YRARC General Meeting Minutes 2014-09-02

Meeting held at the Sharon Temperance Hall. The meeting was called to order at 19:35. Chaired by Chris VE3NRT. 39 members and 2 guest in attendance.

1. Agenda
   
   • The agenda for the meeting was presented (attachment #1). Barry VA3LLT requested that an item be added to the agenda to discuss the trailer. Item was added.
     
2. Minutes of the last meeting:
   
   • Motion 2014-09-02-01 by Bill VA3QB to approve the minutes of the June 3rd General Meeting as published in the Splatter Blog, seconded by Barry VA3LLT. Motion carried.
     
   • Motion 2014-09-02-02 by Bill VA3QB to approve the minutes of the June 3rd Annual General Meeting as published in the Splatter Blog, seconded by Glen VA3AU. Motion carried.
     
3. Opening remarks:
   
   • Chris VE3NRT presented the new board, highlighting that there is still one open position to be filled.
     
     • Chris VE3NRT - President
       
     • Rob VE3RQB – Vice-President, Property
       
     • Chris VA3DXZ - Secretary
       
     • John VA3JI - Treasurer
       
     • Eric VE3OIC VE3EB – Events chair
       
     • Dave VA3DCY - Events
       
     • Geoff VA3GS – Membership, Hamfest, …
       
     • Barry VA3LLT - Property
       
     • Steve VE3UT – TBA…
       
     • Open
       
   • Club’s accomplishments of the last year
     
     • the purchase of a large storage container to house club property,
       
     • reconstruction of the tower trailer,
       
     • improvements to the communications trailer,
       
     • the basic license class,
       
     • the microprocessor project night, and
       
     • a very successful field day
       
   • Old news and gossip
     
     • Two letter calls OIC->EB, PIP->EZ
       
     • Brad VE3HII moved to Beeton
       
     • Chris VA3DXZ moved to Schomberg
       
     • Anthony VE3HIS put up a tower
       
     • Chris VE3NRT talked to his neighbour about maybe putting up a tower
       
     • Bruce retired to his country home in FN05
       
     • Hamfest back to Markham Fairgrounds
       
     • Equipment donations received
       
   • Goals for the coming year
     
     • Increase membership; Another class in the Spring, Marketing (mostly free) activities, Member survey
       
     • Another project night – Thanks Brad!
       
     • Special Event Station – 177th anniversary of the Toronto Rebellion
       
     • Community Service Tracking
       
     • Balanced Budget
       
4. Financial update, John VA3JI (Attachment #2)
   
   • FY 2015 Opening balance [available to members on request to Treasurer]
     
     • Income (July and August) $500.00
       
     • Disbursements (July and August) $1,215.70
       
     • Closing balance Aug 31st [available to members on request to Treasurer]
       
   • Pending items
     
     • Payments for field day
       
     • income for Hamfest tables
       
   • A special meeting will be called to approve the audit
     
5. Field day Steve VE3UT
   
   • Participation by members was up this year. A lot of fun had by many people.
     
   • Total score submitted to ARRL was 3,598, slightly higher than last year at 3,496 See Field Day report prepared by Steve VE3UT
     
6. Public service update Eric VE3EB
   
   • Eric thanked those people who volunteered their time over the summer to support the community events
     
   • Volunteers needed for upcoming events; Sharon Temple Illumination, Markham Fair, and CIBC Run for the Cure
     
7. Hamfest Geoff VA3GS
   
   • Hamfest is the largest fundraising event for the club and volunteers are needed to support the event
     
   • Don VE3IXJ thanked Russell VA3WTR for his work and support of the Markham Fair organizers which led to improved pricing for the club and the ability to relocate the Hamfest to the Markham Fairgrounds site
     
8. Communications trailer Barry VA3LLT
   
   • Barry reported that the communications trailer has been deployed to many public service events throughout the summer
     
9. 6m Net is still on 8PM Monday evenings at 50.135 USB
   

Meeting adjourned at 21:30 following a presentation by Don VE3IXJ on his work with portable repeaters. Don has been experimenting with the Surecom SR 328 Duplex Repeater Controller and the SR 112 Simplex Controllers interfaced to various HTs. The duplex controller is used with a Sinclair MR356E Duplexor (F1 458Mhz, F2 468Mhz).

