Amherst, Nova Scotia

WestCumb  Amateur  Radio Club  VE1WRC

  Serving Westmorland County New Brunswick & Cumberland County Nova Scotia

News & Information

New communications building in West Leicester



A new building (red) has arrived at the VE1WRC / VE1AMH site in West Leicester. The Nova Scotia government will be moving their equipment from the old building to the new one soon. When this happens both VE1WRC and VE1AMH will be off the air. At that time Lorne VE1BXK will get a notice to transfer our equipment from the old one to the new one. Will keep you updated on when this happens.


WARC Club meeting June 4th, 2020

Greetings all,
 The first video conference WARC club meeting was held on June 4th, 2020.
 It started at 7:18pm. There were 14 members including Pravin VE9PKV Sackville NB, Joe VY2JC Bloomfield Station PEI , Hal VE1LV Valley NS, Dana VE1VOX Truro Heights NS, Terry VE1AS Pugwash NS, Mike VE1ZB Oxford NS, Ron VE1BIC Amherst NS, Jerry VE1KW & Kaye VE1YH Sackville NB, Robert VE1RMJ Oxford NS, Dave VE9DWJ Sackville NB, Brad VE1ZX Two Islands Parrsboro NS, Jim VE1JBL Tidnish Bridge NS and Kevin VE1KEV Amherst NS. A great collection of areas throughout the club membership.
  • The Raspberry Pi that was purchased for SMART 20 is going up for sale. $155.00 dollars. Anyone looking for this unit contact Robert Mannette VE1RMJ. ve1rmj@gmail.com. Club members will be the first to have the opportunity to purchase this unit. If it doesn't sell, the unit will go up for sale outside the club. The money will go back into the club's account.
  • Kevin Burke VE1KEV is still looking for club members wanting a 40th-anniversary t-shirt. He has a list of members who have already been put on the list for a shirt and anyone else that would like one contact Kevin Burke VE1KEV at 902-694-9202 the size needed.
  • Mike Masters VE1ZB  will be putting together the Net Control schedule for the WestCumb ARC 2M Net for 2020-2021. Anyone interested in becoming a Net Controller for the net please contact Mike at  mikemasters@eastlink.ca or  902-664-6537.
  • Jim Langille VE1JBL is also looking for Net Controllers for the Maritime Fusion Net. Anyone interested in becoming a Net Controler contact Jim at the information below.

The annual and first regular meeting of the WestCumb ARC for 2020-2021 will be held on Thursday, September 10th, 2020 at either the ED Fullerton building in Upper Nappan or online via Google Meet. The current executive have all agreed to continue with their positions in the new upcoming year but anyone interested in taking on an executive position in the club contact me over the summer with your intentions.
Meeting adjourned 8:18pm.

Everyone have a safe and happy summer.
See you in September.

D-Star, DMR & Fusion

From Ron MacKay's website CLICK HERE

Since both Fusion and DMR activity has grown significantly over the past 2 years, I have created separate web pages for all three of the popular Digital Voice Modes. D-STAR, DMR, and Fusion pages.

March Meeting Recap

There was a good turnout at the March meeting of the WestCumb ARC. Eighteen members were in attendance and several topics were discussed.
The next club meeting on April 2nd, will be the 40th Anniversary of the club. We will be purchasing t-shirts with the club logo and also 40th anniversary on the shirt. If any club member would like to order a shirt, contact Kevin Burke VE1KEV at ve1kev@gmail.com and include the size you would like. Orders must be in to Kevin by March 15th.
We will also have a celebration cake to share at the meeting. Information about the forming of the club in 1980 can be found on the website under ABOUT US.
There was also talk about WINLINK Global Radio Email and if the club is interested in taking part in this project. Interested members contact Robert Mannette VE1RMJ ve1rmj@gmail.com for more information. This will be talked about further at the next meeting.
EXERCISE HANDSHAKE is coming home. Jim Hannon VE1AFH talked about Handshake and TMR and would like to start holding the TMR portion of Handshake at the county office again. If interested in working TMR radio during the net contact Jim Hannon at ve1afh@eastlink.ca
There was also talk about having a refresher course on TMR. All members interested contact Mike Johnson VE1MWJ at mjohnson@cumberlandcounty.ns.ca
Al Christie VE1ZS won the 50/50. Congratulations Al.
This month's club brunch will be at Brittney's in Amherst on March 14th at 10:30am
Next club meeting will be the anniversary party on April 2nd, 2020.
A reminder to all amateurs including club members interested in SMART 20 to register on the website for a chance to win one of the many door prizes. The registration also helps in the preparation of food for the event. CLICK HERE

