WestCumb  Amateur  Radio Club  VE1WRC

It is with great sadness that I report that Bob Tuttle VE1DR has passed away at his home in Pugwash Junction NS.

Bob had been a long time member of the WestCumb ARC.

He was a regular net controller on the morning Wake-Up Net, back-up NCO for the WestCumb 2 Meter Net, one of several WARC operators that participated in the YMCA Cross border challenge, auxiliary member of Cumberland REMO and first operator of the VE1PFD ham radio station at the Pugwash Fire Hall and the North Cumberland Memorial Hospital.

Bob was also the “Talk-in Host” for the SMART Symposium guiding hams to the regular event in Springhill NS.

Bob was very interested in being part of the new VE1AMH Fusion repeater for Amherst and donated half of the funds needed to get the repeater up and running and the only request from him was to name the repeater in memory of his late wife Florence Tuttle.

Bob will be dearly missed by many hams around the Maritimes.

Below is a picture of Bob at his home in Pugwash Junction taken in October 2020 after we finished setting up his new fusion radio and installing a new dual band antenna at his home. The other photo is Bob (center) at the YMCA Cross Border Challenge.

No information at this time for his obit but will forward when available. Mundle Funeral Home Pugwash NS

Bob Tuttle VE1DR, this station has gone silent.

Cumberland Regional Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Johnson, has decided it is time to retire. Johnson has been in the role since 2014.

“Mike has served our region well over the last seven years guiding us through some of the most memorable situations of our lives,” said Greg Herrett, CAO for the Municipality of Cumberland. “I want recognize and thank Mike for his leadership and tireless devotion to his responsibilities.”

In his role, Johnson has been responsible for coordinating municipal responses to events such as Hurricane Dorian, the Oxford sinkhole, flooding of the Tantramar Marsh and other low-lying dykelands, closures of the Trans-Canada Highway and emergency preparedness education.

Over the years, Johnson engaged many stakeholders such as the local amateur radio club, NS emergency management office, local ground search and rescue groups, fire and policing services, NS Department of Health and many other volunteers and organizations. These relationships have ensured a coordinated and organized approach to emergency management activities in the Cumberland region.

Recently, Johnson was recognized by the Municipality of Cumberland for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to serving the Municipality of Cumberland and the Towns of Amherst and Oxford as the Cumberland Regional Emergency Management Coordinator, Johnson enjoyed a 30-year career with the RCMP.

“Mike’s boots will be big ones to fill,” Herrett said as he noted that the process to search for a replacement will begin immediately.

Greetings all club members,

This is to inform all amateur radio operators of implementation of a Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System (CTCSS) addition to the VE1BHS VHF repeater.

For all amateur radio operators’ end users, only the CTCSS encode function (no tone squelch) will be required with an assigned frequency of 88.5 Hertz.

The CTCSS activation will commence May 1, 2021 at 12 am local.

This is in part mostly due to an ongoing (almost two years and counting) QRM triggering the receiver COR which in turn activates the repeater transmitter with noise related signal from an unknown origin.

To date the source of the QRM has not been indentified or located even after major VHF multi-coupler retuning-verification in 2020 with a Siglent SSA3021X spectrum analyzer.

If you have questions in related to this notice regarding CTCSS activation at VE1BHS repeater, send your query to me directly.

73,

Greetings all club members,

We had a great meeting tonight with 22 members online.

Highlights included passing a motion to allow e-transfers to be used to pay bills for the club.

New study Guides will be ordered which will also include a couple of advanced guides to go along with the basic guides.

The club welcomed a new member tonight Bob MacWilliams VE1AJQ. Bob lives just outside Sackville NB. Welcome aboard Bob.

The club net is doing very well with almost 50 check-ins per week now.

The club congratulated Dana Rushton VE1VOX on the record he set for a satellite contact recently.

Robert VE1RMJ experimented with having a live feed via YouTube. This may come in handy for those who just want to take in the meetings without actually being connected with Google Meet.

More on this at a later date.

Next meeting March 2nd, 2021