking forward to the RMR.

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1 PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Monday Evening Rag Chew Net will take place on VE6RYC 6M at 7PM. Anyone who wishes to check in to any of these three nets is most welcome.

I also want to remind everyone of the Coffee Klatches that take place every Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. There is one held at Chinook Mall (near the A&W) and one held at Sunridge Mall (near the A&W). I (and my XYL) usually go to the Sunridge Mall Coffee Klatch, which is often well attended. These klatches are a great opportunity to share experiences, and not just about Ham Radio. The gatherings are open topic.
Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,
Ken Read, VE6CBZ
President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message February 2024

Patrick — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 15:00:00 GMT

Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

In a few months we will be having elections. Our Treasurer, Stephane Raimbault VE6NR, will be stepping down so we will need a replacement. Stephane tells me the time commitment should be no more than ½ hour every few days. He tells me he will be available from time to time to help whomever becomes the new Treasurer to become familiar with the role and how to handle it. To serve on the Executive, membership in good standing for at least three years is required. Anyone interested is asked to please let the Executive know.

Based upon the success of our last General Meeting and feedback from the members attending, we will be moving our General Meeting from the 4th Tuesday of the month at 7:00PM to the third Saturday of the month at 1 PM going forward. The next meeting on February 17th will have two topics. I will be doing a presentation on DMR over a hotspot and will bring mine so that those with DMR radios can play too. Also, for anyone interested Neeroo VE6NRO and Mike VE6TC will be doing a presentation on doing a QSO in a contest.

The Casino is coming up on February 28th and 29th. There are still a bunch of positions open that must be filled or the event won’t happen. We use the proceeds to fund our projects, and without the funds our projects can’t happen. Please go to https://caracasino2024.ddns.net to sign up for a shift or a position. Please contact Alan Kearley VE6BUZ or casinos@caraham.org if you have any questions.

We do have a number of other events coming up that you might want to start thinking about as well. The Cookie Race will be on February 24th and the Cochrane Winter Rally will be on March 3rd. Please check the caraham.org calendar for details. I have found these events can be quite fun so they are well worth volunteering for. I’ve already volunteered for the Cookie Race and I will also be involved as a Radio Coordinator with the Cochrane Winter Rally.

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Monday Evening Rag Chew Net will take place on VE6RYC 6M at 7PM. Any who wishes to check in to any of these three nets is most welcome.

I also want to remind everyone of the Coffee Klatches that take place every Saturday morning at 10 AM. There is one near the A&W at Chinook Mall and another one near the A&W at Sunridge Mall. I (and my XYL Colleen) usually go to the Sunridge Mall Coffee Klatch. It is often well attended. These klatches are a great opportunity to share experiences, and not just about Ham Radio. The gatherings are open topic. Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

Ken Read, VE6CBZ
President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message January 2024

Patrick — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Greetings fellow Amateurs!

Ken Read her, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

I am saddened to announce two recent Silent Keys. Ernest Green, VE6GY, passed away on November 9th,2023. It was some time before we were notified and Don Cole, VE6EY/VA7EY passed away on Sunday January 7th, 2024. He was 86 years old, just two weeks short of his 87th birthday. We will have a moment of silence for these two Silent Keys at the next General Meeting.

We have many new amateurs from the latest Basic Class. Some have already been checking in on our Nets. I want to welcome all our new amateurs to the hobby. You’re in for a lifetime of fun! Congratulations!

We are going to try something new. The January CARA General Meeting will be at the Calgary Sports Car Club on the afternoon of Saturday, January 20th at 1PM rather than Tuesday evening, January 23rd, 2024. The topic will be a hands-on presentation of repeaters (the fun stuff) by Doug Howard followed by a short financials

presentation (because we have to). We’ll do our best to keep the dry stuff to a minimum. There will also be an outdoor barbeque with hot dogs and pop, weather permitting. I hope to see you there.

As a club, we’re also now looking at collapsing the special interest group meetings (DX and VHF) in favour of just one general meeting a month. Topics presented going forward will be from both groups. The thinking at the last general meeting is that the cross-interest exposure may help foster more interest and participation in CARA activities. The Saturday afternoon general meeting is a part of that. Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

We do have a number of winter events coming up that you might want to start thinking about. The Cookie Race and the Cochrane Winter Rally will need volunteers. Please check the caraham.org Calendar for details. I have found these events can be quite fun so they’re well worth volunteering. I’ve already volunteered for the Cookie Race and I will also be involved with the Cochrane Winter Rally.

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Monday Evening Rag Chew Net will take place on VE6RYC 6M at 7PM. Anyone who wishes to check in to any of these three nets is most welcome.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ

President, Calgary Amateur Radio

President's Message December 2023

Patrick — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 18:30:52 GMT

Greetings fellow Amateurs!

Ken Read her, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

We are going to try something new. The January CARA General Meeting will, barring availability, at the Calgary Sports Car Club on the afternoon of Saturday, January 20th rather than the Tuesday evening of January 23, 2024. The topic will be a ‘hands on presentation’ of repeaters (the fun stuff) by Doug Howard, VE6CID followed by a short financial presentation because we have to. We’ll keep the dry stuff to a minimum. There will also be having an outdoor barbeque at the Calgary Sports Car Club.

We still need two volunteers to work with our Treasurer, Stephane VE6NR to go over the books to prepare for the AGM taking place in January. The volunteers need not be accountants. All we need are open eyes and minds. The two volunteers cannot be members of the Executive. Anyone interested is asked to reach out to Stephane at treasurer@caraham.org.

We do have a number of winter events coming up that you might want to start thinking about. The Cookie Race and the Cochrane Winter Rally will need volunteers.

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7PM on VE6RYC 2M. The Monday Evening Rag Chew Net will take place on VE6RYC 6M at 7PM. Anyone who wishes to check in to any of these three nets is most welcome.

Peter LaGrandeur has again volunteered to take on the post-Christmas Party this winter. I look forward to seeing what he can put together for us.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73, Ken Read, VE6CBZ

President's Message June 2023

Patrick — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 04:55:00 GMT

Greetings.

I am Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

The picture on the cover of this month's issue of KeyKlix was taken by my son Brent Lucas-Read during the Rocky Mountain Rally for 2023.

My son was a spectator both days and was positioned at “Spectator” on Saturday followed by “Control Point Echo” on Sunday.
He took a lot of pictures, but the cover photo is one of his favourites.
We both had a really good time.
I had to go out on the stage route to replace a blocker who had to leave; a little bit different from my radio coordinator role.
It was some fun driving there, even though I did get a flat tire on the way back. Thankfully the folks in the course opening car were available and stopped by to assist.

I’m looking forward to participating in future rally’s for CARA and amateur radio. There were also more events that will have taken place by the time this issue comes out.
The last DX club meeting was on June 7th and the VHF group meeting took place on June 13th.

Other events this month were:

the SARA Picnic and AGM,
the Ghost of The Gravel – Deadgoat Racing (a cycling event),
the MS Bike Tour (June 34-25), and
the ARRL Field Day (June 24-25).

I’ve been very pleased to hear about the level of registration for these events from our Amateurs.
Way to go everyone! Elections are coming up this month.

We will have at least two positions opening up to bring us to five Directors on the Executive with up to four more if people are willing to serve, for a maximum of nine Directors.

Please do what you can to attend as we will need to have quorum to carry out the election.
A quorum is 10% of the overall membership in good standing. We will need at least 22 (preferably more) members in attendance.
The next CARA General Meeting will be on Tuesday, June 27th at 7 PM at the Calgary Sports Car Club. As mentioned, it will be the AGM.
Any member in good standing for at least three years is eligible to serve on the Executive.

The CARATELS Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1 PM on VE6RYC.
The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net runs every Thursday evening at 7 PM on VE6RYC.
Anyone who wishes to check in to either net is most welcome.

Our Tube Bank Manager has stepped aside from his role. Anyone who would like to take on managing the Tube Bank is asked to contact the Executive and let us know you’re volunteering.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ President,
Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message March 2023

Ken Read — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:37 GMT

Greetings fellow Amateurs!

I am Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association.

I volunteered at both the Kananaskis Ski Marathon (or “The Cookie Race”) and the Cochrane Winter Rally. Everyone who volunteered at both events had a lot of fun. These events are great opportunities for volunteers to use their radios and help keep people safe.

Our Tube Bank Manager has stepped aside from his role. Anyone who would like to take on managing the Tube Bank is asked to contact the Executive and let us know you’re volunteering.

The CARA Spring Flea Market will take place on April 15^th at 10AM at the Eastside City Church, 1320 Abbeydale Drive SE. There will also be a Technical Conference on several topics taking place at the same time. The admission price is $5. Check it out if you’re looking for a few fleas. The QCARC Spring Flea Market Edmonton will take place the following weekend on April 22^nd if you can’t make it to our Flea Market. Please check the CARA Website calendar for a link to their website as well as for more information about our Flea Market.

By the time this issue of Key Klix comes out, we will have had our VHF Group PI Day meeting on Balloons With Ham Radio. Considering the interest that was shown at the February General Meeting about some amateur radio ballooning done out west in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I’m expecting the VHF Group to be very well attended. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that great interest is demonstrated.

The next CARA General Meeting will be on Tuesday, March 28^th at 7PM at the Calgary Sports Car Club.

The Thursday Evening Rag Chew Net to run every Thursday evening at 7PM on VE6RYC. The CaraTels Net runs every Tuesday afternoon at 1PM on VE6RYC. Anyone who wishes to check in to either net is most welcome.

The Saturday morning coffee klatches are taking place in the food courts at Chinook Mall and Sunridge Mall at 10AM. The discussion topics vary widely, not restricted to amateur radio, each Saturday morning and are often a lot of fun. For anyone interested in getting to know your fellow amateurs, I recommend attending the coffee klatches, especially for the new amateurs amongst us.

Have fun with which ever amateur radio activity you choose. That’s what it’s all about.

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ, President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

2022 Sept CARA President's Message

Patrick — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 17:37:08 GMT

Greetings fellow Amateurs!

I am Ken Read, call sign VE6CBZ, the new President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association. I became a licensed operator (Basic with Honours) in May 2019 and have enjoyed the hobby ever since. I haven’t been too active on the air (my life has been rather full of family and work) spending most of my amateur time on VHF and playing with digital modes. Eventually I’ll get to HF. Having to hide my antennas in the attic does put a crimp on things, although I am coming up with some ideas.

I have previously served on the Board of my condominium association for many years, so I’m bringing some of that experience to my role here. I’m hoping that experience will benefit CARA. The learning continues. I wish to thank the previous Executive for their service to CARA. Thank you to:

Peter LaGrandeur, VA6RPL,
President Joel Weder, VE6EI,
Vice-President Peter Barry, VA6PJB,
Secretary Stephane Raimbault, VE6NR, Treasurer

Your service is much appreciated.

The new Executive

President Ken Read, VE6CBZ, Vice President Joel Weder, VE6EI, Secretary Andrew Webb, VE6EN, Treasurer Stephane Raimbault, VE6NR and Director-at-Large Frank-Michael Hofman, VE6FMH.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, Andrew Webb, VE6EN will not be able to continue service on the CARA Executive. The Executive will appoint a new Secretary and is looking for a volunteer to fill the vacancy.

CARA has had a few items donated and we need some volunteers to evaluate these items and then sell them if appropriate. Please reach out to Rob, VE6CCL if you’re interested.

September is coming up and with that several of our special interest groups will be starting up again, along with our General Meetings.

The CARA Station/DX group will be meeting on September 7th at 7:30 PM at the CSCC, as well as over Zoom for anyone who cannot attend in person. Our Basic Amateur Radio Class started on September 12th at the Bowness Scout Hall ($65 per student).
The VHF Interest group will next meet on September 14th. I don’t know yet (check the event calendar) if it will be over Zoom, in person, or a hybrid meeting.
The next General Meeting will be on September 27th (check the calendar for this one too).

Doug Howard, VE6CID recently posted an interesting note on Twitter. Are you aware CARA has 7,252 tubes in the tube bank?

73,

Ken Read, VE6CBZ
President, Calgary Amateur Radio Association

2022 May - CARA Executive Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Mon, 16 May 2022 17:25:10 GMT

This message from Secretary Peter Barry VA6PJB

Hello Fellow Hams,

This month it has fallen to me, Peter Barry, VA6PJB, CARA Secretary to write the message from the CARA executive. May – June is the busiest times of year for ham public events. Coming up we have the Rocky Mountain Rally on May 28, the Banff to Jasper Relay on June 4, the Central Alberta picnic and ham fest on June 17-19, the MS bike tour on June 25-26, and Field Day on June 25-26 also. There will be lots of opportunity to join in, so check out the information on the CARA website.

On top of those public service events we have two other important things happening in June. The most important source of revenue for our public service and hobby infrastructure is the money received from the government through the casino volunteer program. This will be on Thursday June 8th and Friday June 9th. Please volunteer to support the club.

The other major event is the executive election coming up at the June general meeting. If you have been a member for the last three years, please consider volunteering to serve. Please contact VA6PJB@caraham.org if you can help.

The May and June general meetings are going to be hybrid events - in person at the Calgary Sports Car Club or online Zoom. Join us in the way that feels comfortable for you.

There are many ways to participate, we look forward to seeing you soon.

73 DE VA6PJB

Peter B

2022 April - CARA President's Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 13:05:34 GMT

Message from Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL CARA President

Greetings, fellow amateur radio enthusiasts. Your Executive Committee continues to work hard for you. Contact us anytime at executive@caraham.org .

As I write this, our flea market has just concluded, our first in three years. We had a great turnout at Calgary’s Eastside City Church, with two hundred and twenty one persons going through the reception table. Many thanks to coordinator Joel Weder VE6EI and the very large team of people who all contributed to the success of the day. Some highlights of the day include a record 50/50 pot of over $1600. Another highlight was the plethora of gifts from vendors BH Electronics and NTF Communications. Thanks, Brian and Ray! The main prize was the raffle for the $1700 ICOM IC-705 tri-band amateur portable base radio donated by GPS Central in Calgary. Many thanks to Greg Kulin for that one, with GPSC employee Cory on hand to present the prize to the raffle winner.

CARA’s parallel event at the ESC Church was the ‘annual’ Learning Conference aka ‘Ham University’. Like the flea market, this was the first one in three years, due to the Covid 19 interlude. That didn’t deter a full room of learners from attending the three sessions, all of which were top flight from great presenters. “The New Solar Cycle” from ‘Professor’ Jerry Spring VE6TL, “Portable Operation in the Rockies” from Paul Mower VA6MPM, and “DMR In Calgary” from Peter Barry VA6PJB. Well done gentlemen! Many kudos goes to this year’s Learning Conference coordinator, Peter Barry VA6PJB.

We are now heading into our busy spring period of events, and our hats go off to all the organizers and volunteers who make them the great success that they always are. Please see the Events Calendar https://caraham.org/events for upcoming activities.

As I look back on the last two years of the CARA executive committee, I can count numerous housekeeping tasks, and various improvements, that have made membership in CARA so much better. Some of them include:

Significant reduction of storage costs from $2000/yr to $700, Most storage is now consolidated into a weatherproof sea can at a patrolled 24/7 accessible location very close to our clubhouse. Shelves were built, which now enable efficient storage within, and keep things from being piled on the floor. Our comm trailer has also been moved there, beside the container. This site is flat and level, well drained, mouse free, plowed in winter, and easily accessible year round.
This sea can has also been configured to serve as a remote radio station, and stands ready for the addition of radio gear and supportive infrastructure, when required.
Our valuable bank of glass vacuum tubes has been better sorted and categorized, and now resides in the sea can storage facility.
The ongoing large task of dealing with the tide of gear from Silent Keys, and donators, has been better organized and streamlined. We now can assess the equipment, sort, categorize, offer to CARA interest groups, and advertise for sale on the CARA web site, with much greater efficiency.
Our Policy and Procedure Manual has been updated, including clarification of CARA’s membership categories. The electoral process has also been updated to provide better continuity from one year to the next, with annual elections, where only half the executive committee is changed out per year.
That perennial, and worsening, problem of flooding in the basement of the Calgary Sports Car Club, which regularly endangered our world class VE6AO HF station, has now been mitigated. Compounding the effect of water damage, was the looming threat of mold and potential condemnation of the building. The improvements were achieved by negotiations with the CSCC to do significant landscaping and concrete work on the south side of the building.
The VE6AO station has had some significant upgrades to its infrastructure:
- An Earth Moon Earth (EME) bounce antenna system is close to completion.
- A log periodic antenna system is nearing completion, which will fill in gaps in bands for better comms and contesting.
- One of the HF contesting radios has been replaced with a new Yaesu FT-DX101D. Preliminary reports on this radio indicate that its addition is a big success.
A comprehensive member survey was conducted, which incorporated input from a large cross section of the interest groups. The results have been made available to the members in unprocessed form.
CARA’s web presence has undergone a revamp. The objectives were two fold:
- The previous CARA website functioned well enough to provide info for established members. However, CARA has a great deal to offer in terms of activities and resources, and that website did not represent the club well. Persons wanting to learn amateur radio, potential new members, amateur radio operators at large, our public service partners, benefactors like the AGLC, all had to root around in our menu system to find things, which were often buried several layers deep, in non-logical places. To that end, a new “landing page” has become the new home page. This new home page features “jump tiles” which showcase many of the great things CARA has to offer, and which facilitate “one-click” links to topics new visitors to CARA’s sites are commonly looking for.
- The website’s internal page structure has seen pages added, edited, amalgamated, shuffled, and retired, as required. The result is a much more concise, intuitive interface with very limited “digging” to get to information.
Our social media has been enhanced with a new FaceBook group page. This complements our existing Twitter and YouTube streams.

Yes indeed, your Executive Committee, in concert with many members, has worked hard to make CARA a better place for our hobby. May we ask each and every one of you to please consider taking your turn serving on the CARA exec committee. The next election is at the June 28 general meeting. Serving is a very rewarding experience.

Executive Committee Message - 2022 March

Peter LaGrandeur — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 20:35:54 GMT

from Joel Weder VE6EI, Vice President

The last time I wrote for Key Klix, it was November and winter was just getting started. Now it's March, and we're seeing signs that spring may really be near. The chickadees are calling out "Hi, sweetie!" all over town. By the time you read this, it may at least technically be spring, though we know there can be wicked storms in spring as well as winter, if not even more so!