Raspberry Pi Class

The WestCumb ARC hosted a Raspberry Pi class on Saturday Jan.11th, 2020. Ten members and two guest participated during the 7 hour class. Robert Mannette VE1RMJ headed the class and took members from downloading software, putting the Pi's together from scratch to bringing them online.
More pictures can be found in the Photo Gallery.
Taking part today were Robert Mannette VE1RMJ, Brad Ross VE1ZX, Mike Masters VE1ZB, Dave Jones VE9DWJ, Pat Robichaud VE1JPR, Jim Hannon VE1AFH, Ken Holmes VE1UF, Kevin Burke VE1KEV, Ron Bickle VE1BIC, Parvin Varma VE9PKV, Jon Gordon VE1JSG and Jim Langille VE1JBL


NB Emergency Exercise a success.


On October 30th, 2019 the annual New Brunswick Emergency exercise was held which included amateur radio stations at New Brunswick hospitals.

Here is a picture of WARC member Paul Cant VE9TTT activating the amateur radio station at the Sackville hospital during the exercise.

Posted Nov.8th, 2019

The regular meeting of the WARC was held on Thursday Nov. 7th with 14 members in attendance.

Regrets from Dana Rushton VE1VOX

A new agenda was talked about to speed up the meetings and starting in January each month's agenda will be sent out to members before the meeting so everyone will know what will be the topics.

At the same time if members have an item they would like to add to the agenda they will be able to forward it on me Jim Langille jimve1jbl@gmail.com and it will be added in.

There was much talk about voting on a new Spectrum Analyzer for the club. The vote passed and Lorne VE1BXKwill order it ASAP. This unit will be used to keep all our repeaters tuned up to the province of Nova Scotia standards.

Mike Johnson REMO management is looking for members who could go out at a moment's notice during times of need (snow storms, hurricanes, power outages). If you would like to be added to this list contact Mike at mjohnson@cumberlandcounty.ns.ca

There was also talk about Raspberry Pi. Robert Mannette VE1RMJ may put on a class how to set up these units in January if there is enough interest. If any members would like to order a unit contact Robert ve1rmj@gmail.com and bring your money to the Christmas Pot Luck supper for pick up. Contact Robert for more info on this project.

The Pot Luck Supper will be on Thursday December 5th, beginning at 7pm. If you have not paid your club dues bring them to the supper.

This month's brunch will be held on Saturday the 16th at Patterson's in Sackville NB

October WARC brunch in Pugwash.

Thanks to Robert VE1RMJ for the photo.

Recap of October club meeting

There were 18 club members at the October meeting.
The memorandum of understanding between the Cumberland Regional Emergency Management Organization and the WestCumb ARC was voted on and accepted with a minor amendment to line 3 in the paper. The parties will sign the agreement at the November meeting.
A letter was read from Jack McGee VE1CZD who after going over our financial books and found everything in order. Jack has been doing our books for the last several years and for this is a Lifetime member of the club. Thank You Jack.
MESH was brought up at the meeting and Jim Hannon will talk to Alan Prosser from PSFC at the TMR meeting in Halifax on Tuesday to get more info on the project. He will also talk to Alan about what equipment is needed to tune the local repeaters and if we should purchased this equipment.
A new power supply is needed at the Sugarloaf repeater site and Brad will look into prices and bring it to the November meeting for club support.
The RAC insurance and affiliation has been sent in and it may cost more this year due to price increases across the board at the insurance companies.
The society papers from the province of Nova Scotia should be coming out soon and will let you know at the next meeting.
Bruce Sears VE1VH won the 50/50 and donated his half to Brad VE1ZX towards the new power supply for Sugarloaf.
Anyone interested in taking part in Pumpkin Patrol on Halloween contact Jim Hannon VE1AFH at 902-667-5158.

The October brunch will be held on October 19th, 11am at the Lantern Restaurant 11054 Highway 6, Pugwash NS across from the Fire Hall.
A reminder to renew your club dues for the 2019-20 season. All the information is found on the website under CLUB DUES.
The next club meeting will be November 7th beginning at 7pm.

 September Brunch - Harbour View Restaurant Parrsboro NS

Thanks to Mike Masters VE1ZB for the photo.




