The meeting was held in the Kanata Room at Sobey’s in Kanata.

The following members and guests were present (in random order):

Name Call Sign Position MH Grid
Doug Leach VE3XK   FN15wg
Les McCready VA3BZQ    
Barney Baker VA3BGB   FN25ai
Rick Bandla VE3CVG V.P. / Webmaster  
Bob Clermont VE3AKV    
Graham Ide VE3BYT Secretary FN25ch
Justin Schmidt-Clever VE3QYR Guest  

Rick, VE3CVG, mentioned that he has booked the Kanata Room for WCARC meetings for September and October.

Justin, VE3QYR, came to visit to see how (if) the group ticked. He is interested in QRP and has a kit for a 5 watt CW transceiver. The group had some discussion of building kits, kits that did not work, and equipment blowing or failing the smoke test by actually producing smoke.

Rick reported that he had had contacts on 40 and 20 meters with Ken, VA3KA, and others on his recent trip to Edmonton by car.

It was noted that Ray, VE3FN, had a contact with Hamilton on 3 cm - 10 GHz. Pretty neat! Ray will be trying Woodstock soon. The group talked about the joys and hazards of mountaintopping - the major difficulty on some sites being Park Wardens or security types.

Graham described a bug zapper in the form of a badminton racquet, available at Giant Tiger at low cost - perfect for generating interference or for electrocuting your cat. There is potential here for building your very own Taser.

It was noted by Bob, VE3AKV, an amateur radio examiner, that very few people are taking the examinations these days. They are mostly older people going from Basic to Advanced. Also noted that Kieran, VA3KS, is no longer an examiner.

There was a discussion of how your TNC should now be programmed for APRS, but it was noted that not all areas have made the change to the new format. Following this inspiration, the group adjourned to the parking lot to test with Doug’s, VE3XK, mobile TinyTrak.

The next meeting will be on September 6, 2005.

Graham Ide VE3BYT
Secretary.