WestCumb  Amateur  Radio Club  VE1WRC

A great Ham Day get away. Enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones. See u on the air and again at a future SMART. 73 

Great, but I wanted to attend both Bernie and Tobie's talks, :( Loved the fleamarket :)

Hello everyone.
I must say I was impressed and very happy to attend this event. The presentations were great, everyone was enthusiastic and eager to give us a super day. The food was very good and service excellent. A big thank you to all that helped make this day a success. A special thank you to all the donators that made this event even more fun with all the prizes.
Thank you all and hope to be there with more members from Bathurst next year.

Outside group pix was taken while a session was still going on in the med room leaving out many participants. Also would like to see the sessions run longer to allow more time for the presenters to finish their sessions

S.M.A.R.T. 2018 was a really great event. It ran very smoothly and it was full of excellent presenters, interesting displays, welcoming organizers and wonderful people. It was, indeed, an excellent day. As an overnight camper at the event, I felt looked after and watched out for, which I greatly appreciated. The only suggestion I can make is to require more as a registration fee. I'm sure $5 barely covers the cost of the excellent treats, beverages and lunch that was provided. If you doubled the price of registration next year, I would still be extremely glad to spend the money on such a worthwhile event.
With warmest regards,

I want to congratulate your committee for an outstanding job in organizing this year's symposium.

I'm sure the word will get around and I wouldn't be surprised if attendance keeps rising.

I want to personally thank you all for a wonderful time yesterday. It is the best event for all hams in the maritime. I did meet a few hams I talk to but never met. I truly enjoyed taking care of the big room with George. I think we should do the same for next year. I have two presentation in mind for next year. 

Everything was perfect especially eating in the arena. It is fun to sit and talk to fellow hams.

The only issue I had was the intermittent audio of the remote mic. The other room had the same problem. I suspect the mics were interacting. I am sure we can resolve the problem.

Talk soon and thanks again for your devotion to our fantastic hobby.

Overall a fantastic day! Thoroughly enjoyed the range of topics covered. Seemed to be something for just about everyone from the things for new comers to topics of interest to those of us who have been in the hobby for any years (coming up on 40 years licensed for me). The presenters that I listened to were all well prepared and their love of the topic came through.
The mini flea market was a nice touch. I'll have to remember to bring more funds with me in the future.

The coffee and snacks was well organized and to be honest I was more than surprised that this was provided all day at no cost. The lunch was well organized. Having participated in the preparation and presentation of food to a large group I felt it was very well organized and ran smoothly.

Things that might be considered for future events? Well I was disappointed that I "had" to leave half way through the System Fusion presentation to attend the Canwarn session. No one seemed to know that it was going to be a single session and not a 2 X 1 session.

Personally I would have liked to spend time with Ron and his digital radio display. Perhaps in the future something like that could be incorporated into a presentation similar to the others. Only having the break periods to check it out wasn't ideal for those of us who wanted to attend the various "classroom" sessions.

If this event keeps on going, I can see it becoming a two day event and maybe even the "Dayton of the North"

In naval parlance, Bravo Zulu (well done) to all the organizing team!

When announcements for prizes was taking place in the arena the sound system was inadequate to be heard in some areas of the arena.

S.M.A.R.T What a great event!
I am sure everyone enjoyed the day. The event ran smoothly and was very well organized. I see in the above comments everyone was recognized for their contributions save for one very important person. Jim Langille VE1JBL. Jim already spends countless hours supporting the Maritime Amateur Radio community with his web page the Maritime Amateur and more locally with the WestCumb club webpage and regular club duties. Jim also works tirelessly in organizing the S.M.A.R.T. event. During the event he's the go-to guy for everything, it's because of his dedication to the hobby and hard work that the day runs so smoothly. Not to mention the countless emails and meetings before the event. I am sure Jim sleeps very well on that Saturday night. So I'm taking this opportunity to thank Jim for all his hard work making this event such a great day for everyone.

