Oakville Amateur Radio Club

The The O.A.R.C./ B.A.R.C. FD 2009 Report June 23, 2009 06-23-2009 06:20PM

Issue 3 June 23, 2009 The Oakville/Burlington Amateur Radio Clubs Field Day 2009 Newsletter. This will be the last FDR before Field day. I hope to see you there. THE LOCATION 4480 Appleby Line, Burlington From Oakville/ Burlington: Take the QEW (or Dundas) to Appleby Line. North on Appleby Line to past 2 RR (The Church is on your left at the corner). The site is north of the church's north parking lot on the left. Look for orange marker cones near gated entrance. ARRIVAL When you arrive please check in to the INFO TENT for instructions. Talk in will be on both Burlington and Oakville VHF repeaters. Normal arrival time is from 8 to 9 a.m.. THINGS TO BRING Please bring appropriate clothing for the weather. We are asking Operators to also bring some form of ID such as a name badge or hat with your call on it so that everyone can get to know each other and to help the Army Cadets identify people. If you don't have something we have a limited supply of badges at the INFO TENT. Don't forget the sun screen lotion and portable chairs (Operating chairs will be provided at the stations). After the morning set up please stay and enjoy lunch. Once the main stations are functioning then we will turn our attention to the GREAT BALLOON ANTENNA for the GOTA station( weather and luck permitting). THINGS TO REMEMBER Some important points: " The EQUIPMENT we are using belongs to someone. Please use care while operating it and if your unsure about something please ask. " NO SMOKING on the site except in designated areas. We do not want to risk a fire in the field. " Please read the FIELD NOTICE sign(s) " Do not enter the ARMY CADET area without permission from an OFFICER. " If you are bringing equipment to the site please make sure your CALL and NAME are on it before you arrive. " Field Telephones are being provided by the Cadets. IN AN EMERGENCY a single VERY LONG RING should be sent. Please pick up the hand set if you hear one. The INFO TENT will be monitoring the local weather and will also act as the on site communications nexus (Field telephones, GMRS and VHF frequencies). " Visitors to the site will be identified by a red badge, please greet them, make them feel comfortable and answer their questions about Amateur Radio, Field Day and our clubs and organizations. BBQ Don't forget about the BBQ on Saturday. Rod,VE3RHF tells me that the grills will be started at 4:30 with the food being ready somewhere around 5 p.m. A $5.00 donation, (per person), will get you a great meal. An excellent opportunity for a meet and greet. This is being put on by the parents of the Cadets, don't miss it! THE SCHEDULE Here is the tentative schedule for this weekend: " SATURDAY " 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Site Arrival, Sign In, Groups and Briefing " 9:00 - 10:15 a.m. Site Policing (clean-up) and Tent(s) Setup " 10:00 - 12:15 p.m. Generator Setup, Distribution, Grounding, Tests " 10:30 - 1:30 p.m. Stations Setup " 10:30 - 1:00 p.m. Masts, Tower(s) and Antennas " 12:00 - 2:15 p.m. Lunch available * " 1:30 - 2:00 p.m. Stations Operational Tests " 2:00 ********** EVENT START ********* " 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. GOTA / Balloon/Education Activity Setup " 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. BBQ/Dinner Break " 6:10 - 6:15 p.m. Gen Set Refuel and Oil Check (1) " SUNDAY " 12:10 - 12:15 a.m. Gen Set Refuel and Oil Check (2) " 6:10 - 6:15 a.m. Gen Set Refuel and Oil Check (3) " 11:15 - 12:00 p.m. Solar Station ( one of 3A stations) " 2:00 **********EVENT ENDS ********** " 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Site Breakdown and Clean Up " 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. Final Policing Well there you have it, let's have a fun and safe weekend, learn something and enjoy. See you there! 