Speaking of spring, the CARA spring Flea Market and Learning Conference will be held on Saturday, April 9th at the Eastside City Church. The first conference session starts at 8:00 am. Doors will open for flea market vendors at 9 am, and for the general public at 10 am. Keep an eye on the CARA calendar and the Flea Market page (in the Resources menu) for more details. We'll also post any COVID-related changes there. We could still use a couple of volunteers, so please feel free to contact me to offer an hour or two of your time. Or if you'd like to reserve a table to offload some fleas, email me: tables@caraham.org

The various CARA special interest groups are as busy as ever. There simply isn't room on this page to mention it all. The annual Kananaskis Cookie Race (cross-country ski "loppet") took place on the weekend of February 26, and was very successful. Thanks to all the volunteers who spent a long, cold day in the mountains, as well as organizer Dana VA6DJH. The club also assisted at the Cochrane Winter Rally on March 6th. Next up is the Rocky Mountain Rally, to be held on May 27-28. Details will be posted on the Events Calendar.

The Station team has been busy performing maintenance at VE6AO, as well as doing prep work for addition of the station's new log periodic HF antenna. They've installed Winlink (email over radio) software on the station computers, and somehow found time to operate contests as well. Plus, they should by now have received a new Yaesu FTDX101 contest-grade HF rig to replace their faulty FT-2000.

A successful Fox Hunt was held on February 12th at Confederation Park. There were about 20 attendees, a good very turnout for a winter event! Much thanks to organizer Neeroo, VE6NRO. We look forward to more hidden transmitter hunts, whether in warm weather or snow!

Alan VE6BUZ is busy rounding up volunteers for the next casino, which will take place on June 8th & 9th. As the casino funds are a major source of income for CARA, we hope that you can find time to work a shift or two. Please contact Alan if you'd like to help out: ve6buz@telus.net

Did you know that CARA has a presence on both Facebook and Twitter? Just search for "Calgary Amateur Radio Association." On Twitter our "handle" is @CARA club. We encourage all members to monitor our club feeds, and to post when you have interesting news to share!

The next General meeting will be on VE6RYC, Tuesday March 26th at 7 pm. We'll be discussing the results of our big survey, which closed on February 15th with 85 responses. By the time this is published, you should be able to see the survey results by going to the Member Forum on the CARA website. We're aiming for an in-person general club meeting on April 26th, 7 pm at the Sports Car Club. That will be a welcome change for many of us. We hope to see you there!

Joel Weder, VE6EI Vice President

Calgary Amateur Radio Association

Executive Committee Message - 2022 February

Peter LaGrandeur — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 20:18:21 GMT

this month's message from Stephane Raimbault, Treasurer VE6NR

Welcome to another monthly executive message. Spring certainly feels in the air with the warmer than usual temperatures since mid-January. This has played well for a very successful Winter Field Day activity which was held at the Edgemont Community Centre on January 29th and 30th. We would like to extend our thanks to the volunteers who organized the event for our club and the community.

In January we held our first open forum meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. The purpose of this meeting is to invite club members to bring ideas and project proposals forward to the executive as well as garner feedback from other club members. We hope that this open forum provides an opportunity for all interested members to participate and be involved in project proposals and help identify priorities for the organization. We plan on continuing this on a monthly basis so please keep an eye on the event calendar if you would like to join the discussion. If you have a project you’d like to propose, please email the executive@caraham.org to ensure you get slotted on the agenda.

Recently club members have come together and have worked on reviving some of our club social media presence. This group has been hard at work at getting a facebook group and twitter feed back into a more active state. Next up are some much needed improvements to the website to improve the navigation on the website. Stay tuned for future updates on this front! Great work web dev team.

In January, the executive prepared a members survey to garner feedback from its members to ensure the executive committee understands its club member’s interests and priorities regarding the hobby and what CARA should ensure it’s properly focused on. The survey closes February 15th and we are excited to share the results once the report has been tabulated. Watch this space for updates!

It’s been a busy few weeks and it doesn’t stop there. Upcoming on the events calendar is a public service event which provides our members an opportunity to volunteer at the Calgary Sports Car Club’s annual Cochrane Winter Rally. Check out this exciting opportunity to volunteer while utilizing your ham radio experience to provide safety and communications for this public event. More information can be found on our website's events calendar.

We wish you a great month and look forward to connecting with our members at the upcoming meetings this month. See you (virtually) soon!

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault, Treasurer

Calgary Amateur Radio Association

47 & 73,

2022 January President's Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 04:25:22 GMT

from Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL, CARA President

Greetings, fellow amateur radio enthusiasts. Happy New year from the CARA Executive Committee! We continue to work hard for you. Contact us anytime at executive@caraham.org .

Our latest news is, subject to Covid, the annual CARA Flea Market and Learning Conference has been announced. Joel WederVE6EI will be the coordinator for the flea market this year, on April 9th, and can be reached at VE6EI@caraham.org . We will soon open up the registration for this event on the posting on the CARA Events page. Payment for the tables may also be made there.

Many thanks goes to Neeroo VE6NRO for coordinating this year’s Winter Field Day, January 29th and 30th. Registration for this event can be done on the posting on the CARA Events page.

https://caraham.org/event-4597903

Registrants, please contact Neeroo at VE6NRO@gmail.com to let her know what time you would like to be scheduled on the Roster. Ongoing information for the event is posted in the General forum, including the Roster. Though not in the official modes for WFD, we have added WinLink, which is email over radio, to this year`s activities.

The station interest group continues to hold DX contesting on a regular basis. CARA continues to take home awards for high scores in these world wide events. Kudos to all those DX’ers working the bands! stationteam@caraham.org

The VHF interest group is putting on activities involving radio direction finding, RDA antenna building, and fox hunting. Contact the VHF group at VHFgroup@caraham.org for details.

Our Member Survey is scheduled to go live later this month (January). Expect an email, announcing its readiness, through a link on the CARA website. Look for results on the CARA website, and in the KeyKlix. Contact us at executive@caraham.org for queries on this.

A coordinator is needed for Maker Faire 2022, May 14th and 15th, is at the BMO Centre in Calgary. https://calgary.makerfaire.com/ Please shoot us an email at executive@caraham.org for more info.

Please contact our casino manager, Alan VE6BUZ, at VE6BUZ@telus.net to volunteer for a shift at our 2022 June 8th and 9th casino.

Our revamping of the CARA web site, plus closer management of FaceBook and Twitter, is going well. Social media are vehicles that can bring much attention to CARA so we want to manage these web presences well. In particular, the Home or ‘landing’ page will have a whole new look and functionality, to make sure all the great things that CARA has to offer are showcased right up front. Look for the rollout in March. Direct enquiries about this to webdev@caraham.org .

The repeater interest group reports they are working on 2 m voice linking from VE6RYC out to VE6AQA Fortress. This is a long awaited functionality we are avidly expecting. We also hope to use VE6AQA at the Great Cookie Race in February. Well done, repeater team!

Lastly, but far from least, a big hand goes to Garry VE6GDS, Dana VA6DJH, and Sharron Spicer MD, for organizing and compiling the Rally Radio Operator Survey Report. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r7-jyCJ5FSjZoDhBQM9OYvDeijLQsSe3/view What a valuable source of information for planning future rallies! Great initiative! Super job, all!

2021 December President's Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 04:53:39 GMT

from Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL, President

Greetings, fellow amateur radio enthusiasts. It is the Yuletide season, and we are looking forward to a slightly less Covid-restrictive Christmas season this year. The CARA Executive Committee extends a merry Christmas and Happy New year to you and yours.

Don’t forget our virtual Christmas Party, on Zoom, on Dec 21 at 7 PM. Don your favourite reindeer antlers, Santa hat, or elf getup, and show us your favourite eggnog concoction. My personal eggnog includes nutmeg and a cinnamon stick.

Your Executive Committee has, indeed, been very busy. Not only are our regularly scheduled monthly meetings filled with much club business, but we communicate on pretty much a daily basis via email, phone, and texting to share information, gather opinions, and even make decisions. Contact us anytime at executive@caraham.org .

Our Member Survey will soon be available for release. It is scheduled to go live on 2022 January 15, and will cover many facets of the club. All members will receive an email, letting them know it’s ready. It will be accessed through a link on the CARA website. The raw results will be posted on the CARA website, and be published in the KeyKlix newsletter. Your Executive Committee will definitely act on the results of this survey. Yes, we listen! Queries? Contact us at executive@caraham.org .

Winter Field Day is on for 2022! www.winterfieldday.com/ Please contact the event’s coordinator, Neeroo VE6NRO, at VE6NRO@gmail.com, for more information, volunteering, and/or radio operating at this event.

Maker Faire 2022 is at the BMO Centre in Calgary. https://calgary.makerfaire.com/ CARA plans to have a presence there to showcase our communications trailer and promote amateur radio and its extensive home-brew pursuits. A coordinator is needed. Please drop us an email at executive@caraham.org for more info.

The Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) agency has granted us a fund-raiser casino on 2022 June 8 & 9 at the Cash Casino Place in Calgary. Please contact CARA’s Casino manager, Alan Kearley VE6BUZ, at VE6BUZ@telus.net to volunteer at this event.

At long last, we are finally revitalizing our web site. It has served us well over the years, at least for existing members. However, it did nothing to provide information to potential new members, specific amateur radio user groups, the general public, potential new public service clients, and our AGLC benefactor. Of primary focus is the Home Page, aka the “Landing Page”, followed by some reorganization of the interior pages. New pages will be added, as required, to better support the topics presented on the landing site. I can’t say enough about what a fantastic group of people who have joined our web development and social media committee. Many kudos go to Pat Spencer VE6PDS, Brady Fullerton VA6BAM, Ralph Garnett VA6RHG, Dave Krull VA6DQ, Warren Shockey VE6WMS and Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL. A great depth of web development, social media smarts, and industry knowhow exists in this group. Any questions about this initiative can be directed to webdev@caraham.org .

The development of two new potential amateur radio user groups at CARA is being pursued. One group is the motorized off-roading community which includes “jeeps”, snowmobiles, and ATV’s. The other is the offshore cruising sailor community which typically have MF, HF, and SSB amateur radio rigs complementing their communications capabilities on board their vessels. WinLink has already been installed on all VE6AO operating positions. These groups, and supporting web pages, will be included on the coming new CARA Home and interior pages.

Many thanks goes to the repeater interest group for doing last minute work on the VE6RYC station roof before the snow started flying. Well done, guys. Sixteen stations are currently listed on CARA’s lineup of repeaters. https://caraham.org/Repeaters That’s no small feat and a great deal of gratitude is owed to the team that sets these up and keeps them going. Questions about our repeaters can be directed to: repeaterteam@caraham.org . Other news includes a renewed priority to implement voice linking between our Calgary, Kananaskis, Bow Valley, and Carbon repeater stations. The next voice linking is to be out to Fortress VE6AQA. Suggestions have also been heard to add a voice linked VHF repeater to the south area of Calgary. Calls have also been heard for this voice linked system to have enough coverage within the Calgary city limits for handheld users to access the system.

At the VE6AO station, where Alberta Health Services (AHS) has recently relaxed Covid restrictions, the members have seen some semblance of life and activities there returning to normal. The station interest group has been hard at it with ongoing projects. One of the initiatives the members are working on is the Earth Moon Earth (EME) project aka “moon bounce”. On hold for the last few years, the EME project has resumed, and the antenna for this is being mounted on the southernmost tower in CARA’s antenna farm behind the CSCC clubhouse. Other projects in the works include a log periodic antenna which will fill the gaps in bands not easily available through existing infrastructure. Contact this group at stationteam@caraham.org for more information.

With the widespread vaccination of Alberta’s population, and if variants don’t resurge the Covid pandemic, we are hoping that in-person meetings may resume later in the spring. Someday … sigh... life will eventually return to normal and we can resume our socials, meetings, and gatherings at our various venues. Hoping that Santa remembers us all, I bid you all a good night !

2021 November Executive Committee Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 00:58:08 GMT

(November message from Joel Weder VE6EI, Vice President CARA)

All of a sudden, here we are in the middle of November. How the heck did that happen?

At least the weather's not too bad at the moment for antenna projects. Are you planning anything? Though as I write this there were terrible HF conditions due to a big solar flare. But at least the aurora was amazing! Or so I hear - I slept through it, again!

There is a lot going on with various club special interest groups recently. The Repeater team got up to VE6RYC on Nose Hill to finish the roof project. Thanks to VE6CID, VA6PJB and VE6WXQ for getting that messy project dealt with before winter. And they're starting to look at a project to link to VE6AQA, the Kananaskis voice repeater. That will come in very handy as winter closes in and Hwy 40 becomes more treacherous. And any time of year really, as there's so much recreational activity through that area.

The Station team has been busy cleaning up and organizing the Sports Car Club yard. Lots of hardware for upcoming projects or leftovers had accumulated. The team, including VE6TC, VE6CCL, VE6WMS and others, made a concerted effort to separate items that could be sold or disposed of from items that were to be kept for near-term projects. This was very timely, as the CSCC has recently completed a landscaping project to improve drainage in the area. Work done will help ensure the club station remains dry when there's heavy rain. Thank you CSCC!

We received word recently that CARA will be assigned a casino time slot in the spring of 2022. The funds received from casinos help us to fund many projects, large and small. As our Casino Coordinator Martin VE6VH (thanks Martin!) has recently stepped down, we are looking for someone to take on the role. And when the time comes, we hope we can count on some of you to offer your time to work a shift.

We had an enjoyable monthly general meeting, this time held on VE6RYC. Attendees were asked about what could be done to improve CARA. We received some very well thought-out ideas. Thank you to those who participated. For those who didn't attend, just so you know, General meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7 pm, with the exception of our Zoom Christmas Party, which will be held on Tuesday, December 21st at 7 pm. Meetings have been held on Zoom, or occasionally on VE6RYC, though we do hope to start holding them in person sometime early in the New Year. You can always find the details by going to the club website (caraham.org) and checking the Upcoming Calendar Events section.

One of the topics brought up at the general meeting on VE6RYC was "How do we get more youth interested in ham radio?" Suggestions included doing presentations and demonstrations for the Scouts, Guides, Air Cadets and also the SAIT & university engineering students. Some of this has taken place over the years, but efforts could certainly be stepped up. Anyone interested in taking on this task? It really ought to be up to ALL of us to promote our wonderful hobby/service, whenever we see the opportunity.

73 for now, until we see (or hear) each other next time...

Joel Weder, VE6EI

Vice President, CARA

2021 October Executive Committee Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 05:35:41 GMT

Greetings all, from Peter Barry, VA6PJB, CARA Secretary.

We are into the fall season and Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the efforts of the dedicated hams who volunteer in so many ways to serve the community and support the hobby. We recently saw this in the great turnout for the Rocky Mountain Rally. That event could not take place without the support of the ham radio volunteers.

Another event that had a great turnout of dedicated volunteers was the work party to repair the roof at our principal repeater site, VE6RYC on Nose Hill, an essential site for hobby activities and emergency communications to support the community if needed.

Other volunteers keep our club station at the CSCC operating for long range communications capabilities.

The range of club activities is wide, and we can always use a helping hand along the way. We urge members to seek out what interests them and pitch in for the benefit of fellow hams and the community. And remember to not only turn on that radio but push the PTT and communicate with others.

We live in a great city, province, country and we have much more in common than some politicians and social media groups would like us to believe. They thrive on division and crises which are less important to our overall success and satisfaction than they think. Let’s hope that we can soon see each other in person.

In the meantime, we continue to have our meetings virtually either on the radio or through video conference. Check the website for the schedule.

Our Annual General Meeting is coming up Tuesday, November 23, 2021. Please join us to hear about the state of affairs, especially financial, with the presentation of the annual budget for the 2021-2022 financial year. We need good attendance for a quorum for voting.

So keep on communicating and participating! Silence is not golden. Light up those silent frequencies!

73 DE VA6PJB Peter Barry, Secretary, CARA

2021 September President's Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 23:20:49 GMT

from Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL, CARA president

Greetings everyone. The summer season is over and it’s now back to work, and back to school, for many of us. I continue to be an examiner for the ISED VHF ROC (M) Maritime Radio course in Calgary.

Despite COVID, we have kept busy over the summer. VE6RYC now has a new roof; we owe a debt of gratitude to the repeater Interest group for that; thanks guys. And the CSCC now has new concrete, landscaping, and parking lot improvements. Thanks to all who participated in that. We are now hoping for some exterior and interior building improvements in the months to come; fingers crossed.

Moving forward, we have the car rally at the beginning of October. See the info pages on the CARA web site for the details. Many thanks to Garry VE6GDS and Dana VA6DJH for the huge amount of radio team coordinating and volunteering that goes into these rallies.

We also have a new client with a new event this fall. These involve providing Comms services for university level athletics, specifically, cross country foot races. More info will follow on this as the logistics fall into place. Since these events are held outdoors, let’s hope that COVID will not lower the boom on them.

Please be reminded that all CARA indoor in-person club activities are still officially prohibited due to the again rising numbers of COVID cases in Alberta, and the increased hazard of the variants. Better to be safe than sorry. Please continue to attend as many of the virtual Zoom meetings that you can.

Don’t forget the September general meeting, the fourth Tuesday of the month, which will be held on Zoom. We seem to get the best turnout using that medium, and the interface allows side chats to keep everything lively. See the club web calendar for details.

We will be sending out a survey this fall with specific questions on what members would like to see from the club. We need YOUR input to help give us the direction for steering the club. Stay tuned for the link for that to arrive on your email in-box.

That’s all for this month; Stay safe and stay busy with our fun radio hobby!

August 2021 Executive Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 23:47:08 GMT

Message from the CARA Executive

Joel Weder, Vice President

August, 2021

"Well, it's about time!!" I can hear one or two of you thinking just that as you read this. Yes, I've been a ham for over 30 years now, and I've been a member of CARA for all but the first couple of years. So I guess it really is about time that I jump in and start doing my part on the CARA executive. Thanks to Rob VE6CCL for doing a little gentle persuasion, by the way!

As I write this, the third QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo is under way. Wow, what a tremendous event. If you can't actually GO to a hamfest or convention, this is the way to do it. All sorts of interesting presentations, on topics from basic troubleshooting to SOTA activations to designing a ham satellite!

But speaking of hamfests, it's sounding like there MAY actually be a hamfest in Calgary this fall, sponsored by SARA. I've already booked two tables - how about you? The tentative date is October 23rd, with doors opening at 9 am, and as usual it'll be held at the Eastside City Church. Everybody please do your part to make sure we're on the right side of the curve, so this event can go ahead!

