VE1EKV Repeater

 To access the VE1EKV repeater you must program your radio to transmit a sub-audible tone of 67.0 Hz on the repeater's input frequency.  Your radio's user's manual will have instructions on how to do this.

November 11 Certificate

 

Thanks to Chuck (VE1SOL) two heavy duty deep cycle batteries were installed in the club's repeater building and were connected to the 146,730 repeater on January 13, 2024,  That means that our repeater will be available during power outages and other equipment will be connected in the future.

 At the club's Saturday gathering on November 11, 2023, Bill Crawford VE1ALG was presented with a new Yaesu FTM=3100 2 meter transceiver in appreciation of his hosting of the Captain's Net almost every day for more than 20 years.

 Brass Sign

This is a 1/8" thick brass sign found by one of my daughters at a yard sale.  When radio installations were made on older ships in the 1920s and 30s, sometimes a new cabin was built to house them and it was called the Radio House.

There was one such ship in the 1959 Eastern Arctic Patrol Convoy that I took part in, she was the icebreaker "N.B. Maclean" (Call sign CGSN) and her radio house was at the stern.  I was the 3rd Radio Officer on the Arctic resupply and hospital ship "C.D. Howe" (Call Sign CGSS.)  Our radio room was on the bridge deck.

Ham Radio Documentary

This is a 25 minute documentary from Jim, VE1RB, who suggested that it be posted on the club's site. https://www.montanapbs.org/programs/ham/

This is the type of antenna array that Bernie used to bounce signals off the moon.

 

Canadian Amateur Radio Organizations

 This certificate showed up in a desk drawer and it reminded me of the various Amateur Radio Organizations there have been in Canada.  In 1920 the CRRL or Canadian Radio Relay League was formed as a branch of the ARRL.  In 1967 CARF  the Canadian Amateur Radio Federation was formed and it was independent of CRRL.  In 1993 CRRL and CARF joined forces and became RAC or Radio Amateurs of Canada and RAC is still our national organization.  The provinces and territories have their own organizations and ours is The Nova Scotia Amateur Radio Association, or NSARA.  

 Congratulations to Dennis d'Entremont - VE1XT - who is our new Accredited Examiner for the Amateur Radio Qualifications.  Dennis will replace David Vail - VE1GM - who has held the post for close to 30 years.

Memorial Plaque

Max (VE1IC) had this nice plaque made and it was mounted beside the door of the communications room at the Yarmouth REMO building during the club gathering on Saturday July 10, 2021.
 

 Received from Dennis - VE1XT...The situation re gatherings at

the clubhouse will be reviewed on May 17th.

Notice of change in meeting schedule...At the Saturday gathering on April 17, 2021 a motion was made, seconded and unanimously adopted that we change our monthly meetings from the third Tuesday evening each month to the third Saturday morning of each month beginning at 10:30 AM.  This will be convenient for members who live outside of town.

Amateur of the Year Award

As you know, our club nominated Bernie Bonnar for RAC's Amateur of the Year Award for the year 2020.  Unfortunately our nominee wasn't chosen and the award went to Al Penney, VO1NO.

Following the passing of our former chairman Bernie Bonnar (VE1UT) the club executive has appointed Jim Harris (VE1RB) as chairman and Dennis d'Entremont (VE1XT) as vice chairman.  David Doucette (VE1JC) remains as secretary and David Vail (VE1GM) remains as treasurer.

 Our club president Bernie Bonnar (VE1UT) became a silent key early in the morning of January 30. 2021 in the Yarmouth hospital.  Our national organization Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) chooses a nominee to be their Amateur of the Year and members of the club's executive, along with Bernie's wife Veralyn (VE1VAR) composed an application nominating Bernie for that award.  We intended to keep it a secret but when Bernie's health kept deteriorating, his daughter Bernadette read it to him in his hospital bed, so he died knowing how much he was respected by his ham radio friends.  Here is the application.  We don't yet know if he was chosen.

                                      Bernard J. Bonnar – VE1UT

 Bernie was born in Tracy, NB 1n 1932 and at the age of 15 he developed an interest in Amateur Radio and acquired a war surplus R1155 receiver, a code practice oscillator and a hand key.  He acquainted himself with several established amateurs and listened to and practised Morse Code until he felt comfortable enough to write the Amateur Examination

 which he did in 1950 and was assigned the call sign VE1UT which he still holds 70 years later. After the mandatory year on CW only, he passed the Advanced Amateur exam.