Repeater Report - Steve VE3UT

In the past, I headed up our club's repeater committee and now, once again, the Board of Directors has given me this task. Our club has a very good collection of machines but we have a number of challenges ahead. The departure of Bruce VE3BV, who has moved North to the Parry Sound area, has left a void to fill. The club has relied on Bruce's technical expertise and “connections” for the past 30+ years and we need to assemble a team of people with various skills to fill that void and keep us on the air. The challenge of keeping our sites or gaining access to new sites will also be an issue in the coming years.

The VE3YRC (147.225+ PL 103.5) site is not likely to remain available and coming up with ideas to keep it on the air from another location is a priority. YRC is the club's flagship repeater. The relocation of VE3YRA (145.350- PL 103.5) to its current temporary home has kept it on the air but ultimately it would be good to see us back at the original site with its superb coverage.

An idea that is just starting to be discussed is the possibility of have YRA and YRC permanently linked with one machine in the West end of York Region (the original YRA site) and another in the East end (actually North East). This would provide seamless VHF coverage of York Region and beyond with some overlapping coverage in places. Gaining a site in Georgina for YRC would solve the problem of spotty coverage there and other eastern locations.

With a link permanently on, users in the southern, western, and central areas of York Region would be able to select YRA or YRC depending on the coverage at their respective locations. For example, Bob WY and Brynn VOD could operate on YRA and talk to me UT and Barry LLT in the East on YRC. I mention these names because we all live or travel through noisy locations.

The club owns four repeater controllers, two 7330 units (on YRC and YRA) and a ACC RC85 (on YRC UHF) and a ACC RC96 (in the club trailer). The 7330 controllers are newer than the obsolete ACC units. The first 7330 was programmed and installed on YRC by Bruce BV and one was installed a couple of years ago on YRA when its ACC unit malfunctioned. Bruce was the only expert in the club on programming these controllers with me having a limited knowledge. But with Bruce's move, I have stepped up to the plate and am getting fairly proficient at programming them.

At this time, YRC is doing a fair bit of chatting at us. Some of the messages are regular daily messages and some are temporary for special club activities. They all serve the same purpose, to keep membership informed of upcoming activities. Please support our club and volunteer to help out at some of the events. Message schedule on YRC:

• :00 Time and chimes
  
• :10 Hamfest message, last week of October only
  
• :15 Month long Hamfest message commencing October 1
  
• :17 Tuesday club meeting message, last week of the month only
  
• :20 Wildcard message – currently Run for the Cure event
  
• :25 Wildcard message – currently Emcomm event at Markham Fair
  
• :30 Time and ``this is VE3YRC repeater home of the YRARC``
  
• :40 Same as:10
  
• :45 same as :15
  
• :47 same as :17
  
• :50 same as :20
  
• :55 same as 25
  

Last but not least...VE3YRK B and VE3YRK C, our D Star repeaters, great coverage and connect to international gateways. Check them out! borrow a club radio and get on the air!! These radios have FM and can also be used with YRA and YRC. [Note from Chris VE3NRT: Some members have already requested club radios which will be fulfilled at the next meeting]

Notes from the Shack, July 2014

Under the Whip

Pardon the title! A while back I discovered that my 30 year old mobile mag mount, made by Larsen, only matched on 2 metres. On 450 it was more than 4:1 VSWR across the entire band. On close inspection it should not have been a surprise as the housing for the coil that separates the upper and lower halves of the antenna had broken open exposing the interior which had become a congealed mass of rusty metal. It was a wonder it matched OK on 2 metres.

More recently, the club acquired a couple more mag mount dual band antennas from a local donor, and I decided to test them as well. Initially I did this using a filing cabinet as a ground plane but when neither worked on either band I tried them on top of my Toyota to see if they'd fare any better. They didn't.

Eventually I found that one of the donated antennas worked fine matching less than 1.5:1 across both bands if I mounted it on my Larsen base. It works well even on the shack filing cabinet.

What have I learned? To trust but verify. Seemingly good antennas can go bad and need to be watched.

Postscript

I'm now the happy owner of a vehicle with a permanent antenna mount on the roof. I expect that most of the time it will sport a 1/4 wave whip about 19" long because that's all the clearance I have into the garage. Long trips may give me the chance to run with something a little larger. I'm happy to have a rig in the car again!

