Upcoming Board of Directors Election

The election of new Directors will take place at the Annual General Meeting on June 2nd, 2015. There are five two-year terms and one one-year term to be filled. Outgoing directors are Steve VE3UT (appointed), Chris VE3NRT, Barry VA3LLT, John VA3JI, and Chris VA3DXZ.

YRARC depends on its volunteers for both leadership and implementation and I invite you to stand for election and help us build a better and stronger club.

73,
Chris VE3NRT

Notice of Annual General Meeting

Take notice that the Annual General Meeting of the members of the York Region Amateur Radio Club, Inc., will be held at the usual meeting place, the Sharon Temperance Hall, 18974 Leslie Street, Sharon, at the usual hour of 7:30pm on Tuesday June 2nd, 2015 for the purposes of approving the financial statements for fiscal year 2015 and the election of directors to hold office for 2 years commencing July 1st, 2015.

Regular, family and life members are advised that they have the right to attend and vote in person at this meeting, in accordance with the usual rules of order, and further, in the event of a member’s absence, the member has the right to appoint a proxy to vote on his or her behalf. An appropriate form is included at the end of this publication. Members who are unable to attend the Annual General Meeting may complete, date and sign a proxy form, which must be delivered to the Secretary prior to the call to order of the Annual General Meeting, to be eligible for voting.

For those wishing to mail a proxy, please send it to Chris McGaffey, VA3DXZ, .

Dated this day May 11th, 2015 at Schomberg, Ontario.
Chris McGaffey, Secretary.

PROXY

The undersigned being a current member of the York Region Amateur Radio Club, Inc. hereby appoints


(Name of Secretary or other person) _____________________________________________ as proxy to attend the Annual General Meeting of the York Region Amateur Radio Club, Inc., on June 2nd, 2015 and vote on my behalf on each and any question brought before the assembly, or at any adjournment thereof, and I do hereby revoke and make void any former instrument appoint a proxy on my behalf.


Dated at _______________ this ___________ day of _____________, 2015.


Name and call of member (print) __________________________________


Signature of member __________________________________

Setting the Time

I'll admit it. I'm a little bit obsessed with time. I like it when every clock in the house ticks over in perfect synch. Indeed, I will avoid ever buying a clock or device that doesn't keep perfect time.

It is only a minor obsession. I'm satisfied to be within a second which is good for digital communications modes that depend on accurate time, rather than the millisecond or even microsecond precision. Human technology can keep time to within 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000 or so but I would soon find myself single if I started investing the family nest egg in Cesium or Hydrogen Maser clocks.

Around a second accuracy is good for the JT modes like JT65 and JT9 (in the WSJT-X or JT65-HF programs), as well as WSPR. It is also handy if you're networking the N1MM logger program so that stations do not enter logs that are in the future, as far as the other stations are concerned.

There are 3 ways I've used to satisfy the craving for accuracy.

1. The Network Time Protocol (NTP). This protocol runs over an IP network and does a great job of keeping computers in synch with each other despite the delays inherent in networks. Windows supports NTP but the implementation is not the best, so I generally use another free package from Meinberg to keep the system aligned with expensive atomic clocks at the National Research Council and other centres around the world. My only complaint with Meinberg is that it takes its time setting the clock after the system starts - around a 1/2 hour - which is pesky, especially on a laptop. All Linux systems have an NTP client available to install.
2. Short Wave Stations. WWV, CHU and others transmit precise time signals, although they are somewhat skewed by the ionosphere unless you happen to live near one. I have an inexpensive clock that is always right which uses WWV. I'm sure there's also an inexpensive way to use WWV to set the computer clock but I've never tried to find one because GPS is so readily available.
3. GPS - GPS (also GLONASS and Galileo) satellites send out very accurate time signals as each satellite contains a Cesium timepiece. Technology is available to use GPS to keep very accurate time for advanced computer and telephony systems but simple software is available for using a standard GPS dongle (either a USB or Serial Port) that usually runs around $20-30 to keep the system clock from drifting. The GPS solution is useful if you don't have an Internet connection, like with portable operation, although NTP works just fine over a mobile phone hotspot.

At home I run NTP. Rather than have each of the computers (and some other devices like NAS storage, TV sets and music players) connect directly to external time servers, I have my Raspberry-Pi single board computer handle the external connection and then act as a server for all the other devices over my local area network. This reduces the load on the external servers and the network traffic, as well as keeping the computers together if the Internet becomes unavailable (together, although only as correct as the Raspberry Pi's clock can maintain).

Computer clocks drift. My desktop system is pretty good at 1-2 seconds per day. The laptops drift several seconds per day. This isn't good enough for JT65 and it is very hard to set them manually. 

I've tried two software applications with my GPS dongle. The first thing you should know is that these applications have to be run with Administrator privileges (e.g. right-click, "Run as Administrator") so that they can change the system time. You wouldn't want any old app doing that.

The first one was a free app from TimeTools called "GPS Clock". It is a very simple app in which you just tell it the com port and it runs, displaying your position, the time and the NMEA messages coming from the GPS dongle. Unfortunately it is a very cranky application so I will only give it two starts out of five (two instead of one because it does work if you're nice to it). There is a configuration setting that determines how many seconds elapse between clock updates ranging from 1 to 60. If it is set to anything but 1 the program will bomb with an error. Also, if you forget to run the program with administrator privilege, it reports an error every second until you kill the program.

