Club Addresses: Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association 5387 Lost Lake Rd. Nanaimo, B.C. V9T 5E7 www.nara.nisa.com

Volume 58, Number 10

June 2003

Next Nara Meeting: Thursday June 19th, 2003 At the Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Center (At the foot of Wingrove Street.)

Inside: President’s Hot Air ..2

JUNE’S PROGRAM

From the Secretary ..3

Pack up your boat anchors and collect your pennies it’ s time for a NARA Flea Market. We’ ll have plenty of estate sale items which the club would love to see go to good homes. What isn’ t sold will most likely go to the next Ham Happening!

Geocaching ..4 TWO on the Isle ..5 Repeater News ..6

And Don’ t forget to sharpen your pencils because we’ ve got the second installment of our Message Handling practice led by Harry, VA7HL (This was delayed from last meeting)

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Pictogram by Tricia, VE7SPI, answer is at the end of my article.

Static News:

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Next Deadline is Sept. 6, 2003. Submissions to Bill or Marlena.

Congratulations to our raffle winners at May’ s NARA Annual Dinner. Bob Banks, VE7JWB –who was in attendance– won the Dual Time Zone Clock. Merv Pickford, VE7DIJ –not in attendance– won the MFJ Pocket Morse Reader

Affiliated

RAFFLEW INNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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HEADNORTHFORTHE JUNENARADINNER The June 20, NARA Dinner will be held at the North ABC Restaurant (which is on the Woodgrove property). We will plan on meeting there at 5:45 PM and eat at 6:15 PM. Ordering will be by the menu. We will be meeting in a room off the main dining room so it should be easier to talk. CU there. de Frank Merritt, VE7FPM

HOTAIRFROM THEPRESIDENT Happy Spring to all. Here we are again at another Static, and another silent key. I am sad to say that we lost Ted VE7PA, he passed away in NRGH about a week after we lost Barc VE7AAX. I remember Ted as a real gentleman, the very first NARA meeting I attended after moving over from the mainland Ted was the first one to come and shake my hand and introduce himself, and welcome me to the meeting and to Nanaimo. Ted also was probably the longest licensed ham that we had in the association, he was licensed for 70 years, Ted will be remembered, sincere condolences to his family. I am very happy to report that we had a very well attended awards dinner at Alice’s Restaurant on May 10, we had a very good meal, gave away some awards and had a draw for the raffle, and gave away two nice prizes, first of which was a MFJ dual time clock donated by Bill VE7JY, that was won by Bob Banks VE7JWB, the second prize was a MFJ pocket code reader donated by Dick VE7RLH and that was won by Merv Pickford VE7DIJ, congratulations to both. Now to the awards, the CW award went to Gerry VE7BGP for his continued dedication to the dying art of CW , the Amateur of the year went to Dave VE7TWO for his steadfastness and willing to do what it takes to make this a great hobby. The Presidents choice award was an easy choice for me, I knew that it had to be someone that stood out from all the rest, someone that was always there to do whatever, wherever, someone who supported the Nanaimo

Silent Key Announcement It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to yet another of NARA’s most valued members, Ted, VE7PA. It was Ted’s wish that there be no service, however on the day of his death, which happened to be a Saturday, Ted’s son bought coffee for the entire Klatch and we all raised our mugs in his honour. You’ll be greatly missed Ted! — 73

Amateur Radio Association through thick and thin, in what ever contest, or event and was even at the hall waiting to reach out and teach this wonderful hobby to whom ever wanted to learn, even when no one showed up, the award had to go to Gerry Pement VE7BGP. The final award could not be awarded that night for we had not had the contest yet to see who would get the award, that award being the Homebrew award. We held Homebrew contest night at our regular meeting on the 15th of May and had some very interesting pieces to ponder over, in the running for the award was Grant Hannan, VA7GH, Harry Little, VA7HL, and John Fisher, VA7NO. Thanks to all three for bringing your creations for us to see and judge, everyone who attended the meeting had a vote, and the winner of the Homebrew Award for 2003 was Harry Little, VA7HL. My sincere congratulations to all the award winners for 2003. Many interesting things are happening at the meetings of NARA and many more will happen in the future, so if you haven’t been out to a meeting lately please come out and join in on the fun, the June meeting is June 19th at 7:30 PM. This is the last Hot Air From The President until September so I will wish everyone a happy summer and see you in September. 73 de Dick, VE7RLH