73's George Davis, VE3OGP, Field Day Coordinator FIELD DAY, JUNE 27th and 28th, 2009 The The O.A.R.C./ B.A.R.C. FD 2009 Report May 9, 2009 09-20-2009 09:20PM Issue 2 May 19,2009 The Oakville/Burlington Amateur Radio Clubs Field Day 2009 Newsletter. As indicated in the last issue the site has been picked and has now been posted on the ARRL Field Day Locater page of their website. The address is: 4480 Appleby Line, Burlington. This is just north of the 2nd side road, on the west side. To use the ARRL locater go to: http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/locator.php and search for VE3HB. Also, Chuck, VE3IUO placed a location beacon on VE3RSB's APRS digipeater, so if you look on http://aprs.fi, you'll see the Field Day site identified. This site is truly an undeveloped field, with lots of opportunities to test our "Ham ingenuity". BBQ The Oakville 1188 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps, The Lorne Scots, will be participating in Field Day, helping during set up, learning about Amateur Radio in general and operating during the event. They will be camping at the site starting on Friday afternoon. Our liaison to them will be Rod Hardman, Captain (ret.),VE3RHF. The Officers, Cadets and the Parent Support Committee will host a Family and Community BBQ, Saturday around 5:00p.m., on the Trinity Baptist Church north parking lot (located adjacent to the FD Site). Hamburger or hotdog, salad, corn on the cob, a drink and a healthy dessert are planned for the menu at this time, (the recommended minimum donation is $5.00/person).*** The BBQ will be an excellent time to mingle with all the various members of the groups involved in this years Field Day. If you plan on attending please let one of the planning group know A.S.AP. so that we can order sufficient quantities of food etc. Family members are encouraged to attend, bring them out and show them what happens at the Field Day site. *** Due to food serving regulations the Cadets will not be selling tickets for the BBQ, instead donations will be accepted. OPERATORS NEEDED! Your Field Day Committee is well into the final planning stages of the event. Equipment does not appear to be a problem at this time; we seem to have enough items (including critical backup equipment). What is needed now are committed Operators, Station Managers, Equipment Manager, Bonus Points Manager etc. We will be running as a 3A site, a Phone station, a CW station and a Digital station. Plus there will be a GOTA station, 6mt./vhf/uhf station, Packet (VHF) station and even a Satellite station. Lots of things going on to peak your interest, so please let us know that you're coming out. Please note that if you are planning to bring a personal piece of equipment, such as a key or headphones, make sure your name or call is on it AND you sign it in and out with the on site Equipment Manager. With such a large site we are trying to make sure things don't get lost, misplace or stolen. If you wish to volunteer for anything please contact me at gdavis@interhop.net Please include “FD” in the subject line. You can also go to the Wiki page at http//va3tsk.trasuk.comfor more information. Don't forget to check out the O.A.R.C. web site for site map(s), the days schedule and updated information as well. Final Details will be in the next FD 2009 report. 73's George Davis, VE3OGP, Field Day Coordinator FIELD DAY, JUNE 27th and 28th, 2009 The O.A.R.C. FD 2009 Report Mar 19, 2009 09-19-2009 02:50PM Issue 1 March 19,2009 Welcome to the first of the Oakville Amateur Radio Club's Field Day 2009 newsletter. I hope to use this and the web site, www.oakvilleamateurs.net, as a means to keep everyone informed of what we have planned for Field Day. Many thanks to our web master Brian, VE3DNF, for his continuing work on the site. FD 2008 Last year we held field day at the Halton Regions north parking lot for a second time. The site was set up as a 2A station with an additional GOTA and 6Mt-VHF station. . There were a total of 20 participants, of which, 4 were members of the A.R.E.S. group. The site also had 6 visitors. A big thanks to all. The final point tally that was sent to ARRL came to 4680. Total number of contacts was 1157. According to the ARRL web site we placed 1st in Ontario and 3rd in Canada. Congratulations to all participants. FD 2009 NEW FOR THIS YEAR! FIELD DAY WILL BE A JOINT OPERATION WITH THE BURLINGTON CLUB! This year field day will be held on the weekend of June 27-28, 2008. The Executive of both clubs have agreed to run a joint exercise. This will allow us to have a larger base of people and equipment upon which to draw, taking some of the stress away from the organizers and adding to the FUN FACTOR! The site will operate as a 3A station, with plans to include the GOTA, VHF stations and a Satellite station. Also new this year will be the location. It will be a "real field" just north of RR 2 on Appleby Line. A site survey has been conducted on the 22 acre site and planning of the site continues. A Family BBQ/ Meet and Greet dinner for Saturday is in the works to encourage those eyeball QSO between the clubs and the Oakville Army Cadets will be on site to help out during FD and learn more about Amateur Radio in general. If you wish to volunteer for anything please contact me at gdavis@interhop.net Include “FD” in the subject line. You can also go to the Wiki page at http//va3tsk.trasuk.comfor more information. 