June Executive Meeting minutes added.

Go to Minutes to view June Executive Meeting minutes.

Updated club bylaws

At the Annual General Meeting on June 2nd, 2009, amended club bylaws were presented to the club and passed. The revised by-laws can be viewed here.

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting have also been posted, and can be viewed here.

Sign Up for Field Day!

Going to Field Day?  Why not sign up ahead of time for your slot. We plan to run 3A, with a Get-On-The-Air (GOTA) station and a VHF/UHF station. So, we need operators and loggers.  We would like to have all stations run for the whole 24 hour period, so there are lots of opportunities for a time slot!!

To reserve yours, contact the appropriate band leader:

1.   40/15 Phone – Ron Spencer VA3RSX

2.  80/20 Phone – George Duffield VE3WKJ

3.   CW & Digital -  Jeff Richardson VA3QSL

4.  GOTA and VHF – contact George VE3WKJ

Bill 118

Please be advised that after consultation with other affected groups that use amateur radio mobile
equipment and following a helpful and friendly discussion with Ontario Ministry of Transportation
staff, Radio Amateurs of Canada has recommended on the RAC blog that all Ontario amateurs offer their
personal comments to the government consultation website in regards to Bill
118 which could have a negative impact on the use of amateur radio equipment in moving vehicles. See
the RAC Blog <http://www.racblog.wordpress.com/>
for details.

The web address to read the Bill as it stands today is
http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/quickSearch.do?searchType=current

At the bottom of that page is a link to a comments page.

New Executive selected at AGM

The Peel Amateur Radio Club, Inc. held its Annual General Meeting on June 2.  This marked the wrap-up of an excellent year under the guidance of our President, George Duffield, VE3WKJ.

Past President Rod Lord, VE3WWP, presented a slate of candidates for all positions for the 2009-2010 season. With no additional nominations coming forward, the slate was acclaimed.

The new executive is as follows:

Past President Rod, VE3WWP
President George, VE3WKJ
Vice President: Ron, VA3RSX
Treasurer: Doug, VE3XDB
Secretary: Bryan VA3OG
Repeater Director: Paul, VA3PB
Education Director: Wayne VE3WWH
Programs Director: Doug VE3XDB
Public Relations Director: George, VA3GVR
Health and Welfare Director: Fred, VE3SZV
Ham-Ex Director: Victoria, VA3VJS

Contact information for the new executive can be found here.

Field Day – June 27-28, 2009

The Peel Amateur Radio Club will once again be participating in Field Day!

This interesting and exciting event will run from 2:00pm on Saturday, June 27th to 2:00pm on Sunday, June 28th. Historically, PARC has done very well! We need club members to participate. It’s a fun and interesting learning experience, and all members are asked to participate in some way.

The location will be the same as last year. Further details to follow.

Please mark this event in your calendar!

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July Club Meeting

While there will be no formal club meeting in July, Frank VE3FAO will be running a clinic on the Q4 SDR receiver.  If you built this kit, or are interested in learning more, please plan  to attend.

The meeting will be on July 7th at 7:30pm.  

Location:
Fletcher’s Creek Recreation Complex
Community Room
500 Ray Lawson Blvd
Brampton ON L6Y 5B3

Click her for a map
GPS: 43° 39.145′N ; 79° 44.142′W

Message from the President

With this June meeting signifying the end of the year for us in terms of meetings, I thought it important to present a kind of “State of the Union” address.

When this executive began its term last June, its goal was to complete the year with the club in a better position than it was when we took over. I think we have accomplished part of that goal. There are signs of a new excitement surrounding the club and a feeling that we are on the right track. But the job in not over yet.

The thing that will get us there is for all of us as members to get more involved in the activities surrounding the club. We began by further developing our relationship with the City of Brampton. This gave us the opportunity to have the meeting space at the South Fletcher’s Creek Community Centre. Our partnership with the city allows us to have this space at no cost and to take advantage of other benefits as well. This has made a tremendous difference for the club. We certainly thank the City of Brampton for acknowledging and supporting us in this way.