I wrote this back in March but neglected to publish it. Better late than never.

VE3YRC IRLP/Echolink down until further notice

Due to an inopportune lightning strike affecting the ISP service the IRLP is down until further notice. The service provider is working on the problem.

Update: Service is now restored.

Guide to using IRLP and Echolink on VE3YRC

After a long cold winter John VA3JI has at last been able to climb his tower and complete the installation of the VE3YRC IRLP/Echolink node at his house and it is working well. It is simple to use and the following guide will take through through the steps of looking up your destination repeater or operator and connecting it to the VE3YRC repeater.

IRLP - The Internet Radio Linking Project

The operator accesses an IRLP "Node" by using DTMF (touch-tone) tones sent by radio. First, look up the node number that you want to contact. A list of current nodes can be found on the IRLP web site.

Once you have decided which node to call, listen to the repeater (VE3YRC on 147.225+, PL Tone 103.5) to ensure that it is clear and ask if the repeater is in use. Announce the node that you are about to call and then enter the node number (i.e. hold the microphone PTT down and then use the keypad to enter the 4 digit number)

For example to connect to VE3RPL in Parry Sound DTMF 2480f it will reply "Connected to VE3RPL"

NOTE: If your node is already connected to another node or reflector, the repeater will announce that "your node is currently connected to [ID of the connection]") In this case ask if anyone is still using the connection before dropping it with the off code 73

Once connected and after hearing the confirming voice ID, wait at least 5 seconds before transmitting as the following conditions may occur:

• The link may be in use, and your command may have occurred between transmissions.
  
• If the voice ID of your node is longer than the voice ID of their node, the connection will not be made until the ID is fully played.
  
• Their computer may be slower and take longer to process the connection than yours.
  

Press and hold the PTT for a second and then announce your presence and your intention, such as you are calling someone specifically or just looking for a chat with another amateur in that city.

If no response is heard, announce your call and your intent to drop the link and then enter the OFF code 73. Please do not transmit DTMF commands without first giving your call-sign. Not only is this courteous it may be required by law in one of the countries that might be connected to the reflector.

Some nodes are configured so you cannot connect to them if that repeater is active. In this case you will receive the message "The node you are calling is being used locally" If you receive this message wait 5 or 10 minutes and then try again. If you stay connected to a node and there is no activity on your repeater for 4 minutes, the connection is automatically terminated with a spoken disconnect message on both nodes.

If unsure that local node is working you can perform a audio loopback check. Node 9992 will reply "IRLP reflector 9992 active". Cancel with 73

Don't forget if you require any more detailed information visit the official IRLP web site.

EchoLink Operation

The EchoLink system is similar in many ways to IRLP and the same operating etiquette needs to used. The main variation is that you can not only connect to remote repeater but also to another amateur's computer system. Like IRLP, you access EchoLink using DTMF tones using a node number that you can look up on the EchoLink homepage.

Entering Node Numbers

To enter a node number (for the Connect or Query by Node commands), enter the 4, 5, or 6-digit node number. If the specified node is not among the stations currently logged on, EchoLink will say "Not Found".

Examples

These examples assume that the default DTMF codes are configured on the local repeater, as they are with VE3YRC

To connect to node number 9999 (the echo test reflector) enter: #9999

EchoLink responds with: "Connecting to conference E-C-H-O-T-E-S-T" followed by: "Connected", because 9999 is the node number of conference server "*Echotest*".

For example to connect to VE3RAK enter: #2068

EchoLink responds with: "Connected to VE3RAK" (if the node is not busy)

To disconnect use 73 like with IRLP

******Note: Because we are using an ECHOIRLP combination only one of Echolink or IRLP can be used at one time ******

Please support your local repeaters VE3YRA, VE3YRC and VE3YRK by becoming a member of the York Region Amateur Radio Club!

Links of the month - January 2014

1. The ACLU on the impact of sensor technologies on privacy. [Steve VA3SRV]
   
2. Chirp - free software for programming radios. [Steve VA3SRV]
   
3. Contextual Electronics - On-line hands-on electronics education. [Steve VA3SRV]
   
4. Video: SDR HT. [Patrick VE3WST]
   
5. Inexpensive 4 band mobile radios. [Russell VE3TWR]
   
6. New ICOM Touch Screen D-STAR Radio. [Steve VA3SRV]