WestCumb  Amateur  Radio Club  VE1WRC

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.