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

The following members and guests were present:

Name Call Sign Position
Barney Baker VA3BGB  
Harold Hamilton VA3UNK  
Justin Schmidt-Clever VE3QYR  
Doug Leach VE3XK  
David Conn VE3KL  
Robin Webb VE3UIX Guest
Brad Smith VE3BSM  
Tim Evangelatos VE3MY  
Al Penney VO1NO  
Tom Zinck VA3NFA President
Rick Bandla VE3CVG V.P. / Webmaster
Graham Ide VE3BYT Secretary

Tom, VA3NFA, called for introductions around the room. Robin Webb, VE3UIX, attended as a guest. Ken, VA3KA, had sent his regrets and was not present.

Rick, VE3CVG, reported that the 903 MHz beacon, installed before Christmas, was causing interference to commercial equipment on the site. It is to be moved to another site at St. Laurent and Montreal Road.

Doug, VE3XK, indicated that he had a tunable cavity for 900 MHz.

Brad, VE3BSM, reported on APRS in the area. VE3DVQ at Lavant had died, but Brad was able to bring it back. Digipeaters at Kingston and Belleville have been upgraded.

Al Penney, VO1NO, will organize the club’s Field Day activities if there is enough interest. It’s possible we could participate with the Perth/Lanark ARES Group. Al will investigate this.

Rick will update the WCARC web site and add to the club history that he has been compiling. Brad offered to do a page on APRS and Area Digipeaters. Tom said that he would prepare an article on APRS and beacons for publication in The Canadian Amateur.

Al Penney gave an extensive and most interesting illustrated talk on RADAR, Electronic Countermeasures and related subjects. He pointed out that the Russians jammed Japanese signals in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Interception equipment was used in World War I, generally in the range of 2500 to 25000 Meters wavelength. Of course there was extensive use of monitoring and countermeasures in the Second World War. One man, Dr. R. V. Jones, discovered the new German electronic navigation systems and jammed them, thereby winning the “Battle of the Beams”.

Al mentioned several books on the subject:

  • The Most Secret War (in the US, The Wizard War) - R.V. Jones
  • The Secret War - BBC
  • Instruments of Darkness - Price
  • Night Fighters - Gunston

The next meeting will be on February 7, 2006.

Graham Ide VE3BYT
Secretary.