While most hams have been doing their own thing this summer, trying to stay cool or just stay out of the hospital, the members of various CARA teams have stayed busy. The new executive team is learning our roles, club procedures and processes, to be ready for meetings in the fall. The repeater team has also been busy, with work ongoing to repair the roof at the RYC repeater site. Thanks must go to our very energetic Doug Howard, VE6CID, for organizing that effort as well as work at other sites.

The Calgary Sports Car Club (our landlord) has finally decided to move ahead with landscaping work and building modifications to keep water away from the building. If you've been there, you'll know the site has often been very wet, and the basement has certainly not been ideal for a contest station due to mold concerns. Various team members have been regularly dropping by the CSCC site to monitor the work and try to minimize damage to CARA's many antennas and towers. Special thanks to Harry Maylor VE6HRY for acting as liaison with the CSCC.

The club participated in Field Day, operating a Multi-Op Low Power entry. At least seven hams got on the air, including VA6HEM, VE6CCL, VE6WMS, VE6DXM, VE6ACF, VE6KC and VE6KZ. The new location worked out well, and while it was hot there was at least some breeze, and no rain for a change. Thanks to Mike VA6HEM and Rob VE6CCL for organizing, and the whole team for an excellent effort!

Personally, I've also been very busy. I'm a member of a team that's developing Winlink standards and training materials , in conjunction with RAC and the new Auxiliary Communication Service. (ACS) Have you tried Winlink yet? Basically, it's email over radio, via either HF or VHF/UHF radio. If you can run digital modes, you can do Winlink. Super cool stuff, and very useful for working with our Emergency Services partners.

Well, that's about it for now. I hope to get out and have some portable HF fun as the weather slowly cools down. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing you at club meetings over the coming months. Keep enjoying the hobby, whatever aspect of it has caught your interest this summer!

Joel Weder, VE6EI
Vice President, CARA

July 2021 President’s Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 03:29:41 GMT

submitted by Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL, CARA President

Greetings, members, and all who are interested in amateur radio. Happy summer!

2021 summer Field Day has come and gone, and by all accounts, it was another very successful event. Thanks goes to Michel Smith VE6HEM and Rob Wilson VE6CCL for doing the organizing. Well done all!

We are keeping quite busy around the club. It’s been an unprecedented hot June and July and the heat appears to be here to stay for the season. Stay clear of forest fires!

Finally, we have made some headway with getting improvements made with the building and yard of the Calgary Sports Car Club. The main thrust of it is to stop the flooding of the yard and the seepage/mold into the basement where our VE6AO station is located.

Work will start the week of July 26 with concrete work on the exterior stairs going down into the basement. The stairs and stairwell will be extended upwards by at least two feet. This will accommodate the raising of the ground around the south snd east sides of the building so that water sheds away from the building. Read: no more pooling around the club house!

New window wells are also to be installed where necessary to accommodate the higher ground level.

Earth moving is to tentatively commence the week of August 10. Members of the Station Interest Group will be on hand to point out locations of coax cables in the grass between the building snd the towers.

Many thanks to the guys on last year’s Executive Committee for getting these improvements rolling - Dave VE6DED, Harry VE6HRY, Stephane VE6NR, and Peter VA6RPL. .

Many thx to the same Dave, Harry, Stephane, and one other colleague, who did the yard cleanup prior to the upcoming earthworks.

After the earthworks, will come additional inside and outside improvements to the building, possibly such as improved exterior doors, an audio visual system for classes/meetings/rally orientations, roofing, etc. Step by step, things are happening.

The Repeater Interest Group remains busy with doing repairs to the roof of the VE6RYC building. The next work party is scheduled for August 7. For information on any project events with the repeater group, send your request to: repeaterteam@caraham.org

https://caraham.org/event-4422934

It looks like the car rallies are starting to roll again. The next one is October 9. Garry VE6GDS and Dana VA6DJH are busy coordinating the radio operators for the next rally. Here’s the link to the ongoing updates for the next event.

https://caraham.org/event-4311676

Garry and Dana have a survey for radio operators who participate in car rallies.

https://caraham.org/page-1862770/10721614

Please reply on this survey by July 31.

So, let’s stay busy having fun with the many facets of amateur radio.

Enjoy the summer!

2021 June President's Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 06:46:19 GMT

(from Dave Cason VE6DED, President)

Hi Folks,

Well, I’m sitting here in my underwear typing this in a 28 degree room, and the elements on my tower have melted, how’s that for a pretty picture? (grin)

No, calm down and stop crying. I'm not really doing that, but it is 32 deg out today and for early June in Calgary – that’s saying something.

It’s safe to say spring has sprung and the summer is soon upon us, and what sort of summer will it be? That’s the big question. With the rally off for now, however things are slowly getting going again with Field Day moving ahead and word that SARA will have a flea market in the fall, and even the Stampede is right around the corner.

As for the club’s executive committee and the various groups within CARA, meetings are being held and plans are being made. There is work being done at the club station and at the various repeater sites, and the VHF special interest group has been having some great meetings and topics, so we’re slowly waking up from our COVID slumber. If we are lucky, I think we may even get back to “normal” by the fall.

So what does this all mean? Well, we’d like to get busy with even more events and projects, and even some new ideas as we slowly come back to life, and that’s where we can use more help. I think all the special interest groups, and the club as a whole would welcome any new ideas and or projects you would like to propose.

As well, we’d also like some people who really want to see things happen join the board of directors. Our job is to listen to the members and their ideas, and then if enough people think it’s a good idea – help make it happen!

Soon we have elections coming up and we would really like more members to get involved – as a small board of just four, we think it would be nice to have a person from each special interest group join the board if they can. It's not vital but, it would sure make things easier for us communication wise if we could get one person from each group to join the board. So if you are part of one of the teams out there working at the station or on the repeater team or the VHF special interest group and the Comm trailer team, we would like to hear from you!

If you are a member and have been around for a few years – AGAIN - welcome and feel free to come and give us a hand; JOIN THE BOARD!

Once things get going again it would sure be nice to have the help. Having the board meetings via Zoom does make it a ton easier. A face to face meeting once in a while is okay but, the Zoom meeting makes the commute that much easier!

Here’s hoping for a ‘soon to be’ return back to “normal”; heck, I bet everyone misses the donut’s and coffee and all the radio tales at the club meetings…

73 de VE6DED

Dave, President

Calgary Amateur Radio Association

2021 May Executive Committee Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Tue, 18 May 2021 19:30:13 GMT

From: Stephane VE6NR, Treasurer

Greetings members from the Treasurer’s desk. This month I write to you, our executive message for the month of May.

Over the last couple of months, some great work has been done to establish a remote site with a storage container that is being used for the association's storage needs. The consolidation of our storage locations to one site has simplified our costs and needs. Just in time for a little spring cleaning and organizing of some of our less used but valuable items.

Also in the month of April on our website we transitioned our payment processing system from PayPal to AffiniPay, which enabled us to keep our website costs static, as well, simplify our payment processing, which is greatly appreciated by this treasurer.

A lot of things are moving forward, however many more things are on the back burner waiting for some volunteer time. As an executive we have also been discussing the merits of expanding the executive committee, as our bylaws do allow us to grow between 3 - 9 executive members. One of the possible pitfalls of doing elections every 2 years for a 2 year term is the possibility of a large changeover every 2 years. We have decided to try an annual campaign to recruit additional executive members for a 2 year term. This would ensure carry over from year to year with overlapping terms, and for the executive to dynamically grow and keep fresh minds and ideas at the helm without a complete change of the guard to ensure continuity.

Please join us at this month's General meeting where we will be discussing this new approach to the executive committee, and discussing the merits and opportunities to add your voice to the executive committee in the coming months. Elections will continue to be in June, however will become annual instead of the current bi-annual.

73 de VE6NR
Stephane, Treasurer
Calgary Amateur Radio Association

2021 April Executive Committee Message

Peter LaGrandeur — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 19:14:45 GMT

Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL, CARA Secretary, VA6RPL@techworld.ca

Greetings, fellow amateur radio enthusiasts. Happy April to all.

Your Executive Committee has been hard at work taking care of CARA’s admin tasks. These include financial matters (such as setting up a new on-line payment system for memberships), clarifying membership categories, asset storage, asset management (such as the vacuum tube collection), surplus asset disposal, investigating more CARA net infrastructure (a remote radio station and the AREDN), the next casino, requesting improvements to the CSCC building and grounds, and a new election strategy to turnover half the members of the executive committee every year to maintain continuity (oh, so important).

We look forward to the day when the Covid spectre departs and we can return to some normalcy. Members are longing to resume participating in our large roster of annual public service events, attending meetings for general gatherings and with our many interest groups, and with resuming classes in Basic and Advanced amateur radio. It’s a good thing that this latest pandemic occurred when we have global social networking technology available. Video conferencing has been a real boon, along with email, texting, and messaging.

In the immortal words of John F. Kennedy, "Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly." As applied to us radio amateurs, we have risen to the challenge of social distancing, and continued to have our meetings using electronic technologies.

The life blood of CARA are its many diverse interest groups. CARA’s claim to fame has been to support a wide range of interests in the amateur radio community. Your executive committee strives to keep its ear open to the needs and wants of its members. No one should be shy to suggest new avenues for our hobby, or even for the direction of the club.

There is one CARA member, in particular, I would like to recognize, who is also a member of more than one other amateur radio club in the area, who is currently serving as the editor of CARA’s long-time publication, the KeyKlix. Ken Oelke VE6AFO puts a lot of effort every month producing a fab newsletter, which really shows his many years of experience and participation in the hobby of amateur radio. Such a publication is the etched tablet of what the club does and is the club’s record for posterity. It is a pleasure to pick up and read every time it comes out. Well done, Ken!

In conclusion, I’d like to recognize the hard working members of the CARA executive committee, President Dave VE6DED, Vice President Harry VE6HRY, and Treasurer Stephane VE6NR, all of whom have been very dedicated to the smooth operation and well being of CARA. I have never seen such as group as this, that has an ongoing dialog of club business on a daily basis. Keep up the good work, guys!

Executive Committee Message - 2021 March

Peter LaGrandeur — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:51:09 GMT

Harry Maylor VE6HRY, Vice President

Hello Members. Well it’s my turn to send out the monthly Key Klix message, so I put away the Halloween gear and sent in an actual photo of my mug. Preparing these messages is a challenge for us Directors and I will share with you my cheat. Thanks to people like Ken Oelke, VE6AFO and his predecessors, Key Klix archives go back nearly sixty years to 1964. I cull through the archives of a decade or two for March and see a common theme which helps inspire me in which direction I should go. March is the cusp of spring and often people engage in spring cleaning which is my direction for March 2021.

As a club we need spring cleaning in so many ways. We the Board Members have been spring cleaning since last March when the lockdown hit. Over this past year different groups in the club have been working at cleaning their projects and plans. Cleaning is not always physical cleaning but can be cleaning up plans or just decluttering.

One of our Boards most puzzling cleaning tasks has been the clubs tube bank. Yes the club has a tube bank and it’s huge. There are thousands of tubes in about 45 boxes that we keep for members to use if needed. Jerry Spring VE6TL for some time now has been our tube bank curator and did a great job storing the collection. At one point we thought we should just purge the tubes but what if they have value? How does one go about sorting so many tubes? We have had a few opinions on the value of the tubes and due to the fact there could be value in those boxes nothing has been done with the tubes. The problem however is storing these tubes, which President Cason has temporarily taken on. Storing things goes hand in hand with spring cleaning.

Just before lockdown the members came together and cleaned out the storage locker the club rents. We purged a large amount of antiquated and outdated gear then moved even more gear to the clubhouse. Unfortunately the lockdown hit and we had placed the valued stuff upstairs which is not our space. Many months later we finally got all the stuff under the stairs thanks to Dave our President. Some of the treasures we store are things like struts for a car?? Regardless we pay $1200 a year for storage and the board is working on many fronts to try and eliminate that expense. If we did some spring cleaning again perhaps we could truly empty the locker once and for all. The locker currently is in great shape as I stopped by and was relieved to see how tidy things are there. I’m sure the state of the locker is in no small part due to our new lifetime member Robert Wilson.

We as HAM radio folk are pack rats it’s just in our nature. I as a mechanic have the pack rat bug very badly. It kills me to need a part and think oh I had one of those but threw it out just the other day. The real problem comes when storing things for someday uses cost more money than the thing is actually worth. I have had to harden my resolve when it comes to purging stuff and I think Rob relies on it for the disposal end of our clubs cleaning.

Perhaps there are treasures in the pile and we should save them but we would end up with this for a storage locker. Another light at the end of the tunnel for our clubs storage is the work going into the disposal process guideline.

Thanks to Jack and Rob a great number of items were moved on to new homes. Jack and Dave sorted out the process guidelines and it looks like future estates donated will be dealt with quickly and fairly.

I recommend each member and group take on the task of spring cleaning and searching for those things that just are taking up space. Once you have purged the old junk you will have so much room for new junk. NOT! Well I hope you get the idea and look forward to one day when we can get together again in person and have a flea market to sell stuff and find new stuff to store.

Executive Committee Message - 2021 February

Peter LaGrandeur — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:47:34 GMT

Dave Cason VE6DED

Now that it has rolled around to being my turn for this month’s Key Klix message, I thought I would cover the fascinating world of finances. Don’t groan in pain, this is good stuff! Anyway, as you know or maybe have heard somewhere, CARA is the club with the big bucks! Right !? Well yes, and no.

We’ve been getting checks from the AGLC every 2 years for hosting casinos for the past 15 years. Oddly enough, while we have lots of money in our Casino Account, we also have another account called our General Account that is not quite as robust! (grin) That is the account we really need to watch. We are allowed to transfer 10% of casino money, which has to last over two years in to the General Account, and that is it. It is not enough money for our day-to-day expenses like internet, security alarms, repeater sites, other general club costs, etc!

As an example, we have a casino and from that we get a check for ~$51,000. Out of that we can take 10% and put that in the General Account, which is $5,100. But we need to remember, casinos only run once every two years so then for that one year we only have $2,550 in the General Account for that year from casino money, but we spend about $11,700 in a year. So as you can see, we have a deficit for the operation budget.

We have to make up the extra money by holding license classes, have flea markets, and the big one, membership dues. With COVID we can’t do the make up stuff, so that’s why we’re trying to cut costs. And yes, we will be able to raise funds in the future with license classes and flea markets, but not right now. And we don’t want to raise dues if we can avoid it. If we need to buy some equipment we’re in great shape because we can use the money in the Casino Account, but for day-to-day stuff, we’re a bit tight. So what we’re trying to do as an Executive is cut our day-to-day cost for things that have to come out of our General Account; we can’t run the club using money from the Casino Account, ever. The AGLC has a big thick binder called “Use of Proceeds”, and that is a hard "no".

We are trying to recover our storage costs for old equipment, and between the storage locker and the club trailer, we spend about $2,000 a year. If we can get rid of old things, and maybe keep the “must have things”, along with the trailer at the clubhouse, it would help cut our costs. And yes, we’re working on it!

Another expense is classroom rent for our ham classes that we hold to raise money for the club, but last time it cost us $1,700 to rent the hall. So again we’re going to try to use the clubhouse, and those ideas are in the works. So we are actively selling old equipment and working towards using the clubhouse for ham classes and trailer storage. If you have any other suggestions for us, please let us know!

Executive Committee Message - January

Stephane Raimbault — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 01:49:18 GMT

Club members, it is a pleasure to bring you the January 2021 President’s Executive Committee Message.

The past year with COVID-19 and its requirements at various times with respect to distancing, face masks, and restrictions regarding social and family gatherings, has been very challenging, the more so with those who have unfortunately been infected or have been personally exposed to others with the virus.

As ham fans, we are very appreciative of a hobby that provides the ability to interact with others, socially and technically.

In December, the Executive Committee, with valuable member input, grappled with the unused hardware that has been accumulating, and communicated this to the membership. A sales protocol has been initiated, and sales continue.

The Executive Committee is anxious to continue the normal activities that the membership has missed over the past ten months.

Although it may be several quarters before “normal” resumes, we wish all members a healthy, safe, prosperous and active 2021 New Year.

Andy Norlander, Director

Calgary Amateur Radio Association

Executive Committee Message - December

Stephane Raimbault — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 00:55:17 GMT

Fellow club members, it is my pleasure to bring you this month's Executive Committee message.

It has been a tough year with COVID-19 and the ongoing and changing social gathering restrictions. I write you this message shortly after the recently announced further restrictions right through the holiday season lasting right into the New Year.

This is a major disappointment for many. This is a time of year where we are meant to gather with friends and family, only to be told that this very act can help propagate this virus. It is a time like this where I really appreciate this hobby and the ability to connect to many like minded individuals over the radio waves. If you haven’t been able to get on the air lately, I encourage you to spend some time making these social connections over the air during the holiday season. This is a time where we need these social interactions, and the radio is a perfect pathway to these connections.

Later this month, the executive will be organizing a virtual Christmas party on December 22nd. Leveraging our Zoom club account, we will welcome all members of the community to join us for a virtual get together. Zoom information can be found in the calendar on our website. Join us to kick off this unusual holiday season.

At our last meeting, we recognized Rob Wilson VE6CCL’s amazing contributions to the club over several years by awarding him a Lifetime membership. Please join us in thanking Rob for his great contributions and accomplishments over the years. Thank you Rob!

Stephane Raimbaut, Treasurer

Calgary Amateur Radio Association

President's Message 2020 November

Peter LaGrandeur — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 22:22:37 GMT

Greetings, fellow amateur radio fans.

It has rotated to my turn to speak in behalf of the Executive Committee this month.

We’ve just finished CARA’s second and last amateur radio event for 2020, the Test Day for the 2020 Rocky Mountain Rally, held on the Kananaskis Jumping Pound Forest Demonstration Loop, last Saturday. Many thanks to local hams who made it out. In particular, kudos goes to CARA members Dana Harding VA6DJH and Garry Spicer VE6GDS for providing the leadership for the communications side of the event. Before the event was greatly scaled back, due to Covid, we had a very large registration of radio operators for the day. Over forty two, the last I heard. In the end, we were able to use maybe seven radio people for the rally. Let’s hope that the world is free from this plague by this time next year.

