Serving Westmorland County New Brunswick & Cumberland County Nova Scotia
EOS Amateur Radio Workshop
Amelia Moore, EOS Eco-Energy
October 24, 2018
EOS and the WestCumb Amateur Radio Club hosted an evening workshop on October 22, 2018 at the Sackville Legion. More than 40 participants attended, 16 of which filled out evaluation forms. Participants included a local Scout troupe and their leaders but they had to leave early and did not fill in evaluations.
13 of the 16 evaluations rated the content of the talk, venue/location, speaker, date/time, and price a 4 or 5. When asked how much participants knew about ham radio before the event compared to after, 11 participants stated that they now knew more than when they arrived, with other participants stating that they were already quite knowledgeable about ham radio. Many stated that they were very unlikely to engage with ham radio before this workshop, but likely would now.
When asked what participants found most interesting about the workshop, many were interested in ham radio being used for weather warning and for emergency response. One participant found “collaboration between various organizations to collect and use of information during weather events and other emergencies” the most interesting. Others enjoyed the radio display and videos of the radios in action. Another participant said that this was a new topic they hadn’t thought of before and found all the information interesting.
When asked how they planned to use what they learned today, several participants said they would consider pursuing their amateur radio license. Others said they would further research the topic online or join their local ham radio club and look into getting more involved. One participant was curious about the costs required to get into ham radio and another was curious to learn more about software-defined radios.
When asked about how this workshop impacted their stress around climate change 6 participants said they felt more at ease knowing that this system existed and they better understood the emergency procedures. Another participant noted that they “didn’t know so many volunteers contributed” and that made him feel more at ease. Other participants said that his stress about climate change had stayed the same.
Participants heard about this workshop through word of mouth (6), the EOS newsletter (4), Facebook (4), radio(3), local newspaper, and posters.
Finally, other suggestions for workshops that EOS could offer included information about emergency go-bags, conservation focused workshops or urban planning and design.
Here is a picture of the WestCumb ARC brunch held on Sept. 22nd at Patterson's in Sackville NB. Nice to see Rick Sullivan VE9RWS at the table. Welcome back Rick.
The first meeting of the WestCumb ARC was held on Thursday evening Sept.6th at the ED Fullerton building in Upper Nappan.
There were sixteen members attending with two guest.
First was the annual meeting and all members of the executive have returned for another year. Kevin Burke VE1KEV President, Mike Masters VE1ZB Vice-President, Ron Bickle VE1BIC Secretary and Jim Langille VE1JBL Treasurer.
A motion was made to permanently moved the club meetings to the first Thursday of each month due to a conflict with the county meetings. Motion carried. The dues for the year will remain the same and can be found on the website under Club Dues.
The regular meeting followed the annual meeting and the hot topic for the evening was the report from Mike Johnson VE1MWJ of happenings from the Oxford sinkhole. Mike showed us several videos taken by the county drone showing different angles not seen from television video. The county is still following activity and Mike will give us updates and more video at the next meeting in October.
Mike also informed us that the county has purchased five new radios, antennas and power supplies to be installed in fire halls and other places throughout the county during the upcoming year. He has also received three more simplex repeaters to go along with the one we already purchased in the past year. At this time two of the repeaters will be permantly installed at locations around the county and the other two will be mobile stations to be activated when needed. He is still planning for a simplex exercise for the club in the upcoming year.
Robert Mannette VE1RMJ has purchased 16 amateur radio manuals from Coax Publishing in Ontario on behalf of the club for amateurs wanting to upgrade from basic to advanced license and people around the area wishing to learn and become amateur radio operators. These books are for sale from the club at $46.00 for either the basic or advanced book. Contact Robert Mannette VE1RMJ at ve1rmj@gmail.com if you wish to purchase a book. Six books were sold after the meeting last night.
Member Bob Tuttle VE1DR brought a new member to the meeting last night. Terry Duncan VE1AS was introduced before the meeting. Terry and his wife Susan who is also a ham VA1SIS have recently moved here from Ontario.
WELCOME to the area and the club Terry and Susan.
50/50 was won by new member Terry VE1AS.
The first club brunch of the new year will be held on September 22nd at Patterson's in Sackville NB beginning at 11am. Come early for a good seat.
The WestCumb ARC 2 Meter Net will begin another new season on Monday September 10th at 8pm. Hope to hear many of you on there to support our local club net. Also a reminder to renew your club dues ASAP.
The next club meeting will be held October 4th at 7pm.
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.
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
506-382-6572
AREDN Homepage - https://www.aredn.org/
Fleet network - Source of Ubiquiti equipment
Airlink Link Planner - https://link.ubnt.com/
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.
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 mjohnson@cumberlandcounty.ns.ca 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