Wonderful event. Well organized and cant think of one extra thing you could have done. Now how to top that for next year. Maybe go back to some DX topics even though the bands are bad but it might draw the other original side of amateur radio operators. Great job...... Doug.

I thought S.M.A.R.T. was brilliant: excellent speakers on interesting topics (some beyond where I am as a newbie); great displays; lots of door prizes; very well run; and everyone was made to feel welcome! I can't help but believe next year's will be bigger again than this year's symposium.

The 2018 edition of SMART was a well balanced offering. Instructional classes acknowledged the diversity of the hobby. The newly added sales tables and trunk sales sprinkled spice on the day. Speaking of spice, the continuous coffee/tea with baked goods service and the BBQ lunch kept participants fuelled for more eye-ball QSOs and classes. A surprise this year was the presence of vendors RadioWorld and Yaesu, in the latter case, with actual equipment that could be touched!

I have only gratitude and praise for the organizers, volunteers, speakers, vendors, and management of the site. I have appreciation for the attendees for, without them, it would not be a successful happening.

See you next year!

I had a great time, sold and bought stuff, great presentations and a good lunch.
I plan to go again next year.

First off, HATS OFF to the WARC!  Fantastic job all the way around.   The facility was awesome, the volunteers you had were on top of everything -- the food and hospitality crew did a bang up job, and the presenters were great.   Professional job all the way around.

Down here in New England, we have a much larger event called NearFEST -- and I had just as much fun at your event than I do at NearFEST.   Being a Maritimer, it was so great to put a face to people and renew acquaintanceships from days past.

Total driving time for me is 9.5 hours each way -- but luckily,  I stayed with my old friend Andy, VE9DX in St. John to break up the drive.

I'll certainly be thinking of you again in the future.     I have DMR radios (plus the one I won!!), but my local DMR repeaters are just out of HT range.

Once I figure something out, I'll have to drop by and thank everyone over the radio!

It was apparent that a great deal of organization and effort had gone into this event and it paid dividends in just how seamlessly the event played out. The quality of the presentations was high with good participant interaction. The xyls are to be commended for their superb catering . In short, well organized. Well supported and a credit to the Westcumb club. Will be back next year. 73 de VE9ZY

Jim - I have not heard anything but good things.

What a great time although the drive from Saint John was not great due to the heavy rain.  Sky really opened up from Moncton to Springhill.

The highlight for me would have to have been time with many old friends although the talks we great also.Please pass my thanks along to all involved.

Might I just make one comment. 
Personally I feel you could have uped the price.  That was by far the best bang for my buck in all my years of ham radio.

The BBQ appeared to be a HIT. Heard great comments.

The door prizes (gas cards) went over well. 

The folks from the Island to enjoy the possibility of a 1 in 12 chance ofthe draw for the bridge pass.!

Great idea's.

Already looking forward to another visit to Springhill.

Thank You again all.

I think it would be pretty difficult to do a better job than you did, just a great day . After saying that just a few musings like maybe at the coffee, tea and the trimmins that were there on the table if you didn't have a volunteer to man the spot a donation box sitting there would gather some loot which might help to organize the next one.You never know what costs might appear. That's it I guess.

Great symposium. Some suggestions - provide an external amplified speaker that can be plugged into laptops. Move projector further from the screen to increase the screen size. Many thanks to the members of the WESTCUMB ARC for a superb job.

Thank you for you excellent organization and running of SMART... even better than last year! A super job! Thoroughly enjoyed the day! Just a presentation suggestion for next year: DMR - What it can do for you, how to get involved, how it operates, code plug writing and radios currently available and the current state of DMR in the Maritimes. Thank you all again for such a great SMART day and I look forward to next year's edition! 73 de VE1CHI, Jim C.

Congratulations to all who helped out for the symposium, a superb event, very well organised and the food was great. I enjoyed everything. I would like to see a little more advanced study on digital radio (hotspots, repeaters - how to use and program) as a follow up on what I learned this year. I will be back next year. Thank you for a great experience.