Your executive committee continues to work hard for the members. Some of our initiatives include:

developing new expeditious and logical procedures for storage and disposal of items that are casino funded surplus, and for items that are donated to CARA by Silent Keys. This includes management of the club’s vacuum tube bank.
working with the Calgary Sports Car Club on upgrades to the grounds and building which will mutually benefit them and CARA.
Identifying ways to recognize and reward outstanding club members, such as Life members.
Examining new technologies that can benefit amateur radio and CARA’s facilities around the Calgary area.

Covid, on the surface, is definitely something that, seemingly, puts a massive damper on many of our activities. However, it’s does not have to hold us down. Please MAKE opportunities to continue our learning and social activities using radio and digital technology. We are masters of those media. For example, I’m hearing that the club’s education department is now working on creating distance learning programs. To support that, a pool of instructors and Elmers is being formed to provide early support and encouragement for not only long timers, but especially, new hams, who might otherwise drift away. Please contact Patrick VE6PDS@gmail.com to learn more of this program. Great initiative, Pat and colleagues!

Members, please be sure to attend our next two socials on the air. November will be a directed net on VE6RYC VHF on the topic of “The Year 2020 in Review”. Please attend and participate. In December, we will host a Christmas party using the club’s Zoom web conference software. Please join the party from the comfort of your own home bar or pub. Pour some eggnog and rum for yourself, and show us your best elf or reindeer costume. Visit the Event Calendar in the web site for days and times.

Peter LaGrandeur VA6RPL

CARA Executive Secretary.

Presidents Message - Sept

Dave Cason — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 04:44:24 GMT

Uhmmm, what? President!?!? Me!? Really?!?!

OK, just so you guys know, I dunno if I want to be in a club that would have me as a member much less the President! (grin). OK, I’ll do it, and I think it’s pretty safe to say those of you in the club who know me know what a serious and studious young man I am. HA!

Anyway I hope I can do right by you guys and CARA, and if you have any problems or concerns about the club, and the way things are done, please call or drop me a note and let me know what the problems are that you see, and I’ll do my best to make it right! I’ll let you know right now the new Executive won’t be perfect, but if we can make 51% of you happy, that’s a good start! But I think we can hit 99% if we do it right, or at least offer up a decent explanation of why something was done the way it was.

I used to wonder why some things were done the way they were in the past, but boy after sitting on the board for a while, I think I owe some of the old Executive members a beer or two!

Anyway we have quite a bit going on right now with the Repeater Team and the Station Team and CARATELS, so be sure to check out what’s on the website and we’ll do our best to keep it up-to- date. Also, we’ll start the on-line meeting when the monthly meetings soon start, and it’ll be on VE6RYC, and we might try to have it on-line as well at the same time. So you can listen in on a radio and also on-line in Zoom or Google Meetings with a moderator running the on-line part and someone doing net control on the radio.

Anyway I’m happy to do another term as the CARA President, and if I can do half as good a job as Stephane did, I’ll consider that a success. I’d like to welcome Peter and Andy to the board and also thank Jim and Dana for a job well done. We did a bit of a shuffle for roles and who can do what because someone had to withdraw, but I think we did OK.

So here’s this fall’s new action-packed line up on CARA.

Dave Cason – President;
Harry Maylor - Vice President;
Stephane Raimbault – Treasurer;
Peter LaGrandeur – Secretary;
Andy Norlander – Director.

Lastly, with great sadness we learned that Dale Olsen, former Board and CARA member, became a Silent Key this summer, and we extend our thoughts and prayers to friends and family of Dale.

Cheers

Dave Cason
C: 403 540 9041
president@caraham.org

Presidents Message - June

Stephane Raimbault — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 03:14:40 GMT

We enter this month with the typical June weather, but as we all know, this is no typical June thanks to the ongoing public health orders and recommendations on physical distancing. I would typically be writing to you about all the successful public service events that were recently completed and the others still coming this summer. However all of those events have been cancelled or postponed.

We, individually and as a club, try to forge forward in this new reality that physical distancing will be with us for quite some time. Club members are preparing for a Field Day event that I'm sure will prove to be unique in its challenges, and I look forward to what this innovative group is able to cobble together with the restrictions in place.

Another club event to be discussed is our biennial executive election. With the prospect of not being able to come together for our typical June election meeting, we faced a choice to either delay the election to when we could meet in person again, or forge ahead leveraging technology to hold an election and conclude the current 2 year mandate. A poll was issued to members earlier in June to get an understanding of how the membership would like to proceed. The results of this poll have recommended that we proceed with a June election leveraging our website for voting. Additional information on the election will be posted in Key Klix and emailed to all members in mid-June.

With the election set to proceed, I would like to thank all the club members who participated in a variety of club events and activities over the last couple of years. Without you, our volunteers, this club would not be what it is today. It has been my pleasure to serve you as the club president over the last 2+ years.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - May

Stephane Raimbault — Mon, 11 May 2020 03:35:10 GMT

It’s hard to believe that just a little over 2 months ago the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, which would result in countries around the world to start shutting in citizens, disrupting economies and people's livelihood. As time drags on it’s hard to know if this was truly an effective response to this corona virus, but one thing seems clear to me, if governments had not acted when they did, we may very well be in a much worse situation today.

As a result, we have minimized our in-person club activities and have taken some of those activities on-line with the help of internet based tools and on the air, leveraging our repeater system to stay in touch.

As we look forward to our new and ever evolving normal, I’m left wondering how much of our “old normal” we will find at the end of all of this.

Over the coming days and weeks, the club executive will be meeting to discuss how the government’s re-launch strategy for the economy factors in how we operate the club. There could be the possibility of re-opening some in-person events such as meetings, operating the club station, or getting together for work parties. We will have more details soon, but I want to remind everyone that we are not near the end of this pandemic, but rather just entering the next stage. It is evident to me that there is still a long road ahead, and it is entirely possible that we will never find our “old normal” at the end of this, but rather we will have forged “new normal” that we will have to embrace for quite some time.

Stay safe and stay home if you can. I hope that during this time you can embrace the hobby and find some joy and on-air camaraderie.

Presidents Message - April

Stephane Raimbault — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 02:53:21 GMT

It’s hard to believe that a month ago I was writing about all the upcoming club activities, such as our general meeting at the end of March, preparations for our Spring Flea Market, and upcoming volunteer opportunities at upcoming public service events.

In a little less than a month, events were cancelled, altered, and rescheduled. Many of our daily activities have been turned upside down by a viral pandemic that very few could imagine.

Our general meeting, instead of meeting at our usual location, took place over the air as a directed net on our main Calgary repeater, VE6RYC. The CARA Spring Flea Market was cancelled, and in its place, club members are organizing an on-line technical conference to take its place. The Rocky Mountain Rally, scheduled for May, has been rescheduled to the fall, and will take place in Kananaskis.

We continue to navigate this new world together altering our plans on a daily and weekly basis. I hope many of you have found our hobby as ways to communicate and socialize from a safe physical distance, and that the days that are passing by aren’t too lonely.

I look forward to the day we can re-group in physical proximity and forge a new way forward in what will undoubtedly be a new normal.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - March

Stephane Raimbault — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 20:25:28 GMT

Please also read the:

** COVID-19 - Coronavirus and it's effect on CARA **

We have had some nice weather but it looks like we are being thrown back into winter with some colder temperatures and snowfall this month. I still choose to believe we will have an early spring as Balzac Billy predicted on Groundhog Day.

Since my last note to members, the club had our General Meeting in February with a wonderful presentation from Peter Barry VA6PJB on APRS messaging. This spiked interest of more than a few club members with continued interest in APRS. Peter showed off the power of APRS messaging, and we were all able to take away something new from his presentation. The popularity of APRS appears to always be growing in the region and is well supported by the many Digipeaters and Igates in the area.

Club members also participated in a couple public service events that leverage the amateur radio service to provide radio communication for the safety of their event. The Foothills Nordic Ski Club put on their annual Cookie Race in Kananaskis country at the end of February. From what I understand it was a good day for all involved, and the radio operators did a fantastic job as always.

There was also the Cochrane Winter Rally, which I had the pleasure of participating in as net control once again this year. We had a large crew of radio operators supporting the Calgary Sports Car Club once again. This year everything went quite well, and the rally was on-track throughout the day, that is until the last car on the last stage that exited the stage earlier than expected! After a recovery effort, the rally was able to complete a wonderful day north of Cochrane in the Ghost valley. It was an absolute ‘blue bird’ day with rising temperatures throughout the day. Although we did not get above freezing, it turned out to be a wonderful day in the foothills!

Looking ahead, we are continuing the planning for the CARA Spring Flea market which is currently scheduled to take place on April 18th. We are pleased to welcome Ric Henderson, VA6RIC, the local ARES Emergency Coordinator at our next General Meeting where Ric will give us insight on ARES in our community. Our General Meeting is open to the public and all amateurs, and is scheduled on the 4th Tuesday of the month. The meeting in March will take place on March 24th; 7PM… see you there!

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - February

Stephane Raimbault — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 04:02:19 GMT

Greetings all! January has quickly come and gone with a flurry of club activities to report on. The CARA Advanced Class has started with approximately 8 participants, but we have an eager bunch of volunteers teaching the course this year. By all accounts it should be fun for all, and even some are garnering teaching experience.

Peter LaGrandeur organized an “Order of Good Cheer Festive Dinner” for club members to give us a chance to get together in a more social setting with fellow club members, their spouses and even a child. The 4 year old kept me busy, and I apologize if I didn’t get a chance to say hello during this fun event. It was much appreciated by all, and a show of hands recommends we do this again with increased frequency!

A group of Club Members activated the communications trailer and made a presence for Winter Field Day. It was a successful event with a few visitors, and even some newly minted radio operators who had a chance to get on the air during the event. Congratulations to all on your efforts, and I look forward to Winter Field Day continuing to be an annual event.

We wrapped up January with our general meeting, which was focused on welcoming new hams. Some equipment was brought in for a “show and tell” to highlight multiple aspects of the hobby. Experienced members also shared stories ranging from quick tips to life stories on how they got into ham radio with the hope to impart some knowledge to our guests and new hams. I hope the evening was enjoyed by all.

Looking forward to February we have a very interesting topic for our upcoming general meeting. Peter Barry VA6PJB will be presenting on the topic of APRS Messaging. APRS is a popular topic amongst club members, however very few realize that APRS not only provides you position location services, but it also has a very robust text messaging application. Come and learn about APRS messaging. It promises to be a great presentation.

With the CARA Spring Flea Market on the books for April 18th (mark your calendars), we will be going through our storage lockers to identify any equipment that needs a new home. Throughout the month of February we will be preparing equipment for review at the general meeting and in Key Klix before issuing the equipment for a flea market table. As equipment seems to pile up quickly, this will be no small task. Volunteers will surely be needed, and a call for help may be coming soon.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - January

Stephane Raimbault — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 20:14:50 GMT

I trust everyone has had an enjoyable holiday season and a good start to the new year.

In December, we had another group of students graduate from the CARA Fall basic course, please join me in welcoming these new hams on the air and at any upcoming meetings or get togethers. Also, as always, a big thank you goes to Peter Risdahl (VE6KK) and the ever growing group of club and community members helping out with these courses. These courses are important to help students enter the world of amateur radio.

The CARA Club station was active during the RAC Winter contest and activated the special call sign VE6RAC. Thank you for the great effort during the contest and representing the Alberta section as being the designated RAC Station in Alberta.

In January, we look forward to the social get together that Peter LeGrandeur (VA6RPL) has volunteered to organize. I am certainly looking at re-connecting with many of you outside of our regular general meetings for a chance to catch up and enjoy each others company. More information on the event can be found on our website and will take place on Saturday, January 18th.

For those unable to join us on January 18th, I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming general meeting which takes place on the 4th Tuesday of the month (January 28th) at the Calgary Sports Car Club.

Before I close out this months letter, I also wanted to bring attention to the effort club members are doing to participate and operate in Winter Field Day this year. If you are interested in cold weather operation, please check out the Winter Field day event... you can find more information on our website and this takes place on January 25th and 26th. Have fun and stay warm!

Thank you and 73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - November 15th

Stephane Raimbault — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 02:18:25 GMT

What a busy October! With the CARA Casino, CARA AGM, and Kananaskis Car Rally, it was a very busy month for many of us in the club.

A big thank you to all the volunteers that make these events successful. We received many updates from many groups and individuals during the AGM. It really shows how big and wide of a group we are and all the different activities that keep the club what it is.

I look forward to our regular November general meeting. Wilson VA6JWL has organized for a demonstration and discussion on home built VHF antennas. Feel free to bring any homebrew VHF antennas that you have built as there will be an analyzer available to test out antennas.

The Kananaskis rally was another successful events where we amateur radio operators provide a vital service of radio communication for the car rally. We employed our communications trailer that have been improved over the last couple of years. I had the pleasure to operate net control out of the communications trailer and I must say, the many upgrades over the years are certainly coming together. Everything from flooring, heating, power options, radios and mounting locations, antennas have allowed for a quick, efficient, and comfortable deployment. Congratulations and thank you to the communications trailer group who have worked tirelessly on this project.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane

Presidents Message - October 14th

Stephane Raimbault — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 21:00:22 GMT

As we roll into October, the executive and members are preparing for the club’s annual general meeting which will be held on October 22nd. This is the meeting where we get an update on the club’s financial situation as well as updates from different sections of the club. If you haven’t been able to follow all the activity in the organization this past year, this is a great opportunity to get caught up on the club’s happenings.

The club casino event is on track and will have occurred by the time this is published. I would like to extend a thank you to Martin VE6VH for organizing this year’s casino.

We also have the Kananaskis Car rally which we volunteer to provide the critical radio communication during the event for the Calgary Sports Car Club. The rally takes place on October 27^th and we are always looking for more volunteers to ensure a safe and successful event. You can get more info on the rally and how-to signup as a volunteer on our website.

At our last general meeting we continued the discussion on our asset disposal processes. We have received a few donations over the summer and our storage space is full. With the upcoming SARA flea market on October 19^th we should hopefully be able to unload some equipment that the club has little use for at this time.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the above-mentioned events in October.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault, CARA President

Presidents Message - September 12th

Stephane Raimbault — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 03:35:40 GMT

Welcome back to a new season for the club. Membership renewals for the year are due this month. Be sure to renew your membership to retain the benefits of being a member.

It has been a busy summer for all, and as we start the new season there has been lots of activity to get ready for September. We have a Basic Class starting up again in September. There was lots of work trying to locate a suitable location to hold the course. The venue we have used in the past was not available this year, and we have “scouted” a new location in NW Calgary.

There has been a lot of activity to get ready for the club casino event. We have a new Casino Coordinator in place, and he is gathering volunteers to cover the shifts that are needed. The club casino is very important as it is a major source of funding for a lot of the big projects the club works on, such as remote repeaters to provide a vital communication service, especially in areas where we do not have cell phone coverage.

Speaking of remote repeaters, there has been a flurry of activity this month and a big step forward with our repeater in the Kananaskis area. A huge thanks to the many volunteers, not only from our club, but the general amateur radio community in all the help to get this repeater back to a working state. There is still more work to be done, but we are quite a bit closer in getting this voice repeater up and running, with a digital link back to the CARANet network.

As we get back to our regular general meetings, I look forward to seeing many of you there. We will be reviewing the disposal of assets process and see how the new procedures worked over the past few months, and what modifications may be required to the bidding process.

I hope you all had a great summer, and I hope to see many of you at our next General Meeting on September 24th.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - June 19th, 2019

Stephane Raimbault — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 06:03:57 GMT

It has been a very busy year, and as we close another season of meetings with our June meeting, I would like to take the time to comment on the very busy year.

It was this time last year that we gathered for our June election (which occurs every 2 years) and it was with great encouragement that the membership elected 5 club colleagues to the club’s executive including myself. As I look back on the year it is with great thanks to the many club members which volunteer and participate in our meetings, public service events, and all our other club activities that makes this club what it is.

Without the engaged membership, there wouldn’t be much of a club to participate in…. so I thank all of you for partaking!

If you have not had a chance to participate in club activities or volunteer for some of the many roles that helps the club continue to move forward, I encourage you to come out to our general meetings, meet your fellow club members and participate in the fun by volunteering your time where you can.

In appreciation for the membership and those volunteers, our Vice President, Dave Cason proposes that our June meeting includes a bit of a BBQ feast prior to the meeting, so be sure to monitor the website and your e-mails for the meeting details and come early to socialize with your fellow club members.

As I will not be in town at the end of June, I look forward to hearing how things wrapped up at the June meeting from the rest of the executive as we meet over the summer to plan our activities for our next season beginning in September.

I close by wishing you all a fun and warm summer. Please be safe while working on our hobbies and I look forward to seeing you all again at the September meeting!

73 de VE6NR, Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - May 13th

Stephane Raimbault — Tue, 14 May 2019 00:34:42 GMT

The April general meeting featured a demo put on by Doug Howard, VE6CID and Dave Wick, VA6DBA of a voice linked repeater across the CARANet digital IP link between the repeater sites. The demo included a live QSO between a station in Calgary and a station in Banff between the VE6RYC and VE6RMT repeaters.

I want to extend my thanks and great work to the team behind this voice linking project as this is by far one of the most sought out requests from club members to have a linked repeater system into the mountain parks. We look forward to additional repeaters coming on-line in the system.

On May 4th we had a wonderful showing of the amateur radio community at Disaster Alley, which show cased amateur radio and the capabilities that are possible in a disaster. Many volunteers represented amateur radio to the community overall. Job well done!

The Rocky Mountain Rally is a road rally that requires amateur radio volunteers to help facilitate communications for the event organizers and to ensure safety for both participants and spectators. I for one am looking forward to volunteering at this fantastic event and I hope you will join me as well on Saturday May 25th and Sunday May 26th. You can find more information on the Rocky Mountain Rally and the volunteer opportunities on our website.

On the same weekend as the Rocky Mountain Rally, Dave Swanson, VE6SWN is coordinating amateur radio volunteers for the popular Golden Triangle.

Looking forward to June and July, we have many public service events listed on the calendar. The Banff/Jasper Relay, MS Walk, MS Bike Tour, CARA Field Day and Tour For Kids. These are all activities the members can become involved in to hone your communication skills. And communication skills are very important when we are pressed into providing amateur radio emergency communications for our community.

I look forward to seeing you all at the May General meeting which will take place on May 28th at 7:00 pm at the Calgary Sports Car Club.

