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
Tom Zinck VA3NFA President FN25
Kieran Shepherd VA3KS    
Doug Leach VE3XK   FN15wg
Barney Baker VA3BGB   FN25ai
Rick Bandla VE3CVG V.P. / Webmaster  
Bob Clermont VE3AKV    
Ken Asmus VA3KA Treasurer  
Brad Smith VE3BSM    
Harold Hamilton VA3UNK    
John Christensen VE3IAO    
Tim Evangelatos VE3MY    
Dean Denter VA3CDD    
Bryan Campbell VE3ZRK Guest  
Wayne Getchell VE3CZO Guest  
Graham Ide VE3BYT Secretary FN25ch

Before the formal meeting got underway there was the usual wide-rangeing banter - like kids in the schoolyard before the bell rings. Rick recounted how he had been harassed by a local contest hotshot for calling on the 2 meter Calling Frequency! Doug described Dos and Don’ts for assembling coax connectors.

Ken gave a report on the club finances. Graham said he will catch up more minutes real soon now.

Wayne and Bryan had set up an ATV demo in the parking lot with the VE3TVA repeater at CJOH. The signal was weak because we were in a low spot, behind a hill. At the meeting they described their development on the Loop Yagi for wideband reception centered on 914 MHz, the repeater output. They went through a number of iterations before arriving at a successful design. A wide reflector seems to add to the broad frequency response. Doug suggested “Yagi Optimization” re the spacing of elements for long and short Yagis.

Wayne and Bryan showed their receiver for the 33 cm FM signals, consisting of a downconverter to 70 MHz and a C band receiver. Wayne noted that the 1245 MHz Input receiver will be installed on VE3TVA this fall.

Wayne offered to sell receivers at low cost to anyone who can show him ownership of a receiving downconverter. Wayne will provide information on the system for publication on the WCARC web site. VE3TVA is about 200 watts output FM, horizontally polarized.

Many thanks to Wayne and Bryan for their efforts at the meeting.

Tom noted that there is a VHF contest on the coming weekend - see ARRL for details. Tom will be a Rover, and will work 6 bands in 6 grids.

Brad gave a rundown on the APRS digipeater in Almonte. The equipment is owned by a Calgary amateur. Brad suggests that the WCARC put in an APRS digipeater. Some equipment is available at reasonable cost. Brad will continue to investigate the situation re equipment. Moved by Tom, seconded by Doug and Kieran that the club make available up to $400.00C to provide for a wide-area Digi. Carried.

Phil, VE3CIQ, will house our 903 MHz beacon. (What is the location?) There were questions about the suitability of our 903 MHz Skew-Planar Wheel antenna that was used on the beacon when it was located at the Lee Valley Tools building.

It was noted that VE3DVQ at Lavant is owned by the WCARC. This needs to be updated. George Samson has access to the CTV site. Brad will approach George about the Lavant digipeater.

Ken has the room at Sobey’s booked for October and November.

The next meeting will be on October 4, 2005.

Graham Ide VE3BYT
Secretary.