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From the Desk of the Secretary Emergency Training News We hope to have another ICS 100 Provincial Emergency Program Training Session soon. If anyone who was not at the last ICS 100, and are interested in the next ICS-100 level training session, give me a call or e-mail me (see below for address), I will put you on the sign up list. If you haven’t taken ICS 100 yet, I highly recommend all club members take ICS 100. It is very important protocol to know in the event of an emergency. Terry, VE7LVD, and myself also recently took a training seminar on Earthquake Search & Rescue. If more Club Members are Interested in taking this training let me know. Training will make us all more useful in the Event of an Emergency. Amateur Training News Anyone interested in classes give me Gerry VE7BGP a call at 758-9035 or E-mail me at [email protected]. Or show up Tuesday Nights at 7:00 PM at the Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Center aka Old Departure Bay Firehall on Wingrove St. Anyone interested in getting a Amateur Radio Qualification Certificate is welcome to show up there. If you want to upgrade to HF privileges by passing the 5 Word Per Minute Morse code test come out on Tuesday’s for practice. At present, 5 WPM is the only code requirement to get your HF operating privileges. With it you can explore the exciting world of the High Frequency Bands. Digital Operating is easier than ever with the recent programs and computer Sound Cards. I am sure if Morse code is dropped from the requirements an Advanced Level of Technical Knowledge will be required for HF privileges, so get your Morse code now! Any one interested in Code Classes show up at the Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Center, aka Old Departure Bay Firehall at 7:00 PM if you are starting out fresh with Morse code. Come later if you have some code knowledge and want practice or If you want help with studying for your Basic Certificate or upgrading to Advanced Certificate come around 7:45 PM. Congratulations to Oliver VE7OLW on passing his Morse code test, and to Pat Harper, now VA7PLH, and Gary Nolin, now VA7GAN, for passing their Basic Certificate.

Other News Band conditions are well into their spring downward spiral and are not quite as good as I reported last month. I have sent and received pictures on MFSK 16. MFSK 16 another great new Digital mode that works great under heavy QRM or QSB. Any one interested in Digital or Digital contesting show up at the May meeting. We will have a variety of digital Modes available at our Club Station soon to be set up. Don’t Forget the Field Day and Canada Day contests. Field day June 28th & 29th at our Club House & Canada Day Contest June 30th at 17:00 hrs PDT 00:00 hrs UTC July 1st at Loyd, VE7FCO’s QTH. The executive meeting is the second Thursday of the month. Please come to the Club meeting to find out what happened at the executive meeting. 73 till Next September have a Great Summer de Gerry VE7BGP, Club Secretary

Contest! June 30 — July 1, 2003

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Notes from the SPI

Geocaching is my latest discovery for enjoying the beautiful outdoors. This is a recreational sport using a GPS (Global Positioning System) and a little sleuthing. Since February I’ ve been going to www. geocaching.com and typing in my postal code to get co-ordinates and clues as to where a particular cache is hidden. The idea is, you find the cache and take out a treasure and put one treasure back. This has been a great way of exploring the local parks as well as a few out-of-the-way places I’ ve never been. The next step I believe I’ ll take is to remember my portable and make signal checks to see the varying ranges of the local repeaters. I hazard to say that Grant Hannan, VA7GH’ s home brew from last month’ s meeting would also come in handy for some of the harder caches. I’ m not sure whether you’ d be able to use his set up instead of a GPS, but it might be worth a try. If this sounds like fun to you and you’ re up to a little exercise check out the web site to find out more. www.geocaching. com If you’ d like to read further about my adventures visit my web site. http: members.shaw.ca/polgara.vale 73 until next time, Enjoy your summer every one! (See you at the Summer contests!) Tricia, VE7SPI

STATIC STAFF Editor: Tricia Marshall Assistant Editor: Dave Marshall Printer: Tricia Marshall Mailer / Labelers: Dave Marshall

VE7SPI VE7TWO VE7SPI VE7TWO

Don’t forget your special privileges for 100 years of radio in the military! Contributed by Harry, VE7BUY Fellow Hams: Thanks to the generous financial support of the Signallers Club of Canada, I wish to inform all that Industry Canada has authorized the use of a "Special Event Prefix" to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Military Communications in Canada. An Industry Canada letter of January 28, 2003, File 6202-2, authorizes the use of a special call sign prefix for ALL CANADIAN AMATEURS during the period of 01-July-2003 to 31-August2003. Special Event Prefixes will be: XM for all VE's XL for all VA's XN for all VO's XO for all VY's (i.e. My call is XL3TRM during that period of time.) I encourage all hams to use this special and to pass this on to all hams in your area, especially those with club newsletters. For more information pertaining to other celebrations planned for the 100th anniversary visit web page at: http://www.commelec.2003.ca Terry Murphy, VA3TRM (E-mail: [email protected]) (Re-printed from February Issue)