73 de VE6NR, Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - April 15th

Stephane Raimbault — Fri, 10 May 2019 03:53:32 GMT

Winter's grip has loosened and spring welcomed us in the past few weeks. I had the opportunity to find the sun with a trip south, but Calgary was also blessed with warmer weather, and I'm sure everyone is starting to think about their antenna projects and making plans for their summer. Winter's grip has loosened and spring welcomed us in the past few weeks. I had the opportunity to find the sun with a trip south, but Calgary was also blessed with warmer weather, and I'm sure everyone is starting to think about their antenna projects and making plans for their summer.

Although I missed the General Meeting at the end of March, I understand there was healthy discussion among club members on how to approach the inventory that CARA has amassed over the years that currently are not ear marked for projects. I look forward to the results of the discussion and further improvements to the equipment disposal process. Although I missed the General Meeting at the end of March, I understand there was healthy discussion among club members on how to approach the inventory that CARA has amassed over the years that currently are not ear marked for projects. I look forward to the results of the discussion and further improvements to the equipment disposal process.

April marked the month we had the annual CARA Spring Flea Market. It was another successful event with many out of town attending. Our technical sessions (Ham University) were well received and continue to be of interest to attending Amateurs. I have always enjoyed the planning for the flea market, and I am very thankful for all the volunteers who helped prepare for the flea market, and all those who were involved on the day of the event. Prior to the flea market the weather was looking more like winter, but by Saturday the sun came out and temperatures improved. April marked the month we had the annual CARA Spring Flea Market. It was another successful event with many out of town attending. Our technical sessions (Ham University) were well received and continue to be of interest to attending Amateurs. I have always enjoyed the planning for the flea market, and I am very thankful for all the volunteers who helped prepare for the flea market, and all those who were involved on the day of the event. Prior to the flea market the weather was looking more like winter, but by Saturday the sun came out and temperatures improved. On May 24 to 26 the Calgary Sports Car Club organizes the Rocky Mountain Rally to again be held in Inveremere, BC. This is a premier national rally event, which always requires quite a few radio volunteers. Please consider volunteering for this event, as it is always nice to support clubs and organization which also supports us. You can find further information on our Website as registration is now open.

On May 24 to 26 the Calgary Sports Car Club organizes the Rocky Mountain Rally to again be held in Inveremere, BC. This is a premier national rally event, which always requires quite a few radio volunteers. Please consider volunteering for this event, as it is always nice to support clubs and organization which also supports us. You can find further information on our Website as registration is now open.

As always I look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming General Meeting on the 4th Tuesday of the month (April, 23rd).

73 de VE6NR, Stephane Raimbault CARA President

Presidents Message - March 15th

Stephane Raimbault — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 13:23:30 GMT

The cold spell appears to be broken and the forecasts are now showing mainly positive temperatures. I think we are all looking forward to what we hope is spring! With much of February being well below normal temperatures I was amazed by what club members had accomplished.

Let's start with the public service events that were recently completed. The Cookie Race and the Cochrane Winter Rally both had their set of challenges, temperature being one of them. I had the pleasure to help setup the communication trailer at -36 for the Cochrane Rally. It was one blistering Sunday morning. A couple feed lines did not survive the cold, but in the end, we prevailed as a team and were operational for the event.

Speaking of the trailer, thanks should be passed on to those that took it upon themselves to complete several communication trailer upgrades in January and February. A few upgrades that have taken place in the trailer, which were used at the car rally, were certainly appreciated. I anticipate a demo night in the warmer weather and late ‘sun months’ at one of the general meetings later this year for all to check out.

Looking ahead there are many things to look forward to this year, such as the CARA Spring Flea Market (April 13) and the annual ARRL Field Day event (June 22-23). The club is always looking for volunteers to help host these events, so please reach out to the executive (executive@caraham.org) if you want to lend a hand, or you are not sure who the point person is for each event.

There will also be the usual onslaught of public service events in April/May/June/July, which will require many volunteers from the greater Amateur Radio Community. I encourage everyone to get involved in public service events as they are both self fulfilling and provide a critical communication service to the public to enable events that would otherwise not happen. I encourage you to reach out to your circle of amateur friends and encourage participation in these important events that help keep the hobby relevant and fun.

As I end my message for this month, it was with regret to learn of the recent passing of Hellmut Frauscher, VE6BV/VE6US (01/11/1945-03/04/2019). I had the opportunity to spend some time with Hellmut years ago, and considered him an Elmer in the time I spent with him.

73 de VE6NR, Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - February 13th

Stephane Raimbault — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 04:04:35 GMT

The year has already shifted to a busy period for the club as we prepare for several events this year. First are public service events such as the Cookie Race which occurs on Feb 23rd and the Cochrane Winter Rally on March 3rd. Dana, VA6DJH informs me that he has all the necessary resource to support the cookie race and I see that Garry VE6GDS has been posting updates on our website regarding the upcoming rally and things appear to be falling into place there. Please reach out to either Dana and/or Garry if you are able to help out with either events.

In the spring, we will once again have the CARA Spring Flea Market which will be held on April 13th. Preparations are on-going and if you are able to help out with the flea market please let myself know by e-mailing president@caraham.org. We will need volunteers for multiple roles to ensure we have a successful event. I'll be posting further information on the website in the coming weeks.

Field Day will occur on June 22-23 this year and Rob VE6CCL has started kicking the tires regarding our clubs efforts on Field Day. If you are interested in participating at this year's field day, please reach out to Rob with your expression of interest.

CARA has a surplus inventory problem with a variety of equipment, odds and ends that are taking up valuable space and are no longer needed for any active projects. Keep an eye on our website for any posts in the swap and shop section, and we will also be making available a treasure box of items for members to go through at the general meetings when possible. We will also be looking for volunteers to help price out equipment that we will want to make available at the upcoming flea market.

Join us at our general meeting at 7pm on February 26 for a presentation on the state of the repeaters that CARA operates, the ongoing project and plan for the repeaters and provide input and feedback on the future direction of repeater system.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents Message - January 13th, 2019

Stephane Raimbault — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 05:38:19 GMT

As we start off a new calendar year I want to wish everyone a happy New Year, and welcome to 2019! As 2018 was a busy year, 2019 promises to be another busy and active year for CARA.

First and foremost I want to congratulate and welcome to the Club the individuals that went through the Basic license class this fall and passed the exam in December. Welcome and I hope to meet you at one of the upcoming general meetings, as well hear you on the air on the local repeaters.

To start 2019 we have another Advanced license class starting on Monday January 14th with over 20 sign-ups. We look forward to another great class where people can upgrade their license or in some cases refresh themselves on the material!

I am already starting to see discussions happening in relation to a spring flea market and Field Day events, and I'm excited to see the plans come out for these events in the coming months.

There are many public service events the club participates in and I encourage members to volunteer. The communication support for the Cookie Race and Cochrane winter rally are starting to gear up, I'm sure there will be more information to come from the various radio coordinators for these events.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and perhaps you could share what new toys you found under the Christmas tree at the next general meeting!

Stephane Raimbault, VE6NR

CARA President

Presidents message - December 11th

Stephane Raimbault — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 04:26:48 GMT

As we fast approach the holiday season I wanted to extend my Seasons Greetings to all club members, along with everyone else.

It has been a busy year, from casino fundraisers, flea markets, Field Day events, to public service events with a variety of ski, bike, and rally races. We even had the opportunity to show off our capabilities at events like Disaster Alley and the Edgemont Emergency Preparedness event this past September. We also had the opportunity for members and others to upgrade their license with our Advanced class, which was held in early January. We also introduced the hobby to a few newcomers with our Basic license class in the fall, which is due to wrap up soon.

All of these things that were done this year could not have been done without the MANY volunteers, and the many volunteer hours that our members have put in, and for that I want to say THANK YOU!

As we look ahead to the New Year, we will be posting information on our website regarding our Advanced class, which we will begin in early January, that is, if we get enough interest to host the Advanced class. We welcome all licensed Amateurs that would like to upgrade their license to Advanced level, or just come for a re-fresher.

The executive have recently reviewed and approved some project proposals to augment and simplify both our club station and communications trailer. We look forward to those improvements being carried forward in to the New Year for the benefit of all club members, and the overall radio community.

May you have a great holiday season, and we will connect again in the New Year!

Stephane Raimbault

CARA President

Presidents message - November 15th

Stephane Raimbault — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 04:41:52 GMT

We had another great general meeting at the end of October with a great presentation by David James, VA7VK/VK3IA on the Communications and life at Macquarie Island from 1901 to today. It was a wonderful talk and view on Antarctic expeditions include one that David was part of in the 70s. He unexpectedly discovered the world of being a rare DX on the HF bands.

At the general meeting we also had a general discussion topic on how to better welcome guests and new members. Dave Cason, our club Vice President has created a discussion topic in our member forum on the website for club members to participate further in the conversation. I encourage all club members, new and experienced to participate and offer suggestions to this important topic as without new members, the club will stagnate and will slowly disappear overtime.

We will dedicate the November general meeting to a round table discussion to introduce the members, their interests, and any active projects that they are working on or have questions. If you have not had the opportunity to introduce yourself or meet other club members, this is the general meeting to attend if you haven’t attended one before.

See you at the next general meeting which takes place at the Calgary Sports Car Club on November 27th at 7pm.

73 de VE6NR,

Stephane Raimbault

CARA - President

Presidents message - October 15th

Stephane Raimbault — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 04:27:35 GMT

I think many of you who attended the September CARA General Meeting will

agree with me that it was a wonderful presentation from the AlbertaSat team of

the University of Alberta. Many thanks to Callie and Katelyn who drove down

from Edmonton to give this great presentation on the Ex-Alta 1 and the

upcoming Ex-Alta 2 satellite. We were fortunate to see the team connect and

interact with the satellite during the presentation as the sattelite passed

overhead of their ground station located at the UofA in Edmonton.

The upcoming CARA General Meeting which will be October 23rd

at 7PM will begin with a presentation by David James, VA7VK/VK3IA titled

"Communications and life at Macquarie island 1901 to today." Please see the

event description on the CARA website for a summary of David’s talk. His

presentation will be followed by our Annual General Meeting where we will

review the club’s audited finances.

This past september several members of the amateur radio community

participated at the Edgemont Community Association event on Safety and

Preparedness. Amateur’s from several clubs presented the capabilities and

opportunities that amateur radio provides. Great work everyone on sharing

with the greater public what our hobby and what a vital service we can

provide.

At the end of October, CARA is supporting the Calgary Sports Car Club in their

annual Kananaskis Rally. If you are free on October 28th and would like to

volunteer as a radio operator for the event, please visit the posting on our

website for more information: http://www.caraham.org/General-

Forum/6580746

There has a been a lot of discussion and activity in relation to the CARA

Communications trailer. This is a trailer which can be utilized at a

variety of events

for establishing a communications link across amateur radio. Over the past

year, the trailer has been deployed at public service events and field day on

behalf of CARA and has even been used by the greater amateur radio

community to demonstrate the communication capabilities of amateur radio at

emergency preparedness events such as Disaster Alley and the Edgemont

Emergency Preparedness events. We continue to leverage this asset and

improve on its capabilities. If you are interested in the trailer’s capabilities and

are interested in helping the Communications Trailer Teams initiatives, please

reach out to the team by contacting participating in the Comm Trailer Forum on

the members section of our website. http://www.caraham.org/Comm-Trailer-

Forum

Thank you,

Stephane Raimbault

CARA - President

Presidents message - September 10th, 2018

Stephane Raimbault — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 04:04:56 GMT

Greetings all and welcome to September. I hope everyone had a good summer despite all the smoke from the terrible fires in BC. I hope you were able to find reprieve from the smoke.

I am excited for another season with the club to get started. The new CARA Executive Board has met both in early August and early September to ensure that club business is continually progressing; we are looking to provide more updates at the upcoming general meeting(s).

For the September general meeting we are pleased to receive the University of Alberta’s AlbertaSat team (https://albertasat.ca/) for a presentation of their work on ExAlta-1 which is currently in orbit monitoring space weather and their upcoming ExAlta-2 which will predict and detect wildfires. Our general meetings are open to both members and non-members so please come on down to the Calgary Sports Car Club on September 25th. More information will be posted on our website as we get closer to the date.

The CARA Executive Board is currently reviewing all our non-elected roles within the club to ensure all key roles are filled. We will be posting more information on the website as we review the vacant roles that are available. In the meantime, if you would like an increased role in the club or would like to help coordinate events within the club, please contact the CARA Executive Board (executive@caraham.org) with your expression of interest and we will match you to a vacant role that suits your interests.

Thank you,

Stephane Raimbault

CARA - President

Presidents Message June 17, 2018

Stephane Raimbault — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 02:42:44 GMT

I can’t believe it is already June and the executive elections are upon us. I have had a wonderful time seeing the club from a new perspective over the last few months.

I was at first hesitant putting my name forward as I have never been involved at this level in an organization such as this one. Being that I was filling a position that was recently vacated, I saw this as a trial run to see how things went leading up to the elections… so after 7 months, my interest in both the hobby and the club have only grown, and I look forward to leaving my name stand at the upcoming election for a full 2 year term if the membership so desires it.

I have been continually impressed with all the various activities that the Club and its members partake in, which has kept things quite busy. Thank you to all the volunteers which make things like the Flea Market, Field Day, Casino fundraiser, Cookie Race, Cochrane winter rally, Rocky Mountain rally, Banff-Jasper relay, the various general meetings and other special interest group meeting topics, the Repeater Group which keeps the repeaters functioning, the DX Group, which maintains the wonderful station at the Calgary Sports Car Club for members to use, and all the various public service events that our club members partake in beyond the ones directly supported by the Club.

The next general meeting, which takes place on Tuesday, June 26th at the Calgary Sports Car Club, is an important one for several reasons. This meeting is where the election will take place to renew and welcome new members to the executive, which will guide the club over the next 2 years. It will also signify a milestone for the Club where we are returning our general meetings to the Calgary Sports Car Club after the concerns regarding the mold has been addressed, and we look forward to maintaining this environment moving forward to ensure a safe and enjoyable space to welcome members.

We will be hosting a ‘mobile radio check out’ prior to the meeting, so come by early (6:30pm) for checking out your mobile setup.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the final general meeting of this season before we break for the summer months of July and August.

73 de VE6NR

Stephane Raimbault

Presidents Message May 15, 018

Stephane Raimbault — Wed, 16 May 2018 03:43:04 GMT

May has arrived and just like that we have broken out of winter and right into what already feels like summer!

Over the last couple general meetings, I was disappointed that our membership attendance has fallen below quorum. This makes it difficult to effectively run the club and address club business items that come up. I encourage the general membership to attend the general meetings not only for the interesting presentations but to also get an update on what the club is working on and get your voice heard on what we could change to make it even better for everyone.

If you have not been able to attend the last few meetings, please make an extra effort to attend the upcoming general meeting in May and especially the one we will have in June, as we will be conducting our biennial executive election. We are looking for interested individuals that would like to join the executive. Although most of the executive have indicated they will have their name stand for re-election, there will be some that have decided to take a step back and we encourage the membership to consider participating with the executive and help make decisions on club business during a 2 year term.

I am pleased to see some positive momentum in establishing a CARA Field Day event. It will take place at the Military Museum just as last year. It may be a scaled down event compared to last year as we have not had a large turnout of volunteers, as of yet. If you are interested in participating at the Field Day this year, please stay tuned to the website and more information will be posted shortly.

Rocky Mountain Rally in Invermere is happening May 25 - 27th. I understand that there are several radio volunteer opportunities still available at this wonderful event and I encourage you to consider this event. There is additional information posted in the general forum on the CARA website for this event.

Thank you and see you at the next general meeting!

73 de VE6NR

Stephane

Presidents Message April 17, 2018

Stephane Raimbault — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 15:32:46 GMT

The CARA Spring Flea Market has come and gone for another year and wow, what a wonderful event thanks to the sponsors, vendors, participants and of course those that volunteered to help organize and setup the event. Thank you to all and it could not have been a great success with all the pieces that we had, especially those that volunteered; Dave VE6DED, Doug VE6CID, Jim VE6JF, Don VE3DD, Frank VE6ZQ; and many others!

We had approximately 250 participants with over 40 vendor tables and some very lucky Hams who won the raffle and 50/50 door prizes. Anis VA6TUN won the Yaesu FTM-400XDR and Akin VA6ATA took home the FTM-3200R. Another lucky winner is Neil Brown who won the 50/50. Congratulations to all 3 of you and thanks once again for our sponsor Radioworld Central for working with the club on such great raffle prizes!

As we prepare to support the upcoming public service events such as the Rocky Mountain Rally and the Banff-Jasper Relay I encourage all members to keep a close eye on our changing website for information regarding those events for some volunteering opportunities.

We would also like to inform club members that with the recent completion of the 2018 Casino we are now accepting project proposals for the upcoming casino funds we are expecting in June. We are requesting that project proposals be submitted by June 1^st, 2018 for consideration by the executive. Projects will be considered as per the revised policy manual (version 2018.2 or later). Please reach out to the executive if you have any questions regarding the project proposal process.

Thank you

73 de VE6NR

Stephane

Presidents Message March 16, 2018

Stephane Raimbault — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 03:53:03 GMT

What a month of activity for the club and it’s members! With the Cookie Race, Cochrane Winter Rally, Casino all behind us with the help of very many volunteer hours to make those events work like clock work… Great job everyone involved, especially Tony Mountjoy VE6MX, Dana Harding VA6DJH, Garry Spicer VE6GDS, Dave Cason VE6DED our volunteer and event coordinators. Fantastic work team… you clearly knocked the word “amateur” out of amateur radio.

All this in addition to all the other regular club activities going on such as the various group meetings (general, special interest groups) and the presentations at each of them, radio contests, nets, work on the website and Key Klix, and many more things that is creating a buzz within the club. I am continued to be amazed and impressed by the efforts put in by members. Let’s all try to make sure the same 10 percent aren’t doing all the work, I call to all members to contribute where you can…. Every little bit counts.

As we prepare for the Flea Market which takes place on April 14^th, we are still looking for some volunteers to help at the door, setup and tear down, etc… If you are interested in contributing some time to a great event for the Amateur Radio community, please e-mail your club executive: executive@caraham.org

But that is not all…. We have been working with Pat Spencer VE6PDS on some behind the scenes changes to our website, and now it’s time to look at making changes that are more visible.

2018 will be an exciting year of change for the CARA website. The website has a long history and it is time to do some housecleaning and implement some changes. The list of improvements that we are planning include a more efficient menu, better mobile support, less confusion on where “Members-only” content is located, and a general cleanup of old data.