The other program is NMEATime from VisualGPS. It works solidly and can use both GPS and a somewhat less accurate NTP called Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP). In addition to the latitude, longitude, altitude and time, it shows the position of the GPS satellites it can see and the signal strengths from each. It also managed to find my GPS dongle on its communication port without me having to tell it which COM port it was on. Unfortunately, perhaps inevitably, the program that works the best is not free - but you get a one month trial and the registration key is a reasonable $15. 

If your GPS unit has the capability, the program will also accept a hardware 1 PPS (pulse-per-second) input, which will give you sub-second accuracy. The 1 PPS output from even very inexpensive GPS devices is usually accurate to a microsecond, and over long periods can be used to synchronize a very stable oscillator to within a picosecond of "atomic time".

For both programs you must make sure that the speed of the COM port matches the device and the program you're using. It won't work otherwise.

For most of us, installing Meinberg, as recommended by the authors of both N1MM and WSJT-X, is all we need to do to guarantee accurate time-keeping by our computers.

73,

Chris

Cool Stuff at the York Region Emergency Preparedness Fair

Lots to see at the Fair today. Don VE3IXJ impressed the East Gwillimbury Fire Department with his $100 portable simplex repeater. The paint can is not only inexpensive but waterproof, which is an important requirement when your job is to make everything wet!



We were also impressed by the York Central Fire's mobile antenna platform. It also serves as a pretty good ladder. Maybe next year we'll shunt feed it for 160m operation.



Both East Gwillimbury Fire and the YRP have air boats. We don't have a lot of swamps and definitely no gators but a standard boat propeller doesn't work too well through a layer of ice.



Also check @yr_amateurradio on twitter for more pictures.

Live from the York Region Emergency Preparedness Fair

The 4th annual York Region Emergency Preparedness Fair is on today, and for the fourth time our Club has participated with an exhibit. This year we have an HF station and D-STAR demonstrations operating from our communications trailer. If you have the opportunity, please stop by! More reports and pictures will be posted later today.

York Region Emergency Preparedness Fair

REMINDER

On May 2nd, 2015 the trailer will be present at the York Region Emergency Preparedness Fair at the York Region Municipal Headquarters on Yonge Street in Newmarket. The purpose of the club's presence at this event is to promote community safety, provide visibility to YRARC and its EmComm team, and to liaise with York Region's emergency management personnel. The VE3YRC UHF repeater will be monitored throughout the event. Contact for the event is Robert VA3BXG, acting EmComm Chair.

The club will be demonstrating the capabilities of the trailer using D-STAR over the global reflectors and also HF operation if that is determined to be practical upon arrival at the site.

Minutes - YRARC General Meeting - 2015-04-07

Meeting held at the Sharon Temperance Hall. The meeting was called to order at 19:31. Chaired by Chris VE3NRT. 40 members and 2 guest in attendance

1. Adoption of the minutes
   
   • Motion 2015-04-03-01 by Rob VE3RQB to adopt the minutes of the March 3rd general meeting minutes, seconded by Robert VA3BXG. Motion carried.
     
2. Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI
   
   • Current Account
     
     • February month end balance [Available to members on request to Secretary]
       
   • February disbursements:
     
     • Directors and officers Insurance $649.08
       
     • Repeater controller $600.00
       
     • Repeater maintenance $181.87
       
     • Trailer maintenance $76.31
       
   • Income:
     
     • Donations $100.00
       
     • Membership dues $25.00
       
   • Balance at the end of March 2015 [Available to members on request to Secretary]
     
   • April disbursements $14.70
     
   • Balance as of April 7 2015 [Available to members on request to Secretary]
     
   • John VA3JI moved that motion 2015-03-03-04 be amended such that the club allocates $250.00 for the purchase of property insurance to cover club assets not already covered under existing policies, seconded by Robert VA3BXG. Motion Carried.
     
3. Repeater Update Steve VE3UT
   
   • VE3YRC-UHF is back on the air
     
   • The link from VE3YRC-UHF to VE3YRA is operational
     
   • Work is still underway on the link between VE3YRC-VHF and UHF
     
   • An additional donation of $10.00 was received today for the repeater controller
     
   • The repeater controller cost more than $600.00 including exchange and other fees. Steve VE3UT re-confirmed that he is donating the difference between the final purchase price of the controller and the $600.00 approved by the club.
     
4. Public Service Eric VE3EB
   
   • Eric reported the he is updating the online calendar regularly.
     
5. EmComm Update Robert VA3BXG
   
   • Robert VA3BXG provided an overview on EmComm and the need for planning and exercises to be prepared to deliver emergency communications
     
   • The agenda for the upcoming EmComm meeting will touch on
     
     • Election of a new EmComm leader
       
     • Upcoming Red Cross exercise (6-8 Volunteers needed)
       
     • FLDigi Demo
       
     • Establishing a biweekly net
       
     • Upcoming repeater site visit
       
     • May 2nd York Region Emergency Preparedness Fair
       
     • York Region EOC activation
       
     • Update on work underway with EmComm partners (York Regional Police)
       
     • Engaging new municipalities
       
     • Volunteers are need to liaise with services agencies and to help coordinate exercises
       
6. Field Day Steve VE3UT
   
   • Steve VE3UT circulated a questionnaire to club members asking for input on Field Day planning
     
7. Hamfest Geoff VA3GS
   
   • The date has been confirmed for Oct 31
     
   • Looking for ideas to attract more vendors and patrons
     
8. After the break, Peter West VE3HG from the Ontario Contest Club presented an overview on contesting
   

Meeting adjourned at 21:26