73's George Davis, VE3OGP, Field Day Coordinator The O.A.R.C. FD 2009 Report Aug 07, 2008 08-07-2008 03:50PM Issue 4 August 7,2008 THE RESULTS Field Day 2008 has come and gone and as the dust settled I have finalized the point score for VE3HB and our GOTA station,VE3OGP. CW 738 POINTS 1476 PHONE 419 POINTS 419 TOTAL 1157 for 1895 With the bonus points our claimed total is 4640. Last year our total was 4968 with 1264 contacts. FD SUMMARY It wouldn't be Field Day without something going wrong! So what happened? In Milton we had rain early Saturday morning which required me to repack the trailer. This delayed my arrival at the site and slowed the set up. The Genset failed and we had to borrow one from Derek, VE3DDL, for the CW station while another was obtained for the Phone station, which was off the air for a while. When we got all the stations on the air some more problems were encountered. During the night the other generator started to act up which resulted in more down time. Talking to various participants, it was felt that the CW and Phone antennas ends were too close to each other and there was mutual coupling causing interference to the Phone station. An easy fix for this would be to move the CW station to the center of the parking lot and adjust the position of the Phone station antenna. The Phone station also had a problem with RF, likely due to running the ladder line of the G5RV antenna across the top of the tent as well as not twisting this feedline. The GOTA station only had 1 operator this year so we missed out on a lot of points there. Bonus points were about the same as last year so I think the difference between this year and last is probably due to the down time caused by the power problems. We can maximize the bonus points next year if we assign the job of coordinating just these points to one person. As Harry,VA3EC, pointed out, 100 bonus points equals 50 hard won CW contacts. THE COST For those who like to know "How Much", the total cost of this years FD came in at $262.87. This was over the $200.00 originally budgeted, but that estimate did not include the parts and labour costs to fix the original dirt problem in the genset. A detailed breakdown is available on our web site. FINALLY My thanks to all that came out and made this Field Day a success. Don't forget to check out the web site for the pictures! If you need to contact me regarding FD please email me at oarc.fd@interhop.net. 73's George, VE3OGP, F.D.C.

The O.A.R.C. FD 2008 Report June 11, 2008 06-11-2008 04:50PM

SITE UPDATE Thanks to Derek, VE3DDL, for confirming with the Region our intent to use the parking lot. Directions and site maps outlining the suggested stations setup and locations are now available on the web site. If you have any suggestions concerning these, please let me know. THE SCHEDULE • SATURDAY • 6:30 -8:30 a.m. Breakfast at GK Fifties Diner • 8:30 -9:00 a.m. Site Arrival, Sign In, Groups and Briefing • 9:00 -10:15 a.m. Site Policing (clean-up) and Tent(s) Setup • 10:00 -12:15 p.m. Generator Setup, Distribution, Grounding, Tests • 10:30 -1:30 p.m. Stations Setup • 10:30 -1:00 p.m. Antennas • 12:00 -2:15 p.m. Lunch available * • 1:30 -2:00 p.m. Stations Operational Tests • 2:00 ********** EVENT START ********* • 2:00 -3:00 p.m. GOTA / Education Activity Setup • 6:00 -7:30 p.m. Dinner Break • 6:10 -6:15 p.m. Gen Set Refuel and Oil Check (1) • SUNDAY • 12:10 - 12:15 a.m. Gen Set Refuel and Oil Check (2) • 6:10 -6:15 a.m. Gen Set Refuel and Oil Check (3) • 11:15 - 12:00 p.m. Solar Station ( one of 2A stations) • 2:00 **********EVENT ENDS ********** • 2:00 -4:00 p.m. Site Breakdown and Clean Up • 5:00 -5:30 p.m. Final Policing At this time lunch is planned to be a cold meat buffet etc. Drinks will be water and various sodas. Bottled water will be available throughout FD. IMPORTANT INFO . Safety First . This is a parking lot so bring suitable headwear and lots of sun protection . We are guests of the Halton Region, please conduct yourselves accordingly . NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES PLEASE . There are no plans to provide dinner . Water and pop will be available during the event. . This is an opportunity to promote our hobby, please take the time to introduce yourselves to any visitors. . Unless the buildings are open for other events there will be NO washrooms available; (Tim Hortons down the road is 24hr.) . Please bring your