There will also be an update this year to the Wild Apricot hosting software that will greatly improve our ability to manage access to the website for content contributors. We expect to see a lot smoother operation of the overall website management going forward.

We will be adding a new Blog for communicating Web Site Updates that will allow members to track what changes have been made. When the changes are implemented, members can review the details and avoid unwelcome surprises.

In the meantime, you may see minor changes as we ramp up the preparations and get closer to a refresh.

Presidents Message February 23, 2018

Stephane Raimbault — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 02:45:24 GMT

As we enter the next few months it is evident that the club is busy and hopping. We have several club volunteers stepping up to help on some CARA supported events such as 2018 Cookie Race (Feb 24^th), 2018 Cochrane Winter Rally (Mar 4^th), the 2018 CARA Casino (Mar 8^th and 9^th) and the upcoming 2018 CARA Spring Flea Market (Apr 14th).

These events could not be there without your support. Thank you, volunteers!

There is still a need for additional volunteers at some of these events. Please login to the CARA website and reach out to the event coordinators to see how you could help. Information can be found both in the event calendar and in the members blogs on the website.

The executive has also been on a few different fronts.

CSCC Club Station

We continue to work with the CSCC executive to get updates on the remediation of the bathrooms and to ensure appropriate documentation indicating that the building is a safe location that we can all enjoy once again.

Casino Funds

The executive continues to explore our current and previous unspent Casino Funds to ensure we are funding projects that meet the use of proceeds requirements and benefits our club, its members, and the overall general public and amateur community. As we prepare for our 2018 Casino we intended to have any outstanding funds assigned to approved projects so a clean slate can be had with the 2018 funds.

Revisions to the Policy Manual

There are some revisions to the policy manual which will be posted on the website and Key Klix. There were some items that didn’t seem clear or seemed counter to the bylaws. We look forward to your feedback at the next general meeting or through the website.

2018 Spring Flea Market

We are still in need of several volunteers to help out with the event. Please contact the CARA executive if you are interested in volunteering some of your time at the event.

We are working on setting up learning conferences, raffle and door prizes, and many other things…. I look forward to seeing many of you at this event.

President's Message January 24, 2018

Stephane Raimbault — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 06:06:08 GMT

I wanted to wish every one of you a happy new year and welcome to 2018.

This has been an incredibly busy time over the last month with getting myself up to speed with all the club activities in motion. It is truly incredible to me how many volunteers are constantly keeping busy with all the various activities the club is involved in.

The Club station is active and I had the joy of operating the club station remotely for the RAC Winter contest in December with other club members and guests and it was a blast. If you haven’t considered what the club has to offer there, please make sure you reach out to the club station group who keeps the station in working order.

Speaking of operating the club station remotely, we currently have an Advanced Class which began this month. You require your advanced license to operate the club remotely. There is no better chance to obtain your advanced license then through our instructor led class that CARA promotes. If you did not have a chance to join the class however and would be interested in a future class, be sure to let the CARA Executive and Education Coordinator aware of your interest so that we can consider future Advanced Classes.

The Executive held another meeting in early January to review the remainder of the 2016 Casino Funds and have allocated the remainder of the funds to submitted club projects. Funds were approved to restore the repeater network into the Kananaskis (AQA) with a link through Wildcat Hills (AUY) and back to Calgary (RYC). I could not describe a better project which promotes Amateur Radio then one that provides HAMs the ability to use handhelds or mobiles to communicate where there is little to no cell phone coverage. I look forward to the links coming up over this spring and summer season.

There are some upcoming club sponsored events that will be or has been looking for volunteers. Be sure to reach out to the event organizers over the coming weeks. More information will be posted on the website as we approach these events.

2018 Cookie Race – Saturday, February 24^th

2018 Cochrane Winter Rally – Sunday March 4^th

2018 CARA Casino – Thursday March 8^th, and Friday March 9^th

2018 CARA Spring Flea Market – Saturday, April 14^th

President Stephane Raimbault, VE6NR's Message - December 2017

Ken Oelke — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 22:03:51 GMT

Seasons greetings to all Hams and their loved ones.

I have the honour to address the clubs’ membership through the president's message. With the recent resignation of 2 dedicated individuals from the board including our club president, I had the opportunity to let my name stand for the executive at the November general meeting. At the end of my first executive meeting in early December, I stood as the club's president.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the countless volunteer hours by previous and current club members, not only executive members, but all the various aspects of our club from club memberships, to coffee and donuts at our meetings, and many more!

This club keeps moving forward thanks to all of it's dedicated club members and the hours they put in. Thank you!

There is some very important work currently on-going in the club. A few key items I see, are as follows.

2016 Casino Funds - The executive is currently reviewing all submitted projects from its members and approving projects and funds as we wind down the available funds from the previous Casino.

2018 Casino - There is ongoing work in preparing for the 2018 Casino. Please take the time to review the information regarding the 2018 casino on our website. The more volunteers we have the easier the work is. The funds raised through the Casino events help fund most of the CARA projects over the next 2 years. The 2018 Casino is scheduled for Thursday, March 8^th and Friday, March 9^th.

Club Rooms and remote operations committees - Committees have been struck and are working feverishly to gather information to make a recommendation back to the executive and its members on how to proceed in these respective regards. The membership has identified these key items to help the club move forward and I certainly look forward to their recommendations.

There are many other projects and important work that is on-going. Be sure to read up about all club activities on our website. Members who login to the website have access to a treasure trove of content (as I am discovering).

The executive has also decided to move forward on organizing an Advanced Amateur Radio Class to begin in January. Stay tuned for updated information on our website regarding the class. With the increasing interest of operating remote stations, amateurs are reminded that Advanced qualifications are required to operate such stations. I encourage any members interested in operating the remote stations or increasing (or in many cases validating) your level of knowledge in our hobby to take the course to update your qualifications.

Although I have been around Ham Radio all my life thanks to my father... it was the CARA courses, both basic and advanced that allowed me to obtain my ham radio qualifications! Kudos to all current and past instructor volunteers!

In closing, I look forward to serving out the rest of the current executive's term as President and ensuring that the Club keeps serving its mandate of having fun and serving our community for its members.

Thank you and 73 de VE6NR, Stephane Raimbault

Setting the Stage For implementation of CARA's Renaissance

Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:06:06 GMT

The previous Board (July 2014 to April 2016) established the mission statement: "Have Fun and Serve Our Community". This statement is the top level of CARA’s Renaissance. The amateur radio hobby continues to evolve rapidly. Change is driven by technology, but also by the changing interests and needs of its community of members.

Mission statements are short and broad and intended to provide general direction. CARA 's current Board thinks the mission statement aptly captured the club's value proposition for current and future members.

Have Fun and Serve Our Community.

The last word, Community, is perhaps the most significant: a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals. The sharing elements are powerful motivators for participation.

I think it is safe to say that the interests and personal goals of individual members in the amateur radio community are very broad. Yet they can be identified, aggregated and explored within the club experience. Attitudes, perhaps not so much, but they have to be acknowledged and when necessary, dealt with.

The current Board focused energy, time and debate in the last 14 months to establish a set of goals. The goals, presented below, are not fully crafted nor set in stone. They are however, formed to a point where they can be set before the membership for consideration within the context of "having fun and serving our community".

The Goals

The attraction/retention of new members to grow/sustain the future of CARA and the hobby of amateur radio;
Examination of the suitability, sustainability and alignment of the club's current facilities and service offerings with existing and emerging interests in amateur radio;
Collaboration with other established amateur radio organizations to identify opportunities to grow interest in the hobby and explore the possibilities of shared goals, assets and talents within the greater Calgary and regional organizations.

The above brought focus to the Board's collective efforts toward engagement of more of its current members in shaping the club's future.

The Strategy

The motions presented at the CARA Annual Meeting on Oct 24 established a process by which a greater number of CARA members can actively participate and make a personal contribution to the practical implementation of the club's efforts to ‘Have Fun and Serve Our Community. Regrettably, the loss of Quorum of Executive members present prior to the votes on motions 2 and 3 will require a second presentation of these motions for ratification at the next General Meeting later this month.

In closing, I have officially tended my resignation as President of the Calgary Amateur Radio Association. This is in response to my offer at the August 28^thBoard meeting to do so. The offer was made in my recognition that my leadership effectiveness was essentially spent. At the Board meeting Nov 8^th, convened to accept that offer, it was suggested that I should also resign from the Board. I tender here my resignation from the CARA Board of Directors as well, but with the intention of remaining an active club member.

My final statement as Club President is to express my gratitude to all the members who actively supported the club through participation in club meetings, events and activities over the past 14 months. You are the backbone of the club. You are the members who are having fun and serving our community in a selfless manner. You are the ones who will move the club forward as it realistically faces the challenges of repositioning its human and physical resources towards the interests and needs of its next generation of members. Please continue to do so and stay the course.

Change is hard. Its hard to accept the need and hard to accomplish. In the last 14 months progress has been made in understanding the need for change. With the continued participation and voices of members supporting that need, accomplishment will follow.

73 de VE6TI

Gordon Hungerford

Urgent appeal for additional volunteers for Maker Faire

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 17:58:56 GMT

The club needs additional members to be on site to interact with attendees at the 6^th https://calgary.makerfaire.com/about/er Faire at the Spruce Meadows site this coming Saturday and Sunday.

This event is an opportunity that draws huge numbers of people with interest and passion to use technology to make things and have fun. This is the kind of audience that may not know of our hobby and its nature in doing the similar things however, may not even know we exist. It’s a chance to attract and retain new members to the club as well as inform the general public to the significance, small as it may be, of our communications capabilities if ever needed.

We need to have at least two members at our display on Saturday and Sunday from 09:00 to 17:00. All that it is required is to interact with the public interested in our display, the club Comms Unit.

Setup and tear down needs are already in place. If we get 8 to 10 members participating we can reduce shifts to a couple of hours and then you will be free to roam the entire Maker Faire. We have suitable handouts ordered from the ARRL for our Field Day effort at The Military Museum location in June. That event, although not well attended by the general public, did draw the attendance of Calgary’s Mayor for more than an hour.

I suspect that the Maker Faire itself will also stimulate a number of us to see what other hobbyists are doing. As a volunteer in support of our contribution you may be eligible for a free admission pass. I have requested 10 passes but considering the lateness of this development I cannot promise at the moment.

Thanks for considering this request. If you can commit just drop me an email. I will reply to it as quickly as I can an update the number of participation responses.

Preparing for the Fall Season

Sat, 26 Aug 2017 15:03:50 GMT

Hoping all had a nice summer enjoying time with family, friends and some relaxation. Typically summer is a quiet time for the club, however a number of notable activities took place to prepare for the upcoming year.

A "Kick off" item in need of immediate attention is the addition of one more member to participate in the audit of the club's operation over the past 2 years. This is required to meet AGCL requirements for compliance with the Casino funding. This is neither an onerous task nor one that requires a professional designation or a formal accounting background to complete. Please consider this short term volunteer role. Email, Jim Weisert, VE6GO, CARA Treasurer for further information.

In May, members present at the meeting approved the appointment of Jim Leslie, VE6JF and Gerry MacDonald, VE6QLT to the Facility Coordinator roles for the Club Station and Club Repeater facilities. These roles were established to provide leadership regarding the sustainability and relevance of these facilities to current and future members of the club and the amateur radio community in Calgary and surrounding regions. Both have been addressing the major challenges of keeping the "lights on" and preparing for the upcoming club year.

Jim and others undertook the task of tidying up the areas available to us for storage at VE6AO, the club station located in and on the leased property of the Calgary Sports Car Club. Item accumulation of over the years had overrun our leased area as well as the room adjacent to the operating positions. A modest expenditure on shelving and a basic culling of bits and pieces of cable and inoperable or obsolete gear resulted in confining our presence to the allotted area in the lease agreement and the potential for additional activities in the freed up space.

Periodic problems with drainage and the reoccurrence of mould in the basement washroom facilities at VE6AO resulted in a member motion at its April meeting warning of its presence. The Board undertook a professional mould assessment in May that produced two quotations for remediation. These were then presented to the CSCC President for actioning and have been followed up to determine progress. I have been advised by email from CSCC to seek an alternate meeting location for the September club meeting. This is underway and will be announced shortly.

The current lease arrangement at the CSCC location runs until the spring of 2019. Notice to renew or not is required six months in advance of the end date or the lease automatically extends for 5 years. This is a key issue for CARA. Member input and the club's primary goals as established last year, will guide the decision to renew, or investigate other locations/options for delivery of the facility's services to members.

In a similar manner, Gerry MacDonald and others undertook the task of maximizing the use of the rented storage at Lo-Cost Storage. The compartment primarily houses Repeater Facility items as well as the paper records the club has accumulated over many years. The installation of shelves and culling of accumulated boxes and unused items left over from earlier club eras has increased its capacity and usability as well as identifying items that were thought to be missing.

During the last 3 months a number of the club's Repeater Facilities have been accessed by Gerry MacDonald and others to provide and document each ones's current state. When this is complete and with Member input and fit to the strategies to address the club's primary goals as established last year, will guide further planning and investment.

The fourth goal established in the first year of the new Board was to reach out to the other amateur organizations in the Calgary region to seek complementary opportunities to have fun and serve our communities. Over the summer preliminary discussions with Foothills Amateur Radio Society look promising. At September's Program meeting, this will be fleshed out for CARA member consideration and input.

In closing and on behalf of The CARA Executive, thanks to all members for your support and participation in club events and activities in the past year. We hope you can continue to contribute and ask all members to participate as time, circumstances and interest in amateur radio enable.

73 de VE6TI

Gordon Hungerford

President’s Message June 19, 2017

Wed, 24 May 2017 02:31:23 GMT

Field Day 2017: Final Update June 19

On Saturday, June 10 a crew of 10 members gathered at the CSCC to do a dry run setup of the Antenna trailer and its antennas: a 3 element beam for 20, 15 and 10 meters and a fan dipole for 80 and 40 meters.

As expected, Murphy showed up and threw a couple of curve balls. The crew managed to handle these with a bit of ham ingenuity and bits and pieces from the club’s Junk Box. Scheduling the practice session was brilliant; otherwise, the surprises we encountered would have interfered with getting on the air at 12:00 sharp when the event begins on Saturday. Thanks Jim, Ameer and Jerry for organizing the practice and to the rest who took part.

The Beam tuning was bang on, thanks to previous crews having marked all the element pieces with black electrical tape to make it easy to re-install them correctly. The fan dipole was too long (by design) so it took a couple of adjustments to get both of them resonant where they need to be. Four sections of surplus 42” military mast were used to provide the two end supports for the Fan Dipole. This gets the 40-meter dipole up near a half wavelength so it should be a good performer. The 80 will still be a cloud warmer but we will not have to worry about its orientation.

Five of the crew managed to set up the 2-man tent in about 10 minutes. Not a spectacular time but it was entertaining and I have pictures. Hopefully, “practice does make perfect“ or at least better. This structure houses the operators and radios for the antenna trailer station as well as the logging network for the entire site.

The 8-KW generator was hauled out of the basement of the CSCC and returned as practice to determine the amount of manpower it takes to load and unload it from the transporting vehicle; another item off the checklist.

The Communications Trailer has been used at all Field Days since 2012 so it is already to go. It will just need to have its antennas deployed once it is on site.

The third station, if we have sufficient operators to man it, will be erected on Friday evening when we do our set up at the Flanders and Crowchild site of Calgary’s Military Musems.

So, we are pretty much ready to go. Having only missed one CARA Field day in the last 10 years, I think this one is the best prepared. All that is needed is good participation from our 190 odd club members to make it one of the most memorable. It would be especially appreciated if many of us could attend just for the fun of it and to socialize with fellow members. You do not have to sign up for the full 24 hours of the event, we have some die-hards who will keep the station(s) on the air and remember we are providing barbeques for a potluck dinner, 6ish, on Saturday. Just bring your own protein to cook and a side dish to share. It would be helpful to know how many to expect for the potluck so please register on the CARA Website if you plan to come.

Tnx es 73 de VE6TI

Gordon Hungerford

May's needs

Sat, 06 May 2017 16:00:11 GMT

Today, May 10^th already. Is it just me or is the passage of time actually accelerating? Looking at the trees and flowering shrubs, spring appears to have finally arrived.

In reading my amateur radio email this morning I am reminded that once again we are in the most demanding and competitive time period for our radio communications services.

Case in point, the Rocky Mountain Rally is just 17 days away and we currently need 12 more members to commit to supporting this event. Granted, this is one of the most onerous events in terms of time committed in our annual cycle of public event support. It consumes the entire weekend and evolves 500 plus kilometres of driving.

In recognition of the associated travel costs, The Calgary Sports Car Club and the Calgary Amateur Radio Association are offsetting a significant portion of the out of pocket expense. Shared accommodation costs are provided by CSCC for the radio operators as well as lunches while in action and event related dinners. These volunteers will receive reimbursement for fuel costs up to $100.00 from CARA upon submission and processing of a mileage expense form after the event.

With current membership just over 200, this event needs about 12% participation. If you are one of the members who enjoy the amateur radio experience and the benefits/opportunities of club membership, be it fellowship, knowledge acquisition, and its sharing or just personal satisfaction, this is one to consider.

Next item, the May General Meeting-its import and challenge. As above, much of our activity and planning for the next club year happens in the spring.

Field Day goes the last weekend of June. Its is one of the most appealing club events in that it brings together and draws upon the myriad of experiences and skills in the amateur radio community to work as a team. The event’s duration is just 24 hours but the preparation takes much planning and effort to make it work. This year’s leaders, Jim Leslie, VE6JL and Ameer Shaikh, VE6QAS are well off the mark. They will provide progress to plan and outline items yet to be accomplished. Keep checking the CARA website for needs and opportunities to be part of the process.

This meeting is also significant to the club as a whole. Over the last eight months the CARA Executive has considered the need and planned for the revitalization of the participation of its current members and in actively attracting new members. We have a sense of traction and movement towards that goal. We have the first stage of next steps to outline and a desire to implement before the end of June. We will propose and discuss an action plan focusing on the future of the two main facilities the club has built up over the last several years an how to further leverage them to meet the needs of members to have fun and serve our community.

Stand by for the location of the May meeting. It will be communicated by this time next week.

