SB RAC @ CANADA < VA3RAC $RAC_9412.20 RAC NEWS BULLETIN 10-94 INTERNET EDITION - 15 DECEMBER 1994 Issued at RAC Administrative Office 614 nNorris Court, Unit 6 Kingston, ON K7P 2R9 Internet Editor: Cam Inglis VE3UXN Internet Transmission: Steve Cutway VE3GRS IN THIS BULLETIN KANATA FIRE DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING CALGARY EMERGENCY HAM ATV BIG HELP TO THEIR FIRE DEPARTMENT HIGH SPEED CODE ANYONE? FROM THE INTERFERENCE DEPARTMENT STILL HOPE FOR PEACE BETWEEN JORDAN AND ISRAEL HAM NEWS ABOUT CHINA EC UNABLE TO PROVIDE WEATHER WATCHER TRAINING NORTH SHORE HRC FIRST IN CANADA IN EMERGENCY EXERCISE RAC MAILING ADDRESS CHANGE SIX HAMS ABOARD LOUIS ST. LAURENT ON TRIP TO NORTH POLE AN MP'S LETTER RE EMCAB-2 IC ANTENNA TOWER POLICY CLARIFICATION FCC TELLS ZONING BOARD BASIS FOR DECISION WRONG HAMMOND MUSEUM OF RADIO 220-225 MHZ REMAINS AMATEUR EXCLUSIVE IN CANADA RAC ANNOUNCES ELECTION OF DIRECTORS ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CFARS? RAC SECTION MANAGER ELECTIONS RAC WINTER CONTEST KANATA FIRE DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING The Kanata, Ontario, Fire Department has joined forces with local Amateur Radio operators to provide for emergency communications needs. The Kanata Fire Chief initiated the move that resulted in a fully operational Amateur station located in the fire hall. Kanata firemen and Amateur volunteers worked together to install the new station. In the event of an emergency, local Amateurs will provide communications for the Kanata police, fire department and relief organizations. According to an item in the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club bulletin, the fire department radio station was installed so that if, and when, a disaster occurs, designated volunteer Amateur Radio operators could proceed directly to the fire station and begin providing immediate communications assistance. The station is equipped with a Kenwood 702A transceiver working from a Diamond X300 antenna. In addition to the many Amateur Radio repeaters in the Ottawa-Carleton region, the local Emergency Measures Unit recently commissioned a new Amateur Radio repeater (VA3EMU), for the exclusive use during an emergency. One of the many features of the new repeater is the ability to interconnect (autopatch) with the local telephone network. This feature will allow volunteer Amateurs to communicate with any of the services the City or fire department may require in the event of a disaster in Kanata. CALGARY EMERGENCY HAM ATV BIG HELP TO THEIR FIRE DEPARTMENT From Calgary ARA Key Klix Key Klix reports that the Calgary fire department has been so impressed by what the Ham ATV operators have been able to do for them that they have decided to call them out for the next major fire. A 24-hour call out sheet has been organized by the club. HIGH SPEED CODE ANYONE? The World Wireless Beacon reports that Pacific Coast high speed practice skeds are currently running on 3523 and 7023 MHz, Mondays and Thursdays at 0330 UTC. FROM THE INTERFERENCE DEPARTMENT From the ARRL News Letter Hams in the Omaha, Nebraska area helped the local office of the FCC in chasing down some pesky electromagnetic interference. Owners of Sears garage door openers were able to close their doors but not to open them. The FCC said that several local Amateurs who had heard about the problem assisted the Commission staff in locating the new air-to-ground communications system at Offut Air Force Base, operating on a frequency too close to the door openers' frequency. The Air Force contractor agreed to find another frequency. STILL HOPE FOR PEACE BETWEEN JORDAN AND ISRAEL The recent thawing of relations between Israel and Jordan was apparent by the appearance of Jordan's King Hussein, JY1, on an Amman, Jordan repeater, according to the Israeli newsletter HaGal. When Jonathan, 4Z9FHB, called CQ, JY1 answered and proceeded to work the young Amateur. HaGal also reports that discussions have taken place between the two countries' Amateur Societies, on "technical cooperation" and "plans for a very special DXpedition, yet to be announced. A recent report indicated there were now 11 VHF and 4 UHF repeaters in Jordan. HAM NEWS ABOUT CHINA From Calgary ARA Key Klix At the IARU Region 3 Conference in Singapore, the delegate of the Chinese Radio Sports Association, BZ1HAM, submitted a document which gives the prefix line-up in China as follows: B VHF/UHF stations and contest stations on the mainland BA Class 1 individual home stations BD Class 2 individual home stations BG Class 3 individual home stations BO Jin Men (Quemoy) area of Taiwan BR Repeaters BSOH Huang Yan Dao (Scarborough Reef) BT Special events stations BV Taiwan BV9P Dong Sha Dao (Pratas) BY Club stations BZ Personal calls of club station operators, to be used at club stations only. There are now 33 old-timers who have been issued permission to operate from their homes with the BA prefix. On July 17, China conducted an examination in 28 cities for the Class 3 individual home station license. About 1400 people took the examination and about 