Minutes - YRARC General Meeting 2016-02-02

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:34 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 37 Guests attending: 3

1. Welcome & Introductions – Chris VE3NRT
   
2. General Announcements – Chris VE3NRT.
   
   • Adoption of minutes will be postponed until next meeting.
     
   • The 6m net continues on Monday night.
     
   • Upcoming contests include CQ Worldwide, RTTY, ARRL DX CW, CQ 160m SSB, and North American QSO party (RTTY).
     
   • The Makers's Lab is holding a self-study licensing class led by John VE3IPS with assistance from Mike VA3MCT who is also connected with the Maker's Lab. The class starts February 03 at the David Dunlap Observatory.
     
   • Mike VE3MKX will be next month's speaker.
     
3. Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI
   
   • Opening Balance 2016/01/01 [Available to club members on request to club secretary]
     
   • Income: $160
     
     • Dues from the January meeting: $135.00
       
     • Dues from new member VE3MPI: $25.00
       
   • Expenditures: None
     
   • Closing Balance 2016/02/01: [Available to club members on request to secretary]
     
   • Motion that the treasurer's report be adopted, moved John VA3JI, seconded Rob VE3RQB. Carried.
     
4. Membership Report – Alf VA3BLE: We now have a total of 77 members, 74 voting members.
   
5. Public Service Report: VE3EB. There will be a 5k run in May in Georgina. Details later.
   
6. EmComm Report: Robert VA3BXG. The January EmComm meeting had a presentation from Urban SAR group in Toronto. At the February meeting there will be a presentation by York Region EMO on personal and family preparedness. The meeting will be at the Newmarket Community Centre.
   
7. Repeaters – Steve VE3UT
   
   • There was a repeater work party at the Richmond Hill site to deliver batteries and remove the old cabinets and junk. Rick VA3VO has built Low Loss Powergates for the link radios for both the Richmond Hill and Aurora sites. The 6m repeater will not have backup power, otherwise all repeaters and links will soon have battery backup.
     
   • Rick could build more power gates for members if requested.
     
   • IRLP/Echolink (Chris VE3NRT). The old Sun computer has been replaced with a Raspberry Pi, tied to an IRLP board, an Icom 2100 radio and a USB sound card. The IRLP/Raspberry Pi is still wired in a temporary fashion until it can be packaged permanently. The Echolink is temporarily at Steve VE3UT's QTH. Eventually both IRLP and Echolink will be run on the Raspberry Pi.
     

Guest Speaker: Trevor VE3SLT and his great grandson Alexzander. Trevor spoke about his road trip with his family, to the N.W. Territories, Yukon, Alaska and BC, travelling in a 2003 Astro Van, with a 15' trailer behind his vehicle. The outbound trip was via Northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and then through Peace River, Yellowknife, (by way of MacKenzie and Liard Highways). They visited Joe and Mickey McBryan (Ice Pilots) from Buffalo Airways, in Yellowknife. The route dipped into northern B.C., and back into the Yukon, Whitehorse, and Dawson City. From there they went to Fairbanks Alaska (by way of "Top of the World Highway"), and Mt. McKinley, and Anchorage, At Haines Alaska, they took the Alaska Marine Highway to Skagway and back again into the Yukon and B.C. They then continued to Telegraph Creek, Stikine River, Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Smithers, and Vancouver BC. They visited relatives in Vancouver. On their return trip they passed through Washington State, Alberta, Montana, Minnesota, back to Rainy River and the northern route through Ontario. In total, they travelled 20,330 kms in six weeks, and crossed the border into the USA 4 times, and back into Canada for another 4 times.

Trevor travelled with lots of extra gas (100 extra litres) and spare tires (plural), though remote regions, on less travelled gravel roads, with long distances between settlements. Cell phones are almost useless for emergencies, because of the lack of coverage in remote areas. A heavy wire mesh was installed on his grill to protect his radiator from stones and screening to filter the bugs. The trailer ran on 12VDC (no 120V generator) and the trailer batteries were charged by his vehicle when driving. They make the trip with only one vehicle window replacement. The trip was panned well in advance with Microsoft Streets and Trips. Reservations at RV parks was done for every night before the trip started, for the first three weeks up to Vancouver. They never missed any RV park reservations. The application was run continuously on a laptop with a 120VAC inverter. A USB-GPS antenna gave their location and recorded their trip.

Stay tuned for his next trip, through along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Labrador, (by ferry, across the Strait of Belle Isle) to Newfoundland, St. Pierre and Miquelon. The Return trip is through Nova Scotia, PEI, Magdalen Islands, New Brunswick and back via the coastline of the Gaspe.