Field Day Update and Invitation to Participate

Sat, 06 May 2017 16:00:11 GMT

Towards getting the Field Day word out, Jim has nailed it. Please read on.

As you may have heard by now, Field Day 2017 will be held June 24/25. This year CARA will hold the ARRL annual event at the Military Museums located at 4520 Crowchild Trail SW in Calgary. Many thanks to Ameer, VA6QAS for his initiative in suggesting the use of the site during the May general meeting, and for making the request to the museum on behalf of CARA.

On April 20th a meeting was held at the musuem with Jerry - VE6TL, Ameer - VA6QAS, myself - VE6JF and Gordon - VE6TI. Gordon signed all the necessary paperwork on CARA's behalf, giving us permission to proceed. Following the meeting, we had a lengthly tour of the grounds including the roof, with an eye to locating a few stations and antennas. They also have a military tent we are welcome to use and will move it for us to wherever we choose. The initial plan is to have it in the center courtyard. This tent opens on the sides giving good viewing access to the public.

This site will be a terrific location not only from the standpoint of having plenty of space for antennas and room between the operating positions, but also upwards of 1000 or more visitors are expected. The museum told us they are promoting the event as well. More news will follow on their events in the coming weeks.

What do we do next? Last Saturday afternoon April 29th Dana, VA6DJH and Ameer, VA6QAS visited the club station and investigated the state of the antenna trailer. The objective was to evaluate what is required to prepare it for Field Day use. To to do list includes a brief written procedure in order to do it safely and efficiently as it can be challenging to raise the first time.

We should also have an additional practice sesionion to build experience, confidence and increase the membership pool in its continued use. Some addition TLC could be applied to sustain this club asset as well.

Other Field Day tasks that we are looking for help with now is:

1) Someone to fill in the ARRL locator on their web site to mark the CARA Field Day location.

2) Another is to have someone assist/take charge of with th GOTA station. We intend to score as many bonus points as possible. There are many opportunities within this area to explore.

3) Bonus points are issued for satellite contacts. We need someone with this capability to steer this one.

There is a lot to do and the Field Day Team needs your help to make this event a success. If you would like to contribute in any way, from operating to raising antennas or only to be present wearing your CARA badge and be an ambassador of amateur radio and explain to the public what ham radio is, please join us that weekend!

That's all for now, but I will have much more to add in a few days. Please contact me if you can help with any of the above items, or if you have any questions, comments or can help in any way. Suggestions are welcome!!

You can reach me here: galoot @shaw.ca

Jim

VE6JF

President's Message April 25, 2017

Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:49:20 GMT

The business portion of the tonight’s General Meeting will focus on upcoming project objectives for spring and summer execution with our Club Station and the Club’s Repeater facilities. The program portion of the meeting will follow and will be titled Field Days, Past and Present. Start time 7:00 PM, location; CARA Club station, 4215 80^th Ave NE.

As of 2:00 Friday April 20 we officially committed to holding Field Day at the Military Museums, just East of Crowchild trial at Flanders Avenue. Jim Leslie, VE6JL, Ameer Shaikh, VE6QAS, Jerry Spring, VE6TL and I met with Sargent Major Jody to discuss how things could/would work and then walked the grounds and rooftops to get the lay of the land for our 2017 Field Day Event.

The area is well set up for Field Day. The site offers the opportunity to run up to three separate stations with separate antennas. The Military Museum has its own event on Saturday that will draw a significant public attendance and provide additional exposure to Amateur radio in Calgary. Food service trucks will be on site during the day. A large army tent will house our public interactions and provide a gathering area for station operators when not pounding brass or running a string of SSB contacts.

This year’s Field day will be one of the largest such undertakings in recent club history. Given its location it will be one of the easiest to attend. With 8 weeks to complete the planning and organizing of the teams we can be well prepared to have Fun and Serve our Community. All members are invited to participate in the balance of the planning and the operation of the club’s 2017 Field Day Event. Looking forward to seeing you tonight.

73 de VE6TI

Gordon Hungerford

President's Message March 19, 2017

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 02:18:08 GMT

Last Saturday, 20 or more club members made the trek to the site of the Calgary Sports Car Club’s Winter Rally, NW of Cochrane. Given the driving conditions on Highway 40 and the Hunter Valley road this required a 1½ to 2 hour cautious drive from Calgary. The in-position target was 07:00. When combined with the “spring ahead” time change it made for an early rise. As our Australian hams would say, “Good on you mates”!

Murphy’s law: “whatever can go wrong will go wrong “ applied to the early stages of setup and resulted in moving Net Control to simplex when both the primary repeater and the backup repeater proved unreliable. Undaunted, but prepared for the unexpected, Net Control persevered and moved to 146.52 and carried on. With the passage of time and more daylight the original repeaters were then used to coordinate efforts for the subsequent stages. “Kudos to all,” for their adaptability and persevere in the face of uncontrollable circumstances. Amateur radio at its best, when as Robbie Burns wrote; “ The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry”.

Racing conditions proved equally challenging to the rally teams. A number of unintended off-road outcomes occurred. While there were no serious injuries Robin Greig, VE6RBN, in the ambulance role of radio operator experienced first hand the importance of good organizational planning and the commitment of volunteer’s expertise, time, and efforts to ensure the safety of all involved.

Next up on the scheduled events is the Spring Flea Market. It is Saturday, April 8^th at the East side Church. Seller, buyer and learning Conference information is available on the Upcoming Events section of the CARA Home page.

This year’s flea market has the usual offering of amateur radio treasures for redistribution. So if you are relatively new to the hobby the flea market is a place to get started on building your first station and connecting with others to enhance your amateur radio journey. For the not so new there will be old boat anchors to rummage through and reminisce about as well as an endless variety of parts for the current project or the ones on the drawing board.

The Calgary Amateur Radio Association is again offering attendance incentives. A 50/50 draw will be available under Alberta Gaming license # 460298 for which we have 500 tickets available @ $2 per ticket. There are two transceiver prizes with 300 tickets @ $5 and 900 tickets @3 for $10 available under License 460305.

Radio World Central http://radioworldcentral.ca has graciously donated a Yaesu FT-891 radio. This 1.8 to 54 MHz mobile transceiver is valued @$950. CARA is providing the second radio, a Yaesu FTM-100DR for the 2 meters and up attendees interested in both the digital and analogue modes. It is valued @ $450.

Personal attendance of the winning ticket drawn at the draw location, East Side Church in SE Calgary at approximately noon is required for awarding of prizes.

At our last Board Meeting we discussed some ideas for this year’s ARRL Field Day the last weekend in June. The last 2 years we went out to High River and joined the FARS club at a location on the south side of town. On the 3 previous years we chose rural locations. This year we thought we should look at setting up for the 24-hour operational period within the city to make it easier for members to attend and to enhance the awareness for this facet of amateur radio. In the past we used the parking lot on the East side of the Sunridge Mall one year and Glenmore park for another.

If you are new to the Field Day event just go to: ARRL Field Day 2017 and find out all about it. If you are a past participant and want to get in on the organization part we are now in the process of setting that opportunity up. A member is needed to take on the role of Field Day Director. This role coordinates the place, process and people to enable a whole lot of fun while building operational experience to be of assistance when mother nature or some other event calling on us for assistance. Look to the CARA Site in a couple of weeks for more information and details as they take shape.

The last item for this time concerns progress towards further linking of CARA’s VHF repeater facilities. An initiative is underway to determine which site(s) are candidates for linking in the upcoming spring through fall window for site access. More detail will be provided in the next President’s Message.

That’s it for now; see you at the Flea Market next month.

Gordon, VE6TI

President's Message Feb 25, 2017

Sun, 26 Feb 2017 02:23:07 GMT

At this month’s GM we will be honouring the long and extensive service to CARA of Mike Ross, VE6TC. Mike will be presented with a Lifetime Membership award in appreciation of his dedication and endless efforts to envision, plan, and build and support the Club station. For the many of you that have been involved along the way in Mike’s quest please attend and contribute your interesting observations and reflections on the journey. Other regional Ham organizations have been invited too; it will be an opportunity to reconnect with others as well. I am off to visit my daughter in those Excited States of America and will miss this meeting. So, I take this opportunity to personally thank Mike for his commitment to and support of the amateur radio community in Calgary and to our hobby. Well-done Mike.

Spring is nearly in sight. Time to start thinking about what we need to do to take advantage of the good outdoor weather. The folks at the club station recently completed their review and priorities to address maintenance needs for the CARA antenna farm. The budget and work plans for the four towers and antenna systems was presented to the Board and approved this month. A similar plan and process is anticipated to be completed in the next two months to cover off VHF facility needs in order to implement in the summer.

This is also the time of year when CARA’s support needs for its various annual events are identified, quantified and scheduled. The first CSCC car rally goes March 12^th in the Wiaprous valley area north west of Cochrane. Garry Spicer, VE6GDS, is coordinating CARA’s communication operators with the Calgary Sports Car Club.

This event is particularly suited to club members with 2-meter mobile equipment, an interest in VHF operation and in participation in a service opportunity with one of our communities. From the enjoyment and satisfaction perspective there is no better spot to observe the thrills and spills of high speed rally car racing than at one of the numerous Blocker positions along the course.

Gary said at last count we have about 75% of the operator needs covered. There is still a need and opportunity for more to participate. If you are new to this but unsure you may be able to accompany and experienced operator once the required positions are covered. Rally detail and volunteer participation registration can be found at: Cochrane Rally. Scroll to page bottom for registration sheet. Contact Garry <spicergarry@gmail.com> if you would like further information. I look forward to seeing many of you at this event.

Next up is the CARA Spring Flea market, April 8^th at the East Side Church. Peter Barry, VA6PJB and the CARA Secretary heads up the organization. Watch the website for further details as they unfold.

A bit farther out is the Annual ARRL Field Day Event. CARA has fielded a team for this event for as long as I can remember. For the last two years we joined with the Foothills Amateur Radio Society (FARS) group in High River and had good WX and a good time. We may want to host the event this year and ask other regional amateur radio groups to join or we may just go it alone.

While the event is still a ways off we need to get the planning effort kicked off in March. The definition of planning and fun will be left up to those members who can and will participate. Please contact: VE6PJB, Peter Barry and express your interest in the organization of this event.

Still lots going on here.

President's Message February 6, 2017

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 22:02:11 GMT

The Welcoming of New Hams

A special thanks to all the members that came out to the January GM to welcome the most recent graduates of the fall Basic Class. More than 30 existing members gathered at the club station and engaged the newest members in an informal exchange of information about the amazing amateur radio journey awaiting them.

Rob, VE6CCL, had name tags ready for the recently qualified hams and an operational 40-meter transceiver at the east end of the main floor. This drew considerable attention but was essentially wiped out by the QRM generated by the chatter of the 40 plus members in the room.

About 7:30, round tables, each with an existing member discussion leader, were established to get down to specific inquires from the new members. The new, not so new and the old exchanged information, experiences and initiated the time-honoured tradition of Elmering. The club station was opened up about 8:45 and was still humming with interest when I left just before 10:00.

To all, a big “well done”!

Moving On

As an individual, Amateur Radio has served me well. It has enabled the pursuit of technical knowledge and experience from which I benefitted personally and professionally.

I have been communicating here and at the interest group meetings over the past couple of months about the fun part of our, “Have Fun and Serve Our Community” directional statement. I think the “Have Fun” part boils down to participation in an activity that is personally enjoyable and as a bonus, experiencing a sense of personal satisfaction from that participation.

At first glance, the “Serve Our Community” part sounds a bit like an obligation. But is it that or is it an opportunity to have fun?

The “Serve” part is self-explanatory. It’s the “Our Community” piece that could benefit from further definition. As a club we have both internal and external communities.

At the centre of the internal community is the existing membership. Sustaining and growing the membership base is fundamental to organizational survival and continuity. Probably the most important service opportunity for existing members is to contribute to the attraction and development of radio communications knowledge and skills in new members.

Another set of communities within CARA includes various interest groups. These are centred upon the opportunities various spectrum and communications modes offer to have fun and provide service. Providing learning opportunities for new members to acquire experience and confidence in the functional aspects of these interest groups is perhaps the most important service opportunity existing members can undertake to sustain their interest areas. Last month, the DX group took the time and invested the effort to examine and present to the CARA Board a first cut at the group’s alignment to the Fun and Service direction and the organization's goals. At the next Board meeting the group’s operational budget requests will be undertaken. Other interest areas are encouraged to do likewise.

Our External Communities are of two types as well. The first includes public organizations in need of real time communications in geographic locations where the public information infrastructure is unable to meet their specific communications needs for specific events or circumstances. For these communities, CARA’s service opportunity is to utilize its existing infrastructure or that of other clubs and individual amateurs to enable the served organization’s safe execution of a specific event. This is very much in keeping with amateur radio’s long history of facilitating communications in places or times of need when the existing communications structure is unavailable or overloaded. It is very much fundamental to existence of pieces of the radio spectrum that are exclusively, or upon a secondary basis, available to us for our hobby and service pursuits.

An example: the next scheduled service opportunity is the provision of radio operators for the Calgary Sports Car Club Rally, March 12^th in the Waiparous Valley region northwest of Cochrane. A number of CARA members participate in this event as well as other rallies throughout the year. This is very much appreciated by the event sponsors and provides a meaningful opportunity for CARA members to provide service and get up close to the action. Sports car enthusiasts have fun through demonstration of the capabilities of their cars and personal skills in completing a defined course in the least amount of time. Mother Nature is always the wild card in these events and course conditions are utterly dependent on the cards she has dealt on any particular day.

This season, Gary Spicer, VE6GDS, has stepped up to the Rally Coordination role. This entails the recruiting and preparation of CARA operators to provide the radio communication needs required to conduct The Calgary Sports Car Clubs event in an efficient and safe manner. Dave Cason, VE6DED, is continuing to assist with these events. Please check our events calendar for further details and redirection to the Rally events website.

The second external community includes other organized amateur radio groups in Calgary and region. These groups also have internal and external communities to serve. It is important for CARA to consider how it can work with these groups to meet mutual objectives.

CARA is a club with a long history (some say it goes back to 1924) and in order to make that history accessible to current members, the club Historian role is being undertaken by Ken Olke, VE6AFO. Knowing where you came from helps to understand how you got to where you are now. That, in turn, may offer guidance to where you want to go next. Dale Olson, VE6QDO, has scanned most of the published Key Klix issues to make them readily available. Ken has access to similar materials from various local and provincial level publications available for reference and further examination; another service opportunity benefitting internal and external communities.

In the end, an organization’s journey is sustained by the energy contributions of its membership. Perhaps serving our communities is the part of the fuel that enables the fun.

73 de VE6TI

Gordon

President's Messsage December 18, 2016

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 04:23:13 GMT

Best of Xmas and Holliday Greetings to all. No GM this month; enough going on in our family lives to focus on at this time of year.

At our November Board meeting we discussed the need for the Board to maintain focus on club objectives and outcomes in order to remain sustainable and meaningful for present and future members. Towards that end we intend to establish some operational roles to take on the responsibility of ongoing management of the club's facilities and delivery of reoccurring service offerings.

We believe and trust that within our membership the skills necessary to do this are already present. As conceived the roles will be filled by members at large. In addition it provides opportunity for greater member participation in the processes of formation, management and delivery of CARA offerings. The Board will continue to provide directional input and guidance to the members who undertake these management roles.

At the January Board meeting the roles will be defined. Membership input is invited/requested. So when you sit down after Xmas and begin writing your New Year's resolutions add in one to contribute your thoughts and ideas on these definitions.

See you again in 2017. Canada's 150 anniversary. Now there is something to think about too.

President's Message, November 17, 2016

Thu, 17 Nov 2016 21:29:55 GMT

President’s Message, November 17, 2016

Upcoming General Meeting

‪Next Tuesday, November 22, the fun part of the November GM will be about HF operation via a remote station. This topic was one of the high interest areas expressed at our GM in September.

Unlike VHF operation where the size of an efficient antenna is modest, HF antennas of comparable efficiency are "high, wide and handsome". Even on 20 meters a half wave dipole is 33 feet long and prefers to be 30 or more feet above ground to perform well. Yes, size matters; it's a physics thing. So, if you have enough real estate, a mature tree or two, permission from your partner and reasonable neighbours you can have a go at putting up a simple wire antenna and have some fun on HF - maybe.

Another challenge all us city dwellers are facing is the increasing level and amount of electromagnetic noise produced by all the other radiators in the neighbourhood. Getting away from the noise is rapidly becoming a major impediment to the enjoyment of HF operation.

So, if having your own effective HF antennas is challenging for your situation then consider participation in remote station operation. It turns out CARA has one. It can be operated from the comfort of your own dwelling via the Internet and a computer equipped with the remote station operation software. This methodology will be illustrated and demonstrated as part of the presentation.

Recent Board activity

Enjoy Amateur Radio - Serve our Community

The previous CARA Executive adopted the above statement of mission for our club. The current CARA Executive thinks they got it right. In a simple statement the two sides of the coin illustrate the benefit and cost sides of any volunteer based organization.

Enjoy Amateur Radio; that's the fun part. It brought us to the hobby; it keeps us active in its various pursuits and in contact with people of similar interests. It is the benefit side of membership. It's not a thing, thing; it's a feeling thing.

Serve our Community is the cost side. Time, talent and treasure are the three currencies required of members to meet the cost side. Of the three, time and talent are of most value. CARA is in the most fortunate situation to have access to treasure that does not come directly from its members' pocketbooks but does require investment of members' time. CARA is most in need of the participation of its members.Time is currency of high value and its investment benefit is not a thing, thing, it's a feeling thing.

The cost benefit situation in the world of retail commerce is a different challenge involving the same three currencies but in the reverse order. Its objective is to maximize the perceived benefit to extract the most treasure from its customer base while minimizing the effort and time to make the investment in their goods or services. It is cost driven and relies heavily on the perception of the need for the latest thing, thing.

In talking to other leaders of amateur radio club's in our region we learn that we are all facing membership participation challenges. In implementing the past Board's mission the current Board recognizes the need to refocus leadership and organizational infrastructure as well as membership time and talent to realize the benefit of membership enjoyment. We understand that a members’ participation is a large component of the member's enjoyment. Hence we need to involve more members in the doing of the building and operating of the infrastructure rather than just using it. In short we need to build communities of doers" willing to share their time and talents at the point where it matters to achieve membership enjoyment for themselves and their fellow members.