cameras/video so we can post on the web site. . If your just visiting please bring some chairs and enjoy FD RULES CHANGES A reminder of the rule changes for this year’s field day. The GOTA station is now allowed to operate in the VHF bands. This does not affect the VHF bonus station for 2A and up categories. Who can operate the GOTA has changed slightly, but this should not be a problem for us. If you operated the GOTA station last year you are not eligible for this year but if you have been inactive on HF for about 1 ½ to 2 years your good to go. Also you can still go and operate on the regular stations after your stint on the GOTA station. If in doubt talk to the FDC before going on the air. Visitors and family can also operate the GOTA station with the supervision of the control operator. Youths (18 and under), who make one QSO at any of our stations will earn us additional bonus points. Also in the bonus area, the “Demonstration Bonus” has been replaced with an “Educational Activity Bonus”. One suggestion for this would be showing how the A.R.E.S. Powerpole connectors are setup and installed. If you have any other ideas please let me know. EQUIPMENT Last year actual radio gear was not a problem and I hope that to be the case again. However we did have a need for tents or shelters (free standing preferred), fans, table lights, chairs etc. We were able to gather what we needed, but if you have something you think we can use please let me know as soon as possible so that I can plan ahead. Don’t be afraid to throw that old dipole in the trunk “just in case”. PERSONEL ON SITE When you arrive on site please check in with me at the First aid station. There will be an operator/logger sign up sheet for each station available for you to choose a time/task if you want, (on a first come basis). If there is a time you know you would like before hand, just drop me an email and I will pencil you in. Time slots are divided in 1-hr. increments. As in previous years logging will be done on the computers, the 2A stations will probably be Writelog and the others on a generic program I have. “Field Day” is for the entire weekend but you don’t have to be there all the time. For instance, you may want to help with the set up then come back and operate or log at a later time, (just make sure to call on the repeater for a “Timmies run” before coming back!). If you want to do something in particular or aren’t sure of what is needed please contact me at gdavis@interhop.net Include “FD” in the subject line. THE LAST PAGE Included with this report is a notice that you might want to print and put up at your work, school or other local community bulletin boards. It is the modified version of our press release that Peter,VE3HG, wrote for us. FINALLY I hope to see you all out on June 28-29, your participation is critical to our success and fun. George Davis, VE3OGP, Field Day Coordinator The O.A.R.C. FD 2008 Report Oakville Amateur Radio Club Ham Radio Operators show off Amateur Radio for Halton Region residents Public Demo of Emergency Communications June 28-29 Oakville, Ontario – Thousands of Ham Radio enthusiasts from across North America will be showing off their emergency capabilities June 28 to 29 and operators from Halton Region amateur radio clubs will be part of the action. Operating from the parking lot of the Halton Regional Centre on Bronte Road (north building parking lot on east side of Hwy 25/Bronte Road, north of the QEW), Ham operators will setup a simulated emergency communications network capable of communicating with other Hams from around the world on June 28 to June 29. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications in emergencies including the California wildfires, Oregon and Michigan storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio – often called “Ham radio” - was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property. In China, Ham Radio is relatively new but Hams from across that vast country are still providing emergency communications following the recent wide-spread earthquakes which claimed so many lives and destroyed entire communities. The annual Field Day event helps local Hams and Hams across the continent to practice their emergency communications skills using voice, digital modes and even good old fashion Morse Code over a 24-hour test of equipment and endurance. The public is always welcome to see this demonstration of Ham Radio from noon Saturday to noon Sunday. For more information see www.oakvilleamateurs.net/ www.oakvilleamateurs.net/ or contact us at: oarc.fd@interhop.net