A year ago, we formed a number of special interest groups; some old, some new. A couple of them had great success; particularly the Homebrew/Homebuilt group and the ARES group. Some others had limited success and a couple really had trouble getting off the ground. We must do something to establish groups that are of interest to the members. So if you have an interest that you would like to develop to a greater extent through a small group, let it be known.

Those who were able to participate in social activities were also exposed to some interesting and fun events. We went to the Hammond Museum in the fall and had a wonderful Christmas get together. We had a successful HamEx led by Victoria Svatina, our wonder woman. We had the regular Friday morning breakfasts and occasionally a Sunday brunch. We shared meals before meetings. We recently completed a fox hunt. All of these activities were opportunities to get to know one another better and to share ideas and knowledge about our chosen hobby. There are more things planned for the coming year. Try to join in on these activities. This is how you can maximize your experience as a club member. Any by the way, if there is somewhere you would like to go, let us know so we can try to arrange an excursion.

There are a number of other advances that have taken some time and that are not quite so obvious, but they are….or will be significant. There is a new controller for our repeaters which will allow us to link a number of additional features including the new repeater (VE3UPR – 443.600+) that will be installed shortly in the north part of the county. This will provide great coverage for us. The IRLP node is also ready to go on line, node 2121. The 6 Metre repeater continues to give our crew challenges but it will soon be operational as well. While everything has taken more time than anticipated to bring to this point, we cannot forget that this is a hobby, not a job, and things get done as time permits.

Another thing that has come together in the last four weeks, is a revamped web site. I hope you have all had an opportunity to see it and to check out the various pages that were constructed. Doug Behl has taken the time to do this and I am very appreciative for his excellent work and of the mega time I am certain it took to accomplish the task.

As your president, I want to thank the executive for their time and efforts over the past year. I know it has not been easy for all of you and for that I appreciate your efforts even more. We lost Janet Gibson, our director of education during the winter and our secretary, Peter Ayearst will be leaving the executive after many years of commitment as of this meeting. My thanks to both of you and to the entire executive for your contributions, they are greatly appreciated.

Finally, I want to talk about Radio Amateurs of Canada. RAC is responsible for keeping us all on the air. There are commercial elements that are trying every year to encroach on the amateur bands. RAC and other national associations stand in their way. However, to be able to afford to continue, we must step up to the plate and support RAC through our membership in the organization. If you love this hobby, join the national association. And by way of a thank-you, you will receive a year’s subscription of the Canadian Amateur and $5 million dollars in liability insurance coverage. Fifty dollars a year for that kind of insurance is a pretty good deal.

Thanks for your support and involvements during the 2008/09 year. Let’s make 2009/10 an even better experience.

George Duffield VE3WKJ
President

Gord VE3GKN and Richard VE3RHD find the fox!

The fox hunt on May 20th, 2009 was great fun!  Congratulations to the father/son team of Gord Kennedy VE3GKN and Richard Kennedy VE3RHD, who found the fox in under an hour!  Great job for their first-ever fox hunt.

We had our challenges!  George VE3WKJ had a scheduling conflict, and could not attend.  So, I was the lone fox, and didn’t really have the radio for it.  I ran my handheld with an extended rubber duck antenna at a blazing 5 watts for the entire hunt.  By the way, I was located at Madoc Drive Public School, north of Queen Street and east of Kennedy Road.  When we met for coffee after the hunt, many of the participants had their maps, and many were on the right track!  A couple more transmissions and many would have found the fox.  Many people were paying attention at the last meeting, when Peter VE3DRS and Faye VA3FJT did a great job instructing the club on how to hunt the fox!

A good time was had by all.  Let’s do it again!

Best regards,

Doug VE3XDB

Photo Albums from the last year posted!

Photo albums from the last year have been posted to the website.   See the category “Photos” or click on the following links to open the photo albums:

Ham-Ex 2009

Hammond Museum visit 2008

Field Day 2008

MS Walk 2008

Terra Cotta 2008

Emergency Preparedness Week 2008

Enjoy the photos, and join in on the fun!  We look forward to seeing you at the  next event.

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