WestCumb ARC

News & Information

June 23rd, 2018

The WestCumb ARC participated again in this year's Cross Border Challenge. This is the tenth anniversary for the event and the club has taken part each year providing communications. There were 46 messages exchanged throughout the day.

This is the last club event until the September annual meeting. Everyone have a wonderful summer and see you then.

Thanks to Ron Bickle VE1BIC for the photo.

L to R: Ron Bickle VE1BIC, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Bob Tuttle VE1DR, Ron Blue VE1BBB, Peter Hebb VE1SM and Kevin Burke VE1KEV. Missing from photo, Mike Johnson VE1MWJ.

June 8th, 2018

There was a good turnout at the final club meeting of the WestCumb ARC for 2017-18. Twenty Nine members and family arrived to first take in the annual members apperiation barbecue put on by the executive to thank the members for their support over the year. Hamburgers and hot dogs were presented with soft drinks.

After the meal the meeting was brought to order and most of the short meeting talked about the upcoming YMCA Cross Border Race on June 23rd. If interested in helping provide communications for this contact Kevin Burke VE1KEV at 902-694-9202.

After a Q&A on the MESH network the club voted to purchase a couple of units to tour around the county this summer to see where they will work. Robert Mannette VE1RMJ will be looking after this.

Hope everyone has a great summer and hope to see you in the fall at our annual meeting on Sept.6th, 2018.

Thanks to Robert VE1RMJ for the photos.

May 21st, 2018

There were 16 members in attendance Saturday at the monthly club brunch which was held this month in Parrsboro at the Harbour View Restaurant. Thanks to Ron Bickle VE1BIC for the pictures.

May 11th, 2018

There were fourteen amateurs attending the MESH class last night in Amherst put on by Steve Frost VE9SF. The class lasted just over an hour and then about forty five minutes for Questions & Answers. Steve went over all the basics of what is needed to set up a MESH network and had the equipment to show the class. Everyone seem to enjoy the class and this will be brought up at our next club meeting in June. In time the WestCumb ARC would like to have a Network set up to include most of Cumberland county and link into New Brunswick up to Moncton.

MESH Resources:

Steve Frost VE9SF

[email protected]

506-382-6572

AREDN Homepage - https://www.aredn.org/

Fleet network - Source of Ubiquiti equipment

https://fleetnetwork.ca/

Airlink Link Planner - https://link.ubnt.com/

May 6th, 2018

The regular club meeting of the WestCumb ARC was held this past Thursday. There was plenty of talk about SMART 2018 and how to improve on it next year.
Mike Johnson VE1MWJ REMO Coordinator for Cumberland Co. passed out new EMO Auxiliary ID cards to registered members of the club. For those who were not in attendance the cards are in his office if you drop by. There was also a draft drawn up by Mike Johnson for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the County of Cumberland and the WestCumb ARC. Amateurs were given copies and ask to look it over and bring any questions or comments to the meeting in June.
Mike Masters VE1ZB and Robert Mannette VE1RMJ gave a talk about DMR and the group is looking for funding for a local C-Bridge here in the Maritimes. The club is looking for more information about this before voting on a donation but Mike has starting taking donations from interested amateurs. If you would like to donate contact Mike Masters at [email protected]
Kevin Burke VE1KEV has made plans with Steve Frost VE9SF to have a MESH class at the County building on Thursday May 10th, beginning at 7pm. This should be a interesting evening of learning.
Brad Ross VE1ZX won the 50/50 this month and donated his half to the C-Bridge proposal.
The next club brunch will be in Parrsboro at the Harbour View Restaurant on May 19th, beginning at 11am. Come early for a good seat.
The next club meeting will be our last of the fiscal year. It will be held on June 7th, beginning at 6:30pm (note the time) with the annual "Members Barbecue" put on by the executive to thank the members for their support over the past year. There will be a regular club meeting after the barbecue.
See you there.

Apr.21st, 2018

Here are a couple of pictures taken today at the WestCumb ARC brunch in Oxford. Looks like there were 14 in attendance. Thanks to Robert VE1RMJ for the photos.

Apr.5th, 2018

The regular club meeting of the WestCumb ARC was held last night at the ED Fullerton building in Upper Nappan. There were 16 members taking part. There was talk on MESH, repeaters and SMART coming up at the end of the month. There are now thirteen club members using the DMR repeater including myself who purchased a radio last week. It has been fun to learn the new mode and play with the code plugs. A special thanks to Robert VE1RMJ who upgraded firmware for three of these radios last night during the meeting. Greatly appreciated Rob.
Tickets are now available for the grand prizes at SMART. Several club members have the tickets for sale.
Club members who are volunteering for SMART are asked to be at the Springhill community centre on Friday evening Apr.27th at 6pm to help set up for the event. Volunteers are also asked to be at the Centre at 7am on the 28th.
The 50/50 was won by Don Roland VE1AOE who donated his winnings back to the club. Thanks Don.
The next club brunch will be held on Apr. 21st at the Parkview Family Restaurant in Oxford.
SMART 2018 will be Apr.28th at the Dr Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre in Springhill.
Next club meeting will be May 3rd at the ED Fullerton building in Upper Nappan.
Thanks To Ron VE1BIC for the photos.