 Bernie worked in several different areas, always setting up a station wherever he went, his final career was with the former CNCP Telecommunications which took him to various locations in the Maritime Provinces and occasionally into Quebec.  In 1970 he moved to Yarmouth and joined the local amateur radio club where he held several offices and was an instructor when the club conducted courses.  He later settled in Hebron, a village near Yarmouth.  Bernie was a pioneer in the use of the VHF and UHF bands in this area and was instrumental in the setting up of our first VHF repeater, building or supplying many items such as antennas, preamps etc.  When IRLP came into use, he built and installed  220 MHz Yagi antennas for a link between the local REMO building where our club station is located and the repeater site and supplied and installed the linking radios at both locations.

 He was instrumental in setting up a communications room at the Yarmouth REMO and another one at a secondary site outside of town in case the first one becomes unusable.   He arranged the acquisition and installation of an HF transceiver at the secondary site that is remotely accessed via the Internet, making the Yarmouth club the first one on the East Coast to have such a facility.  It’s available for club members to use if their equipment is down or if they are unable to have an HF antenna at home.  One member used it during an 8 week stay at a medical facility in Halifax and made daily 80 and 20 metre contacts with friends.

 Bernie developed an interest in EME operations and built a huge antenna array for that purpose and made many contacts all over the world.  His property became known among local hams as Bonnar’s Aluminum Farm.  A big wind storm wrecked the installation some years ago but he still keeps in touch with EME operators by other means.

 He was a leader in supporting Field Day operations and often operated at our installations all through the night.  He organized and set up a station at Cape Forchu Lighthouse at the mouth of Yarmouth harbour for two separate Lighthouses and Lightships on the Air events, both of which were very successful.  He serves on the board of the local EMO (now known as REMO) and participates in their exercises, both table top and in the field.

 When he learned that a federal government department was disposing of a number of VHF mobile and hand held radios he arranged for our club to receive many of them and then had them programmed for local fire departments and the Ground Search Team.  He was a member of and the communications advisor for that team and received an award from the RCMP for 25 years of volunteer service to the team.

Bernie served as president of the Nova Scotia Amateur Radio Association and held regular on-the-air meetings as well as composing a monthly newsletter which, in the days before the Internet, was printed and mailed to the members.

 At the age of 88, Bernie is the respected Chairman of our local club and we hope to hear Victor Echo One United Tango on the air for a long time to come. His wife Veralyn is also an amateur with the call sign VE1VAR and his son Mitchell holds VE1BJE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WAP-WADA Honor Roll Plate to VE1HQ Sheldon R. Donaldson

Congratulations to our club member VE1HQ (Sheldon) for making the WAP-WADA Honor Roll! 

http://www.waponline.it/wap-wada-honor-roll-plate-to-ve1hq-sheldon-r-donaldson/

The club's annual general meeting was held in the REMO Yarmouth building on October 20, 2020 and the incumbent executive officers were re-instated for the 2020-2021 session and are as follows:

Chairman - Bernard Bonnar - VE1UT

Vice Chairman - James Harris - VE1RB

Secretary - David Doucette - VE1JC

Treasurer - David Vail - VE1GM

June 20, 2020 - First Saturday morning gathering in 15 weeks due to Covid 19

Many hams make a change of call sign over time and it’s hard at first to adapt to the new one.  Here are the call signs I have used on the air in the past 63 years:

Ham Radio

VE1SY, VE1AKQ, VE1GM plus VE1GX and VE1YAR on Field Days and 

VE0ME (on the ferries)

Aeronautical and Marine

CYQM (Moncton) CYQI (Yarmouth) and CYFC (Fredericton) Airports

VAU (Yarmouth Marine Radio in Rockville)  

VGA (Lurcher Lightship)  

VGY (Seal Island)

CGSS (Arctic patrol ship "C.D. Howe”)  

VDND (first M.V. “Buenose”) 

GSOC (“Marine Cruiser”  Registered in London)  

C6CA (“Marine Evangeline” later changed to VCQK) 

C6DZ  (second M.V. “Bluenose’)

Lots of opportunities for mixups!

         For guidance in social distancing, this is an illustration of Two Meters.