Today at the 2019 Moncton Area Amateur Radio Club Flea Market, ICOM setup a display showing off its various lines of radios and technology. Sales Manager, Murray Lycan was on-hand to answer questions for visitors. ICOM also generously donated an ICOM ID-4100A Radio as a raffle prize. Congratulations to the winner Mike Embree (VE1MY). Thank you ICOM for the support.

Recap of September 2019 meeting

The first meeting of the WestCumb ARC for 2019-20 took place Thursday Sept.5th at the ED Fullerton building in Upper Nappan. Twenty-one members were in attendance with three visitors. See pictures below.
The annual meeting began with a recap of the past year the the many things the club accomplished from the Fusion repeater to club shirts, seven new club members, three more installs of amateur radio stations in three fire halls around the county, four new simplex repeaters thanks to the county of Cumberland and other items.
Club dues will remain the same for another year and Jim Hannon VE1AFH thanked the club for keeping the dues at a reasonable price for all.
President Kevin Burke thank the Municipality of Cumberland for all of their help and the use of their building for our meetings and with all the assistance they provided at the Community Center in Springhill during S.M.A.R.T. Thanks also to Mike Johnson VE1MWJ Cumberland REMO Management who without his assistance many of this would not have taken place.
It was then time to ask for new officers to come forward and all members of the executive volunteered to take on their positions for another year. President - Kevin Burke VE1KEV, Vice-President - Mike Masters VE1ZB, Treasurer - Jim Langille VE1JBL and Secretary - Ron Bickle VE1BIC. Meeting was adjourned at 7:20pm.
The first general meeting followed the annual meeting.
We had three visitors last night Scott McNutt VE1CHL, Paul Murphy VE1PM and Dr. Naresh Puri from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. He and his wife are visiting club member Parvin Varma VE9PKV in Sackville NB for a few weeks.
There was talk about our club shirts and how well they went over. Kevin will contact Carter's and other suppliers about pricing for hoodies and shell jackets for the club this year.
Mike Johnson gave a update on Hurricane Dorian and how it will affect us during the weekend.
 All members of the WestCumb ARC EMO Auxiliary have been put on notice there may be a activation for the storm along with a CANWARN Net. A MOU between the club and the County of Cumberland has been drawn up for emergencies and the club will vote on weather to accept it at the next club meeting in October.
David Jones VE9DWJ from Sackville NB won the 50/50 ($37.50)
The first club brunch of the new year will be held at the Harbour View Restaurant 476 Pier Rd, Parrsboro, NS on September 21st.
Next club meeting will be October 3rd.

WARC June Brunch

Here is a picture taken of the first June club brunch in Pugwash on Saturday June 15 at the Lantern Restaurant. There were 16 in attendance. Thanks to Terry Duncan VE1AS for setting up the brunch and to Ron Bickle VE1BIC for the photo.

From Jim VE1JBL June 7th:

The final meeting of the WestCumb ARC for 2018-19 was very well attended on Thursday night with almost 40 people taking part. It was really nice to see three past members of the club taking part including Brian MacDonald VE1BSD, Bruce Sears VE1VH and Charlie Gould VE1BK. These three amateurs were part of the original group who started the club back in 1980.

Mike Masters VE1ZB, Kevin Burke VE1KEV and Robert Mannette VE1RMJ looked after the annual members appreciation barbecue put on by the executive. See pictures below.

After the meal a short meeting took place and information was exchanged about the new Fusion repeater and there was talk about Field Day which will take place this month at the Tidnish Docks Provincial Park. Set up will begin at 12 noon on Saturday June 22th and continue until Sunday afternoon. Everyone is invited to take part.

After the meeting a Auction was held to sell off Silent Key Peter Hebb's equipment with the money going to his wife Treva Hebb. The auction raised over eighteen hundred dollars. She would like to thank the club for all we have done over the last month between the members donation and the selling of Peter's equipment.
I would like to thank the following amateurs who helped go through Peter's equipment, log it, hold on to it till the auction, set it up at the meeting and helped clean up after.
Kevin Burke VE1KEV, Bob Perry VE1EDP, Ron Bickle VE1BIC, Robert Mannette VE1RMJ & Mike Embree VE1MY.
Thanks to Joe Clements VY2JC, Terry Duncan and Wendall Porter who stayed after the event to help clean up.
This was not an easy job to take on but was very rewarding to see the club come together to help Treva when needed.
There is still the tower to take down and Mike Johnson VE1MWJ and Jim Hannon VE1AFH are going to get together and plan the best way to do this. This will happen later this summer.
Also thank you to Jim Hannon VE1AFH who has taken on the huge job of going over all the newsletters that Peter made and published over the years and with help from Robert Mannette VE1RMJ they will be scanning them and putting them in a file on the website for history purposes for the current and future club members.