Over the next quarter, the focus of the Board will be to establish a number of important functional roles with defined responsibilities to coordinate club operations. How that is to be approached will comprise the business portion of next week's GM. It won't be as much fun as the Remote Station presentation but it will be important to meaningful engagement of those members willing and able to contribute their time and talent towards this objective.

Looking forward to lively and interesting conversation. See you there, ‪next Tuesday at the club station ‪at 7:00 PM.

73 de VE6TI

Gordon Hungerford

Presidents Message, October 23, 2016

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 01:32:20 GMT

The leaves are falling, temperatures are falling and the days continue to shorten. Winter is coming. The allusion in the "Game of Thrones" books and TV series references the need to prepare for what is coming. A bit lame, I admit. I needed a segue and there it is.

With the election of a completely new CARA Board the need for preparation for the future of the club was clear from the start. Since the end of June we have had several face-to-face meetings, Go To Meeting sessions, and exchanged dozens and dozens of emails to get to know each other's interests, skills and form as group. Keeping HMCS CARA on its established course at the same time provided opportunity to understand how the current ship functions.

So, what has been accomplished so far?

I think the most significant outcome is agreement at the Board that CARA needs to be less about things and stuff and more about being relevant to current members and attractive to future members of the club.

With that focus we have set four directional goals:

• Have fun while learning about and participating in the vast array of endeavours in the world of Amateur Radio.

• Attract and retain members, young and old, just learning or experienced, in school, working or enjoying retirement.

• Manage the club's tangible and human assets to sustain the Club's future, sustain the hobby and support public events in need of the radio-based communications that our skills and facilities can provide.

• Seek opportunities to collaborate and participate in the efforts of other amateur radio club's in the region as they pursue similar goals.

September's General Meeting format, where we mixed the Fun and Business parts of the meeting, will be followed again in October. The Fun Part is a primer on the CARA Net initiative started a couple of years ago. Robin Greig, VE6RBN and our current Vice President will take us through the what, why, current status and next steps in this strategy to link club repeaters. He promises the presentation to be more about the utility, flexibility and benefits of this approach rather than the magic that goes on in the boxes. A progress update will be provided as well.

For the business part we will report on our first steps to improve communications with the membership. At our last GM this was the most discussed topic at the round table sessions. Last week's Board meeting re-examined the Communications Proposal commissioned by the previous Board and passed a motion to further implement more of its recommendations. We will again set up the round tables to examine our current communications vehicles and opportunities for further improvements.

So please attend the meeting ‪Tuesday October 25. Club station, ‪7: 00 PM and add your voice to the conversations that shape CARA's future.

Regarding Sept 27 Club Meeting

Wed, 05 Oct 2016 17:33:54 GMT

Last Month's meeting 30 + members attended the GM at the CSCC location.

Upon entry, members found the chairs set up for the program presentation were already occupied; not with people but with stacks of "QST" magazines. These artifacts escaped from the depths of the club's storage prison where many had languished for decades.

Their hope was to be adopted by the CARA members and provided with a new home or face the incinerator. And adopted they were. Big thanks to Rob Wilson, VE6CCL for organizing the jail break.

The Fun Part: the Program

John Fallows, VE6YE brought along the five foot diameter magnetic loop antenna completed over the summer and recounted its story of construction and testing. Turns out that the magnetic loop design has some very useful characteristics for operation in the midrange HF bands. It's very compact compared to full sized loops, half wave dipoles and beams. More importantly does not need to be mounted high above the ground and has good local noise reduction characteristics when rotated.

To good to be true you say. Well like all things whose performance is based upon the immutable laws of physics, the loop has its limits. It is very narrow in band width and has radiation resistance in the range of miliohms. This translates to a capacitive matching challenge involving very high voltages and the reduction of series resistances in the antenna circuit to the bare minimum.

John accomplished the above in the traditional home-brew fashion of buying available materials locally or from Internet suppliers and building the rest. In this case the building of the variable capacitor involved the use of a 3D printer and a CNC (computer numerical control) machine that he just happened to have home-brewed as well. Use of very inexpensive Arduino based hardware and the writing of the code to enabled the control of its adjustment rounded out the project. If you missed the presentation you can view a video @ play.fallows.ca/wp/category/radio/ham-radio/

The business part of the meeting: Engaging the members

As announced we engaged the attending members in a round table discussion of the Board's directional goals. One chair reserved at each table for a Director and the rest for members. And discuss we did. Directors responded to concerns voiced by the members and where within our directional goals they will be addressed. This part of meeting lasted upward of an hour and the Board will share a compilation of the table notes within the next week, set some priorities and publish the result to the Website and review with the membership at the business part of the October GM.

Since then: Analysis of feedback

Tuesday, Oct 4th the Board met and reviewed Director notes from the above activity. October 18 we will meet again to establish priorities for presentation and discussion at the Oct GM.

Communicating openly and frequently with the membership is one of our foundation goals. The need for that was communicated quite clearly at September's meeting and it was great to get to get it in a 2 way fashion. Let's keep the conversation going.

September, 2016 Club Meeting

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 18:06:25 GMT

We are about to kick off the 2016-2017 CARA fall season. The first regular club meeting will be ‪September 27th. Location will be the Calgary Sports Car Club, Southwest corner of 80th Avenue and Metis trail NE.

The fun part

One of our members will present the activities and results of his “fun in the summer project” to home-brew a compact loop antenna for the mid HF range amateur radio bands. The home-brew part is literal. It begins with the construction of the very tools used to accomplish the objective. These include a 3D printer, and a CNC milling machine. The outcome of his efforts is remarkable. However, I think it was the journey that best illustrates the breadth of the amateur radio hobby as a vehicle for continuous learning and personal satisfaction.

Over refreshments you will be able to meet and chat with the executive elected at the end of June. Robin Greig, VE6RBN, Jim Weisert, VE6GO and Jerry Spring, VE6TL are the new members of the Board. Peter Barry, VE6PJB and myself, Gordon Hungerford, VE6TI have served on previous executives.

The business Part

Over the summer the new executive had a couple of face to face meetings and several Go To Meetings to form as a group and flesh out some of near term goals and actions. We now have a bit more "flesh on the bone" and will outline the direction and focus we have envisioned for CARA over the next two years.

The previous Board undertook a major planning initiative to increase current membership participation and grow the membership and ensure the sustainability of CARA. The scope and effort was substantial, the outcome valuable and it charts a course towards accomplishment of the stated goals. The new Board will undertake the task of implementation of this work towards accomplishment of the goals outlined last month. Namely:

Encourage the exploration and enjoyment of the vast opportunities’ in the amateur radio hobby.
Engage, through program offerings the young and old, novice and expert.
Manage tangible assets and the efforts of our membership to sustain and grow CARA.
Communicate openly and frequently with the membership.
Identify opportunities for meaningful collaboration with other local and regional amateur radio organizations.

Over the summer input received from members sees the third goal emerging as top of mind. Towards that end the Board will establish a process to examine the current state of asset investment and utilization. This effort will provide a basis for objective evaluation of the effectiveness of the current operation as well as opportunities to advance the first two goals.

Questions will be welcomed and consideration given to all suggestions from attendees. As stated in my first posting, the success of a club is primarily achieved through the participation and contributions of its individual members rather than its titled leaders.

Please attend, bring a friend or ask someone you know, who has perhaps let their membership lapse, to give the club another look.

tnx and 73

de VE6TI

Gordon Hungerford, President

Your New CARA Board Gets Started

Sat, 06 Aug 2016 03:53:01 GMT

July 25, the Board members elected at the June general meeting met for the first time. Stampede, the Folk Fest, and summer time activities had intervened. However, we were active via phone calls and emails and prior to the first meeting, each of us exchanged input to five questions:

What is the scope of my amateur radio interests?
What skills and experiences, personal and organizational, do I have to offer?
What are my current views and perceptions of the state of our club?
What do I think the near term focus for the club could/should be?
What do I think the longer-term focus could/should be?

This information served as an introduction to each other as Board members and provided a starting point for the election of officers. The new Board roles landed as follows: Secretary, Peter Barry, VE6PJB; Treasurer, Jim Weisert, VE6GO; Vice President, Robin Greig; VE6RBN, President; Gordon Hungerford, VE6TI and Jerry Spring, Director.

We then considered and adopted the agenda proposed for the balance of the meeting. Past Treasurer, Dale Olson entered the meeting providing financial information and the process to set up the new signing authorities.

Next, each Director’s responses to the last two bullets of the input exercise identified common areas of focus for the near and longer terms. We then set up some general guiding principals as follows:

Encourage the exploration and enjoyment of the vast opportunities in the amateur radio hobby.
Engage, through program offerings, the young and old, novice and expert.
Manage assets, tangible and personnel, to sustain and grow CARA.
Communicate openly and frequently with the membership.
Identify opportunities for meaningful collaboration with other local and regional amateur radio organizations.

From a personal perspective, I am pleased and excited to be part of the group now charged with guiding the club over the next couple of years. However, history reminds us repeatedly that the success of a club like ours results primarily from the participation, support and commitment of its membership rather than the guidance of its leaders. Let's all have some fun and enjoy each others company as we pursue the lifelong learning opportunities of amateur radio.

June 2016

VA6DBA — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 01:33:35 GMT

Greetings to all Hams,

Summer is with us once again, it's nice and warm, many of us are looking forward to field day and the many volunteer events and activities that are happening in the next few months. Keep an eye on your email for opportunities to take part.

This is your club and your participation is what makes it what it is.

As most of you know we have brought forward our elections from September 2016 to June 2016 to allow there to be a better transition before the new executive takes the reins in September.

Also as most of you know I have decided after several terms on the executive and as a several term president decided its time to allow others to take this on. I will at this time still be very involved with the repeater network, APRS, Cameras, Weather, Skimmer and CARANet (our wide area network that is expanding between sites) so will continue to be a part of the life of CARA but more concentrating on this direct role and the encouragement of others to get involved with this great hobby and CARA.

Many will have received the email letting you know that in fact the complete executive has decided to step aside, the majority have been on the executive for many terms and i thank them for their service and understand their various reasons, most the same as my own, also that change and moving forward can best happen if we allow it to. Many will still be active in CARA and the hobby so won't just disappear!

For those that may considering standing check your eligibility, the list is on the latest edition of Key Klix please give it serious consideration, and start to think how you can serve CARA and the Ham community though this.

Dave

April 2016

VA6DBA — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:40:37 GMT

Greetings to all Hams,

Thanks to all involved in organizing and participating in the Flea market & Learning conference, it was our best attendance in recent times (257 up 25% on last year). Congratulations to the winners of prizes and hope you all found some good fleas.

Coming up in on June 4 - 5th is this years Rocky Mountain Rally we need volunteers, find out more information: https://cara.wildapricot.org/event-2207340 or contact Dave Cason at dcason@shaw.ca

Also at June's general meeting the last of the year we have decided to hold our next CARA executive elections rather than in September, with the new exec taking office in the new season starting in September. Primarily this was done to allow a cross over between old and new executive, if you are interested contact one of the executive for information on eligibility.

This months General meeting on April 26th Topic is home brew 1kw VHF amplifiers and Tim Ellam VE6SH IARU president will give us an update from the IARU.

Dave

February 2016

VA6DBA — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 20:05:33 GMT

Greetings to all Hams!

Thank you to all those who came out to help with the Casino, we had fun and have secured funding for our projects for the next couple of years. It will be a few months for the money to come through.

So its time to start thinking of CARA projects to apply for funding, our main emphasis for this Casino is on maintenance/ refurbishment across the board (other projects will be considered though), the things that have needed to be done for a while that never got the funding they needed.

Another part of this is for members to not only be a project manager for a project(usually the submitter) but for members to take part in the execution of the projects, there should be encouragement to be as many participating as possible. While many of the tasks need specific skills we should also be looking to pass on those skills to others, so be prepared to share to others for a couple of minutes at a meeting about your idea!

This months meeting ( Feb 23rd @ 7 pm at the Calgary Sports Car Club) will be co-presented by CARA and the Calgary Sports Car Club about ham radio and Car rallies, and the vital role we play. Linked to this we have a rally coming up in Cochrane on March 6th that needs radio operators, come out and enjoy a great day out if you are interested check out https://cara.wildapricot.org/event-2172351 or contact Mark Lunn at mlunn@shaw.ca

Dave

January 2016

VA6DBA — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 18:07:02 GMT

Greetings and Happy New Year to all Hams!

Thank you to all who came and participated in last nights general meeting we had approx 50 attend. There were lots of great sharing of equipment and experience showing the width and depth of our great hobby, and i am sure most of us gained some good knowledge from it.

Again congratulations to the Basic Class of Early and Late 2015, and happy studies to the participants in our current ongoing Advanced Class.

As discussed at the meeting this weekend on Sat Jan 30th there will be a VHF Fox hunt, if you are interested meet at the Sunridge coffee Klatch at 8:30am to find out details and the process of what will be a great fun morning.

Keep an eye on Twitter for more information and for other activities.

On Feb 8th and 9th is our Casino @Cash Casino that funds the majority of the projects Cara does we still need more volunteers (ideally 15 more) to cover the evening and night (cash room shift) if you are able to help check out the web https://cara.wildapricot.org/event-2044689 or email Dale at
dolson@shaw.ca .

Next month (Feb) meeting will be co-presented by CARA and the Calgary Sports Car Club about ham radio and Car rallies, and the vital role we play.

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

December 2015

VA6DBA — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 23:55:28 GMT

Greetings and Merry Christmas to all Hams!

Thanks for Bill VE6WK for his show and tell at the last meeting, his Raspberry Pi based portable Azimuth/Elevation rotator system was very impressive, as was the QSO with a ham satellite at the end of the meeting.

Also thanks to Lawence VE6LS for his introduction to EME moon bounce, there is some very creative Hams making nice antenna systems to get that tiny signal back!

Congratulations to our 17 2015 Basic Ham class successful candidates., the standard was very high with several 100% and several very close.

Our January 2016 General meeting on Jan 26th at our regular meeting place of the Calgary Sports Car Club will be a follow up for them to welcome them to CARA, starting at 7:00pm from now onward (not 7:30pm) this will be an extended show and tell, bring along your experiences and equipment to share and show the length and breadth of this amazing hobby to our new hams and any others you may know who are interested in becoming hams.

Also on January 12th our Advanced class starts for 16 weeks, check our website for more details.

Lastly we still need more volunteers for our next Casino on Feb 8 & 9 2016

contact Mike VE6TC at nrossairdrie@shaw.ca or Dale VE6QDO@shaw.ca for more details the AGLC Form is at http://cara.memberlodge.com/Resources/Documents/AGLCForm0001.pdf that needs to be filled out and passed back to the above for forwarding to AGLC. This is how we fund the majority of our projects and operations so it's important for us to staff well, check website for more details.

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

ps. Note start time of general meetings is now 7 pm for show and tell not 7:30pm as before.

November 2015

VA6DBA — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 20:51:12 GMT

Greeting to all Hams!

Thank you to all the volunteers that came out to the Radium Car Rally, another succesful event.

Also thanks for the good attendance and feedback from our last general meeting, the new show and tell format for the first 30 mins was well received.

This months meeting (24th Nov) show and tell at 7:30pm is by Bill VE6WK:

Portable Azimuth/Elevation rotator system based on hobby servos and the Raspberry Pi.

The main presentation (8pm) is:

"an introduction to EME (moon bounce) communications"

By lawrence VE6LS.

Both should be very interesting.

Also this month some of you noticed that VE6RYC UHF changed to 'Buzzes and squawks' this is in fact a trial of DMR digital radio, we have joined a worldwide network that allows us to talk with very high quality at a local, Provincial, Canada Wide, North America and Worldwide talk groups, the immediate activity shows its popular.

The connection works with very frugal network requirements via CARANet.

The Radios required aren't very expensive (Around $200 for a handheld and around $400 for a mobile) there will be a show and tell coming in future months to demonstrate, during last year this technology was demonstrated by Don VE6XPR from Ontario.

Thanks to the repeater group for getting it installed.

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

October 2015

VA6DBA — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 21:51:36 GMT

Greeting to all Hams!

October brought the SARA Flea market it was good to catch up with many of you and the local ham community.

The response to the member survey has been excellent thank you for taking the time to give us you input so far we have 63 responses, it will remain open until this months general meeting. We will be publishing the summarized results within a few weeks of the close, your executive take your suggestions very seriously there will be some changes and some good discussion as a result.

To try something new the general meeting this month on Oct 27th will start with a 30 minute show and tell starting at 7:30pm. This month it will be about the Raspberry Pi and ham radio by Robyn Greig VE6RBN the main program at 8 pm. will be a review of the recent trip to Pigeon Mountain and the current status of CaraNet (CARA's wide area IP based network)

At the end of the month (31st and 1st of Nov) is the Radium Car Rally around Invermere BC we still need more volunteers to make this event successful, Please contact Dave Cason @ dcason@shaw.ca or call 587 215-8165 or call 403 560-9020 for more information.

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

September 2015

VA6DBA — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 02:47:41 GMT

Greetings to all Hams!

With September comes CARA's new year, there has been a few changes across the Summer, the website being a big part of that, thank you to all those involved, it's a work in progress but the emphasis on a cleaner less cluttered interface is i am sure welcome to most of you!

Also with our new year comes membership renewals at $35 for regular renewing members this remains outstanding value, and of course as a member gives you a vote at business meetings.

Coming soon is a member survey, we want to here from you and your views on the many aspects of CARA what we get right and what needs more work, this is your club, your executive represents you not just internally but to the greater Canadian and Worldwide community, so please give the survey the few minutes it will take to help us keep improving.

This months general meeting will be about field day and the great success it was thank you for your efforts as CARA hams and the greater ham community that made it a great event, I hope to have more opportunities for the greater ham community to come together regardless of which club we are part of in the future!

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

June 2015

Frank-Michael Hofmann — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:12:54 GMT

Greetings to All Hams,

We had a good general meeting on May 26th “HF Radio for New Hams” was well attended.

Thank you Jerry Spring VE6TL for the work preparing and presenting.

This month on June 23rd there meeting will be a presentation about CARA’s Repeater Systems.

This year’s field day will be on June 27th this year will be several Clubs getting together at Sheppard Family Park in High River. It will be a great opportunity to get on the air and also as a good chance to meet up with other hams.

go to https://sites.google.com/site/2015fieldday/ or https://cara.wildapricot.org/event-1878455 for more details.

Thank you for your continued support.

73 de VA6DBA
Dave Wick President CARA