Contributors This Issue: Dave, VE7TWO Dick, VE7RLH Tricia, VE7SPI

John, VA7NO Anne, VE7DHK Gerry, VE7BGP Harry, VE7BUY Frank, VE7FPM

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Meeting of the Minds —Digital photo contributed by Anne, VE7DHK

Important Dates to Remember June 19 Flea Market at the regular meeting June 28-29 Field Day Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Centre — Noon to Noon June 30th-July 1st Canada Day Contest 17:00 hrs PDT (24 hr contest) September 13 Ham Happening— More info in September Issue September 20 Annual Fire Fair #2 Fire Hall (volunteers needed)

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ON THE ISLE

After our recent silent keys, how about a few words on the subject of age? The writer Don Marquis, who died at fiftynine, is credited with defining "Middle age [as the time] . . . when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel just as good as ever." Writer George Orwell, who died at forty-six, left these final words in his notebook: "At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves." Ageing is confounding. Communist leader Leon Trotsky, assassinated at sixty, reflected, "Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man"; novelist Anthony Powell, who lived until ninety-four, observed, "Growing old is like being

increasingly penalised for a crime you haven't committed." But we'll close with this perspective from Satchel Paige, who lived until his seventies: "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?" Quoted from: Merriam-Webster Online de Dave VE7TWO

Web Site of the Month If you’ve ever wanted to know a little bit more about PSK31 (which is highly regarded by Dick, Gerry, and John) then you’ll want to visit this web site. http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/psk31.html You’ll find several “accessories” to the program, tips on using your computer effectively, and diagrams on how to set it all up. Thanks John, VA7NO for the great web site!

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REPEATER NEWS The formative meeting of the NARA Repeater Group was held on Thursday, 22 May 2003. There were twelve in attendance. The adopted goals were: 1. Improve coverage of VE7ISC 2. Determine alternate sites for VE7ISC 3. Education, a. Repeater Group and b. NARA membership 4. Ongoing maintenance of repeater/s 5. Future technical developments 6. Documentation and schematics 7. New RF systems (in particular 9.6 kb UHF BBS) 8. IRLP and ECHOLINK. A field trip was held Saturday morning 24, May 2003 to the ISC site to see the existing systems and antennas. It was noted that the manuals for all the equipment have been removed. It is trusted that this will be corrected in the near future. A further Group meeting will be scheduled in the next few weeks to cover new developments and discuss operations. It is hoped that a more permanent Coordinator (or whatever) will be agreed upon in the near future. de Frank, VE7FPM

OFFICERS 2002-2003 President: Dick Hobbis VE7RLH V. President: Roger Stacey VA7RS Secretary: Gerry Pement VE7BGP Treasurer: Dave Marshall VE7TWO I.P. Pres.: Jack Olsen VE7GDE Rotating Static Editors: Tricia Marshall VE7SPI Bill Stewart VE7JY Marlena Willows VE7DFY

390-0181 758-1317 758-9035 758-2549 751-8635 714-6737 758-9752 751-8870

DIRECTORS

Ian Crosby VA7IC Frank Merritt VE7FPM Arnie Stone VE7XAS

756-3865 758-3027 390-4933

COMMITTEES Technical & RFI: Health & Welfare: Training: Field Day: Social: Packet: Repeater: Nanaimo EOC Rep.:

Bill Stewart VE7JY Bill Stewart Jack Olsen VE7GDE Jack Olsen Frank Merritt VE7FPM YOUR NAME HERE Roger Stone VA7RS Terry Curé VE7LVD

Buying? Selling? Contact Bill Stewart at 758-9752 or e-mail to [email protected]

T-SHIRTS STILL AVAILABLE If you would like to own your very own NARA t-shirt all you have to do is fork out $13.00 (incl. tax) to our President Dick, VE7RLH.

Elections in June Should be “Easiest Ever”

Nominated so far are: Vice President Roger VA7RS, Secretary Gerry VE7BGP, Club Historian *new office* Terry VE7LVD, Directors: Chris VE7TOP, Ian VA7IC, Frank VE7FPM, Richard VA7MJR. If you would like to participate in the elections as a candidate or a voter please attend this month’ s meeting.