WestCumb ARC

News & Information

Recap of June meeting

The final meeting of the WestCumb ARC for 2020-21 took place on June 1st, 2021.There were 20 members in attendance including Rob VE1RMJ, Scott VE1CHL, Ron VE1BIC, Kevin VE1KEV, Brad VE1ZX, David VE9DWJ, Peter VE1WIN, Mike VE1MY, Hal VE1LV, Pravin VE9PKV, Ron VE1BBB, Gordon VE9GC, Lorne VE1BXK, Jim VE1JBL, Terry VE1AS, Jon VE1JSG, Bill VA1BIL, James VE9WIN, Joe VY2JC and Dana VE1VOX.

The club held a minute of silence in honor of Betty Rodd VE1LVW wife of club member Hal Rodd.

Under new business Mike Masters VE1ZB is looking for club members who may in interested in taking on Net Control Duties for the club net beginning in September. Contact Mike at mikemasters@eastlink.ca

Mike Johnson VE1MWJ is also looking for club members interested in helping update the county resource directory for REMO. If interested, contact Mike at mjohnson@cumberlandcounty.ns.ca

Mike Johnson has also received magnetic signs for WARC club members to use during operations with REMO.

President Kevin Burke gave a year end recap of club happenings over this difficult year. First of all he wanted to thank Robert Mannette VE1RMJ for setting up Google Meet for the club to use for online meetings.

He also mentioned the lost this year of one of our Lifetime club members Rick Sullivan VE9RWS.

For some good news we have continued to gain club members and we now stand at 49 members. All of us are hoping come September we will be able to have in person meetings. More on this as the summer goes on.

Finally the executive and directors of the club decided it was a good time to congratulate a long time member of the club. Ron Bickle VE1BIC has had his ham license for 30 years and also a club member for the same time. He also has been the club secretary for the past 23 years and because of this dedicated service to the club has become the latest member to be given a Lifetime Membership Award to the WARC.

Left to Right: Ron VE1BIC & Kevin VE1KEV

New CTCSS tone for VE1AMH

As part of the discussion and approval at the club meeting on Tuesday for a common CTCSS tone frequency of 88.5 Hz for County of Cumberland, I have just updated VE1AMH VHF repeater for CTCSS tone of 88.5 Hz Tone Squelch decode-encode (originally 100.0 Hz).

Lorne VE1BXK

Quick recap May meeting.

There was a great turnout for the May meeting of the WARC. Nineteen members including Jim VE1JBL, Brad VE1ZX, Dave VE9DWJ, Gordon VE9GC, Kevin VE1KEV, Lorne VE1BXK, Mike VE1MY, Robert VE1RMJ, Scott VE1CHL, Terry VE1AS, Ron VE1BIC, Mike VE1ZB, Peter VE1WIN, Mike VE1MWJ, Dana VE1VOX, Craig VE1ECC, Ken VE1UF, Bill VA1BIL and Pravin VE9PKV.

A new router has been purchased by the club to be installed at the VE1AMH repeater site.

A new CTCSS tone has been added to the Sugarloaf repeater. (See below)

The Google Meet and domain will be cancelled after the June meeting and hopefully we will return to in person meetings come fall. If not Mike Johnson VE1MWJ has offered ZOOM as a fill in if needed.

Next club meeting June 1st, which will be the final club meeting for 2020-2021

VE1BHS Repeater Update

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,

Lorne Anderson VE1BXK

ve1bxk@ns.sympatico.ca

Quick Recap April Meeting

There were 13 members taking part in the meeting including Kevin VE1KEV, Rob VE1RMJ, Lorne VE1BXK, David VE9DWJ, Gordon VE9GC, Dave VE1DEH, Pravin VE9PKV, Joe VY2JC, Brad VE1ZX, Rob VE1BIC, Jon VE1JSG, Terry VE1AS and Mike VE1ZB. The only business brought up was the monitor Lorne ordered and it showed up DOA so the money has been returned to the club. It was a very quiet meeting with not much to talk over.

Next meeting will be May 4th, 2021

WARC March meeting recap

There was a great turnout at the regular club meeting of the WestCumb ARC Tuesday night.

Nineteen members including Rob VE1RMJ, Lorne VE1BXK, Bill VA1BIL, Brad VE1ZX, Dana VE1VOX, Dave VE1DEH, David VE9DWJ, Jerry VE1KW, Joe VY2JC, John VE1CWJ, Kevin VE1KEV, James VE9WIN, Pravin VE9PKV, Ron VE1BIC, Scott VE1CHL, Mike VE1ZB, Terry VE1AS and two of our newest members Peter VE1WIN and Jean-Pierre VE9ADV.

During the net it was brought up about the club net and how we could honor Rick Sullivan VE9RWS (SK) who hosted the net for over twenty years. It was decided at starting next week to dedicate each net till the end of the year in remembrance of Rick.

Brad VE1ZX congratulated John VE1CWJ on passing his advance amateur radio ticket. Congratulations John.

Next meeting will be April 6th, 2021.

Rick Sullivan VE9RWS (SK)

Top L to R - Lifetime Membership, Repeater Committee, Final WARC Net

Bottom L to R - Summer NSARA Picnic 2010, Rick with VE9DOG at Field Day, Applause for 20 years as WARC NCO.

Click on picture for full view. Obituary CLICK HERE

Club Meeting Feb.2nd, 2021

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.

September Meeting Recap

Greetings all members,

Here is a quick recap from the video meeting Thursday night.

The annual meeting was first and the executive will remain the same for the 2020-2021 year. President Kevin Burke VE1KEV, Vice-President Mike Masters VE1ZB, Ron Bickle VE1BIC Secretary and Jim Langille VE1JBL Treasurer.

Club dues will remain the same and all members are reminded to renew their dues as it is more important and other times due to COVID. All members are reminded dues can be by cheques to my address or E-transfer which is becoming very popular with members. I had 9 members sign up via E-transfer yesterday.

All members are asked to fill out the membership form on the club website so that I will have a hard copy to verify your funds and where they go. The form is easy to fill out and CLICK TO SUBMIT at the bottom. Any questions about the form contact me by phone or email.

The first general meeting of the new year followed the annual meeting with 15 members including new member John Langille VE1CWJ. Welcome John!

The club voted to have Robert Mannette VE1RMJ purchase Google Meet for our future club meetings. This way, amateurs without video will still be able to join the monthly meeting via calling in on their telephone. More on this to come soon.

Lorne Anderson VE1BXK will purchase the Spectrum Analyzer the club purchased last year at the same price as the original purchase. These funds will go back into the club account. Thanks Lorne!

Jack McGee VE1CZD has audited our books for the past year and found everything in good order. Thanks Jack!

The WARC club net started up again this past Monday with Bob Tuttle VE1DR as the first NCO. The net was well attended with over 20 check-ins and a reminder this is your club net so take the opportunity to support the net and check in on Monday nights at 8pm AT. Mike Masters will be sending out a schedule for Net Controllers soon. If anyone wants to take on NCO duties for the club net contact Mike at mikemasters@eastlink.ca

Next club meeting will be Oct.1st via Google Meet. Contact Robert VE1RMJ to get information on joining the meeting.

Everyone have a great month and stay safe.

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

VE1AMH Fusion Repeater "On the Air" May 19th, 2019

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

WestCumb Amateur Radio Club VE1WRC

Serving Westmorland County New Brunswick & Cumberland County Nova Scotia