Mar. 2nd, 2018

The regular club meeting of the WestCumb ARC was held last night at the ED Fullerton building. Fourteen members were in attendance with guest Hal Rodd from Truro who joined the club at the end of the meeting.
Talks included EMO, MESH and SMART and at the end of the meeting there was an auction of amateur radio equipment. Equipment that was not sold last night will be taken to the 2018 SMART and hopefully will sell there. Proceeds will be divided 50/50 between the amateur and the club.
The regular 50/50 was won by Mike Johnson VE1MWJ.
The next club brunch will be Mar.17th at Patterson's in Sackville NB
Next club meeting Thursday April 5th, 2018

Mar.2nd, 2018

Cumberland REMO along with the WestCumb ARC traveled to Collingwood NS yesterday to install an amateur radio station at their new Fire Hall.
We arrived at 9:30am and were met by Chief Jake Cotton and Terry Stone.
Two lines of coax cable were run from the radio room to the outside of the building. Connectors were soldered on, the amateur radio station was installed and Robert Mannette VE1RMJ stopped by and helped assemble the amateur radio antenna.
Later in the morning Kenny Gilbert's bucket truck arrived and the fire dept's antennas were removed from the old fire hall and installed at the new hall. The amateur radio antenna was also installed and the cable was attached.
Test were done with the fire radio and the amateur radio and both stations had good reports.
We packed up and left the station at 4pm.
This is the latest Fire hall to receive an amateur radio station which now includes Oxford, Springhill, Tidnish, Parrsboro, Advocate, Wentworth and Pugwash. Plans are in the works to install amateur radio stations this summer at Westchester and Wallace.

Feb.16th, 2018

Eighteen members and three guests participated in the regular monthly meeting of the WestCumb ARC which was held Thursday night in Amherst.

Mike Johnson VE1MWJ gave an update on EMO including the new simplex repeater the county has purchased and how it works. He will be testing this out over the next few weeks so if you hear him mobile he will have the repeater with him and will be looking for contacts to test out this unit. It will be operating on 146.490 simplex.

New EMO ID cards are almost ready and will be given out ASAP. He is still looking at having an exercise in the spring dealing with all repeaters down and relying on simplex contacts around the county. Once the exercise is ready there will be another meeting with members of the WestCumb ARC to go over the plan for the exercise.

There was talk on the SMART symposium coming up on April 28th, 2018. Dana VE1VOX has received the license for a lottery, prizes are being looked at, wireless headsets have been ordered for the presenters to use during the classes and the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre has been booked. We are expecting well over 100 amateurs taking part this year and a reminder to all who want to take part in this year's event to register on the website under SMART.

The 50/50 was won by Mike Masters.

The WARC brunch will be this Saturday Feb.17th, at "Breakfast at Brittney's" in Amherst beginning at 10:30am.

Starting on March 1st, the regular monthly meetings of the WestCumb ARC will be held on the first Thursday of each month.

Feb.13th, 2018

There was a great turnout at the DMR class put on by the WestCumb ARC Monday night in Amherst. Presenter Dana Rushton VE1VOX put on a great class for thirteen members of the club over the two and a half hour session. He started from the basics of DMR to to more detail parts of programming your radio, code plugs and hot spots.

Jan. 11th, 2018

There was a very good turnout at the WestCumb ARC meeting Wednesday night. There were nineteen club members, two visitors from Truro Ken Holmes VE1UF and George Millard VE1GLM and John Langille from Folly Mountain NS who was taking his amateur radio exam.

Mike Johnson VE1MWJ gave a presentation on past weather events in the county and the possibility of a storm coming in the next few days. He reminded everyone in the event of the perfect storm the club may be active on simplex. He is drawing up an exercise for the club to experiment with simplex around the county. He showed off the new simplex repeater but due to problems it will be sent back to the manufacture for a replacement.

There is interest from members about purchasing coax cable for the club. If there is enough interest Mike will order a 500 ft role which he can get at a very good price. If interest in buying some of this cable contact Mike at [email protected] You must commit to buying the cable once it comes in.

There was talk about the SMART symposium coming up this April. The registration page has been added to the club website and if you are interested in attending go the the page and fill out the form. Dana Ruston VE1VOX will look after the lottery license and also the prizes for the event. For all the news and information about this year's event go to the club's website and click on S.M.A.R.T.

John Langille passed his amateur radio exam and was congratulated by all. Once he receives his call sign I will post it on the website. Thanks to Brad VE1ZX and Rick VE9RWS for conducting the exam.

UPDATE: John received his call sign. VE1CWJ

Dana Rushton VE1VOX won the 50/50 of 49 dollars and donated his half back to the club. Thanks Dana.

The club brunch will be this Saturday Jan.13th at Patterson's Restaurant in Sackville NB.

Next club meeting will be Feb.14th, 2018

WestCumb Amateur Radio Club VE1WRC

Serving Westmorland County New Brunswick & Cumberland County Nova Scotia