It has been a very good year for the club with a new Fusion repeater installed, simplex repeater up and running, a very popular SMART symposium in April and three more Fire halls throughout the county having amateur radio stations installed thanks to Cumberland Regional EMO Manager Mike Johnson VE1MWJ.

For the first time there will be a June club brunch and it will be held at the Lantern Restaurant in Pugwash across from the Fire Hall on June 15th. beginning at 10:30am

Looking forward to 2019-20.

Have a great summer and see you all in September.

VE1AMH  Fusion Repeater "On the Air"

Gentlemen,

 

I am pleased to report Phase One is now completed and the DR-2X VHF repeater 145.190- is now "ON AIR" as of yesterday May 19 2019 @ 4:30 pm.  

I thought it more appropriate to install the DR-2X VHF Fusion Repeater project at Salem in two phases as more time would most likely be required to fit it all in just one day.

 

Phase One Installation (Completed May 19 2019)

 

Install VHF Multi-couplers in Rack 100

Install RX/TX RF RG-214 coaxial cables from Rack 303 DR-2X VHF Repeater to VHF Multi-coupler Rack 100

Terminate N-Male RF connectors on both RX/TX RF cables at Multi-coupler Rack 100

Install 2RU shelving for DR-2X VHF repeater and 1RU for HP Lap Top computer

 

Phase Two Installation (Completed June 1st, 2019)

 

Install HP Laptop WIRES-X computer and HRI-200 WIRES-X modem on 1RU shelving (already mounted) in Rack 303

Install D-Link DIR-819 router on top of IRLP Node 1RU computer in Rack 303 (1RU shelving maybe required if needed)

Install Web Switch 7 near bottom of Rack 303 (3RU blank panel required)

Update IRLP Node 1RU computer static IP information to match D-Link router already configured (Loan of Monitor & keyboard required on time only)

Connect HRI-200 to HP Laptop WIRES-X computer via USB port

Interface HRI-200 to DR-2X VHF repeater (ACC Port)

Set DR-2X from "REPEATER" mode to "WIRES-X" mode

Connect Laptop WIRES-X computer network port to D-Link router network port

Connect Web Switch 7 network port to D-Link router network port

Connect IRLP Node 1RU network port to D-Link router network port

Connect Seaside IP cable to D-Link router WAN port (internet drop)

AC remote outlets for interfacing in order of priority on power up:

D-Link router, HP Laptop,  DR-2X VHF Repeater, MSR2000 VHF Repeater, DC power supply, RLC-4 Repeater controller , (AC-DC adapter provided), IRLP Node

Test complete system for both Analog RF operation and WIRES-X internet operation

 

73,Lorne - VE1BXK

From Joe VY2JC June 4th

Here is a couple of You Tube videos of Joe's tower and how to put it up and down.

May brunch in Parrsboro

Here is a couple of photos from the May brunch in Parrsboro. Thanks to Ron Bickle VE1BIC for the pictures.

May Club Meeting

There was a full house at the regular meeting of the WestCumb ARC Thursday night May 2nd.
After the introductions were made there was a minute of silence for club member Peter Hebb VE1SM who passed away this week. The club decided to donate a monetary fund to Treva with the first hundred dollars coming from the club followed up by donations from club members. Once all the funds are collected I will present the card everyone signed last night and the donated funds to Treva. It was also noted that Peter's equipment will be put up for club auction once it is logged and taken out from his home. I will let the club members know when this comes about. We will also need a work party this summer to take down Peter's tower. More on this later.
A recap of SMART was presented last night and we made over two thousand dollars from the event. As we are not in this to make money the club noted that maybe next year we could have more radios as grand prizes. :)  Ron Bickle has about 200 pictures of the event and will give us a link to his Drop Box so you can look at all the photos taken. As RaspberryPi seem to be very popular this year it was also noted that maybe next year besides the class we have some RaspberryPi units for sale. Both of these suggestions will be brought up at future SMART meetings. See SMART 19 for link to photos.
The new Fusion repeater is just about ready to be installed and will let the club members know when this happens.
There was talk about the upcoming running race being held in Amherst in June. If interested in helping with communications contact Kevin Burke VE1KEV.
There was talk about Field Day this year at the Tidnish Docks Provincial Park and need more volunteers. Contact Mike Johnson if available to take part.
50/50 was won my Mike Masters VE1ZB
Next club brunch will be at the Harbour View Restaurant in Parrsboro on Saturday May 18th at 11am.
Next club meeting will be Thursday June 6th. This will be our annual year end barbecue put on by the executive to say thank you to all the club members for their support over the 2018-19 year. 