1000 are expected to pass. The main problem for most of these Amateurs will be obtaining equipment. Imported ham gear is too expensive for most of their pocketbooks and ham gear is not made in China. As of June, 1994, there were 99 club stations (BY) in China. About 200 Amateurs currently hold the BZ prefix call sign enabling them to use personal calls when operating from club stations. Key Klix credits DL6RDE for the above report. EC UNABLE TO PROVIDE WEATHER WATCHER TRAINING The Leamington, Ontario, ARC News Letter recently reported that 1994 had been a quiet year for the Canwarn Weather Spotters. One incident did involve severe weather damage to the antenna system located at the Weather Office. Environment Canada, without the financial resources to pay travel and overtime staffing expenses, is reportedly unable to assist with local volunteer training. The club news letter says that discussions are underway to find volunteers from the Weather Watchers to conduct the course themselves. Weather Watchers are trained to identify potentially dangerous locally developing weather conditions that could threaten life and property. They assist Environment Canada by reporting threatening conditions so that warning can be issued to the public if necessary. NORTH SHORE HRC FIRST IN CANADA IN EMERGENCY EXERCISE Members of the North Shore ARC placed first in Canada in the "Radio Club" category in a continent-wide exercise of emergency communications on the weekend of June 24, 1994. The North Shore club operated from the quarry site at the top of Cypress Provincial Park in West Vancouver. George Merchant VE7CHU, Club President, comments, "Our Field Day site is ideal for radio contact with the rest of North America because of height and antenna direction, and probably has the most spectacular view of the thousands of other sites in the contest." The annual exercise is designed to test the skills of Ham radio operators in setting up an emergency communications facility, without normal power, as quickly as possible, in the event of disaster. The competition is divided into several categories depending on the number of radio transmitters, power levels and source of power. The North Shore Club says they have managed to improve their contest score consistently since the Club was formed 10 years ago. The American Radio Relay League recently confirmed the NSARC first place finish, narrowly beating the perennial winner, the Ottawa Valley Amateur Radio Club. RAC MAILING ADDRESS CHANGE Radio Amateurs of Canada, Administrative Offices is located in Kingston. The postal box has been closed and mail is now being delivered directly to the office. Please address your mail to: Radio Amateurs of Canada, 614 Norris Court, Unit 6, Kingston, Ontario K7P 2R9. SIX HAMS ABOARD LOUIS ST. LAURENT ON TRIP TO NORTH POLE Partly from the York Region Splatter Last month in this Bulletin, we reported on the recent travels of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, Louis St. Laurent, and the American Coast Guard icebreaker, Polar Sea, to the North Pole. Our headline read, "CW only reliable means of communications from the Pole." The source for our short item came from a Canadian Press item that appeared in the Thunder Bay Chronicle- Journal. The ships reached the Pole on Monday, August 22, 1994 and were there for approximately 24 hours. According to the CP report, "For most of Monday, the only communications with the two ships was by Morse code because electromagnetic interference from the Pole made voice transmission impossible by either radio or satellite telephone." Now, for the real story. Aboard the Louis St. Laurent were six Canadian Amateur radio operators. They included: Bill Falconer VE1VCB, Phil VE1CGT, Bob VE1BFX, Ken VA3KA, Ivan VE2YGB and Gord VE1VCS. The report in the York Region Splatter comes from information supplied by Bill Falconer. Incidentally, the ship's Amateur radio call was VE0MBJ. "In the evenings", Bill reports, "we would go on the Amateur bands and work DX. One or two CQ's with the VE0 call and we had a pile up. I did mostly CW, and Phil would come up later and work SSB." The station ran an ICOM 781 into a homemade dipole. The only band open while in the Arctic was 20 metres, and the window into North America was only a few hours a day. "As the window was around 1200 to 1400 hours our local time, we used it to run phone patches for the crew on CFARS", Bill said. "We had a lot of support from CFARS operators all across the country, but four operators were with us practically the whole way. They included, Ralph Campbell VE1QU, Ed McGillivray VE1EB, Al Oldfield VE3ANO and Vic Williams VE7UZ." Bill says, "there were daily skeds and they didn't miss many days." "The morning we got to the Pole we started at 0530 our local time and ran 40 patches in a three hour period," Bill explained. "Anyone who wanted to call home could. We were really lucky, because the band had been very poor the previous two days without patch quality. This morning, the band was wide open." "The time on the Pole seemed to go fairly fast", Bill said. "Phone