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.

73

Dave

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

73

Dave

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.

73

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

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.

73

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

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

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.

73

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

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.

73

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

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!

73

Dave VA6DBA
President CARA

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