Peter Hebb VE1SM (SK)

Club member Peter Hebb VE1SM (right) passed away early Monday morning (April 29th) after complications including a stroke and heart attack.

Peter was one of the founding members of the WestCumb ARC when it began back in 1980. He was present at the first meeting and was waiting for his call sign from Industry Canada after passing the exam.

Over the years Peter volunteered for many activities with the club including the annual Field Day and was editor for the WARC Newsletter.

Just last year Peter was given a Lifetime achievement award from club president Kevin Burke for his years of service with the club.

Here is Peter's Obituary. CLICK HERE

From Jim VE1JBL Apr.29th

The 4th annual Symposium for Maritime Amateur Radio Technicians (SMART) was held Saturday April 27th 2019 at the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Center in Springhill NS.

Doors opened at 7am for the volunteers, presenters and vendors and soon the building was alive with sounds of amateurs preparing their presentations for the day while others were setting up their tables for displays and sale items.

At 8am the doors opened and many amateurs rushed in to get out of the cold and rainy weather.

The canteen (new this year) became the central point at this time with amateurs picking up tea, coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Then the rush was on for the 50/50 and raffle tickets. Some hams filtered out to the arena to see what was being setup for the flea market.

As promised each amateur received a Yaesu Fusion ball cap although they did not arrive till later in the morning.

At 11am the barbecues were turned on but due to the weather they had to be relocated to the side door of the arena which caused a slight problem of getting the burgers and dogs to the waiting hams..

At 12 noon lunch started with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pop and water. By 12:30pm everyone had been fed and then the presentations began with opening remarks from Mike Johnson VE1MWJ representing the County of Cumberland.

Bernie Cormier VE9BGC was asked to join Mike up front and Bernie presented SMART organizer George Dewar VY2GF with a plaque for his work on bringing this Symposium to life over the years. This was followed by the door prize winners and topped off by a photo of all the hams taking park in this event. The hams continued to mill around the flea market tables until classes began again at 1:30pm.

At 3:30pm the hams gathered in the arena for the Grand Prizes and 50/50.

The complete list of winners can be found on the WestCumb ARC website under SMART 19.

https://www.westcumb.ca/s-m-a-r-t-2019

The final classes began at 4pm and by 5:30pm the final hams left the building and SMART was finished for another year.

The organizing committee consists of Bernie Cormier VE9BGC, George Dewar VY2GF, Kevin Burke VE1KEV and Jim Langille VE1JBL.

We would like to thank the volunteers who helped out with the event.

Mike Johnson VE1MWJ Cumberland Regional EMO Management who made sure the arena was booked and brought two barbecues from Amherst to Springhill to help feed the hams.

Kevin Burke VE1KEV for helping the hams set up their flea market tables in the morning.

Bob Perry VE1EDP and his XYL Jo-Ann Reynolds for working the entrance tables and the giving out of name tags and hats. They also preformed other duties feeding the hams during the lunch hour.

Kevin Burke VE1KEV, Mike Masters VE1ZB, Robert Mannette and Mike Johnson VE1MWJ for another great barbecue.

Dana Rushton VE1VOX and Don Roland VE1AOE for another great raffle draw while Al Christie VE1ZS and Ron Blue VE1BBB manned the 50/50 table.

Ron Bickle VE1BIC who looked after the sound systems in both rooms and took photos throughout the day and hopefully will be on the website soon.

Bob Tuttle VE1DR who looked after the talk-in frequency from his mobile and was prepared with extra gas and others items in case of a break down along the way.

The County of Cumberland for letting us use this great Community Center to hold the event.

A special thank you to Heather Laurie and the staff at the arena who looked after all our needs and did a great job helping us prepare for the event.

Thanks to all the local clubs who donated prizes. Their names and the winners can be found on the SMART 19 webpage https://www.westcumb.ca/s-m-a-r-t-2019

Finally a big THANK YOU to the 170+ hams who came out in the not so best weather to support SMART. Without all of you this event would not take place.

See you next year at SMART 20.