patches for the crew were the extent of our hamming for the day. We didn't work one DX contact, which was a real shame. After three or four hours doing phone patches, we had a baseball game with the Polar Sea and won. Some people were skiing. A friend and I had mountain bikes so we went for a ride around the Pole. Others went for a polar swim. There was skating, kite flying, etc." Bill continues, "The sun never set the whole time we were there, so if you couldn't sleep and woke up at 3 a.m., you could always go outside and join in whatever was going on." The joint Canadian/American expedition involved 60 scientists with the aim of understanding the Arctic in the context of global change. Thanks to David Adams VE3HBF, for his report in the Splatter for this item. AN MP'S LETTER RE EMCAB-2 "Dear Mr. Harrington: "I have been informed by my colleague, Mr. Ian McClelland, MP, the co- critic for the Department of Industry, that he has taken the opportunity to read the departmental bulletin and agrees with many of the concerns raised by amateur radio operators. The department of Industry must push to have a degree of responsibility levelled at the manufacturers of electrical/electronic products. Once the government has provided a specified level of immunity all manufacturers must meet, perhaps then it can begin to consider the role of the consumer in ensuring a desired level of emission is complied with. "Mr. McClelland has advised me that he does not believe the EMCAB-2 bulletin deals realistically with the problem of emissions and has addressed this concern in a letter to the Minister responsible. Please be assured that as soon as a response from the Minister has been received, I will contact you with the details of that response. "Once again, thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. Sincerely, Ken Epps, MP, Elk Island, Alberta" IC ANTENNA TOWER POLICY CLARIFICATION The long awaited Industry Canada policy concerning antennas and antenna structures is expected soon. The delay is over the possible impact of new legislation governing environmental health factors and the limits of exposure to radio frequency fields. Our November Bulletin reported that the new policy was expected to spell out a requirement that prior to erecting an antenna tower, Amateurs would first have to consult with municipal authorities. Contrary to our previous report, Industry Canada, not the municipality, has sole authority over towers. However, IC has made it perfectly clear to RAC officials that it is in the best interest of the parties concerned, i.e., the Amateur, his neighbours and the municipality, that a consultation process take place. While consultation is not mandatory, "Good Neighbour Relations" can help to diffuse possible future confrontation. Note this! IC does not look with favour on Amateurs who fail to consult with their neighbours. FCC TELLS ZONING BOARD BASIS FOR DECISION WRONG From the ARRL Letter, November 12, 1994 The chief of the FCC's Private Radio Bureau, Ralph Haller, has told the Hempstead, New York Board of Zoning Appeals that the town is wrong in trying to regulate an Amateur's antenna system based on interference caused to nearby consumer electronic equipment. Here is what Haller told the board of zoning appeals: "It has come to our attention that the Town of Hempstead's Board of Zoning Appeals (Board) has denied Mr. Handen M. Nadel's application for a variance permitting him to maintain his Amateur radio station's antenna at a height of fifty-five feet (versus the thirty feet permitted by the zoning ordinance). According (to) the text of the Board's decision ... it based its determination largely on its finding that the 'proposed and existing antenna height of fifty-five feet' was resulting in interference to the home electronic equipment of Mr. Nadel's neighbors." Haller then cites PRB-1 and what local authorities may do under its provisions. But, "They may not," Haller told the Board, "base their regulation of Amateur service antenna structures on the causation of interference to home electronic equipment, an area regulated exclusively by the Commission." Haller cited the FCC's exclusive jurisdiction over interference matters and told the Board "there is no reasonable connection between requiring Mr. Nadel to reduce the height of his antenna and reducing the amount of interference to his neighbors' home electronic equipment. On the contrary, antenna height is inversely related to the strength ... of the radio signal that serves as a catalyst for interference. ... "It is a matter of technical fact," Haller said, "that the higher an Amateur antenna, the less likely it is that the radio frequency interference will appear in home electronic equipment." HAMMOND MUSEUM OF RADIO If you are planning a visit to the Toronto area, give serious consideration to contacting Fred Hammond VE3HC, in Guelph and arrange for a visit to the Hammond Museum of Radio. Attention teachers: this would make a great field trip. Among the collection can be found a representative history of the development of radio equipment during the tube era. Spark gap transmitters, Marconi, Hammond, and other early makes of receivers are on display. Just about every piece of equipment Collins manufactured is represented and much of the collection is in operating condition. Two RCA broadcast transmitters have been converted to Amateur use and there are two Collins KW-1 1000 transmitters in operation at the museum. Fred's collection of tubes ranges from peanut tubes through the Eimac T-2000 and a 50,000 and a 100,000 watt broadcast transmitting tube. Most of the tubes have their filaments lit which offers an impressive display. Microphones, speakers and a few early television receivers are also displayed. Thanks to the Montreal ARC bulletin for reminding us of this important resource. 220-225 MHZ REMAINS AMATEUR EXCLUSIVE IN CANADA RAC announced recently that, as a result of negotiations with Industry Canada, the 220-225 MHz band remains exclusive to the Amateur service in Canada. The IC decision was communicated to RAC President, J. Farrell Hopwood VE7RD, in a letter dated November 23, 1994 from IC's Director, Spectrum Management Operations, Michael Connolly. Mr. Connolly congratulated RAC on its effective representation on the 220 MHz matter. Mr. Hopwood says that, "This was one of the first issues addressed by the Canadian Amateur Radio Advisory Board (CARAB), and RAC extends its thanks to Industry Canada for its co-operation and assistance." "Canadian radio Amateurs are encouraged to make maximum use of this valuable spectrum allocation", Mr. Hopwood says. "Amateurs are free to make full use of 220-225 MHz as before, and should use the band in accordance with our band plan. Amateurs should be aware that due to re-allocation of 220-222 MHz in the US to land mobile services, for this part of the frequency, sharing and co-ordination arrangements in the border corridor is currently being negotiated between IC and the FCC and should be finalized shortly. Any such plan must be incorporated in Canada-USA treaty obligations. Amateurs will be notified when implementation is required." RAC ANNOUNCES ELECTION OF DIRECTORS RAC Secretary, Ken Pulfer VE3PU, on behalf of the election committee, recently announced that J. Fergus Kyle VE3LVO, Dennis Livesey VE7DK and David Panting VE4EF had been elected to the Radio Amateurs of Canada Board of Directors. RAC President, Farrell Hopwood VE7RD said he welcomed the new directors on behalf of all Amateurs across the country. He encouraged them to be active and in-touch with clubs and in attendance at conferences and hamfests within their regions. Mr. Hopwood says that RAC "as a fledgling national society" has taken on some important and demanding roles and projects. He said, "We are faced with some serious matters concerning resources, both human and financial. There are solutions to our needs, however, they are problematic and complex." He further encouraged active recruitment of new membership in RAC. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CFARS? The Canadian Forces has created an organization called the Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio Service (CFARS), manned by licensed volunteer Amateur operators that help link people far from home with loved ones back in Canada. Thrill seekers, missionaries, scientists, the Coast Guard and our Military all know the value of CFARS. CFARS stations operate on frequencies just below the normal Amateur bands. They use a different set of call signs (only 100 are allowed by IC), so the number of operators is limited and strategically located around the country for optimum efficiency. Volunteer CFARS operators recently handled 450 patches to families across Canada during the Haiti crisis. Canadian scientists and Coast Guard staff aboard the Louis St. Laurent on her recent trip to the North Pole depended on CFARS for communications with family and loved ones at home. Canadian Medical relief troops in Rwanda, peace keeping troops in the Golan Heights, Yugoslavia and Croatia have all made use of CFARS services. If you are interested in monitoring CFARS, try 14.452.5 and see for yourself how Amateurs help our Armed Forces around the world. Len Brewster VA3LEN, has offered to share more information on CFARS with interested Amateurs. His address is; R.R. #2, Chesterville, Ontario K0C 1H0. RAC SECTION MANAGER ELECTIONS Saskatchewan Amateurs will be mailed ballots for Section Manager elections Friday, December 16. Bruce Donovan VE5ND, and Joan Lloyd VE5JML, are the candidates. Atlantic Region Amateurs can expect ballots for Regional Director elections before the end of the year. Bill Gillis VE1WG, and Stuart Harvey VO1OO, are the candidates. Be sure to exercise your right as a RAC member and vote for the candidate of your choice. RAC WINTER CONTEST The Radio Amateurs of Canada Winter Contest is scheduled for December 31, 1994. Contest hours are 0000Z to 2359Z. Amateurs all over the world are invited to participate. For complete contest details, check page 38 of the December issue of The Canadian Amateur magazine. 73 & Season's Greetings de VA3RAC Steve VE3GRS at the keyboard