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

The following members and guests were present:

Name Call Sign Position
Tom Zinck VA3NFA President
Harold Hamilton VE3UNK  
Barney Baker VA3BGB  
Al Penney VO1NO  
David Conn VE3KL  
Doug Leach VE3XK  
Tom Bartello VE3ELM  
Tim Evangelatos VE3MY  
Brad Smith VE3BSM  
Dale Hennigar VE3XZT  
John Christensen VE3IAO  
Bob Clermont VE3AKV  
Steve Attfield VA3SAX  
Ken Asmus VA3KA Treasurer
Graham Ide VE3BYT Secretary

President Tom, VA3NFA, brought the meeting to order at 7:30.

Rick, VE3CVG, Vice President and Webmaster, was away.

Ken, VA3KA, Treasurer, reported that the club finances are in good shape, and that membership stands at 28 at present.

Graham, VE3BYT, Secretary - nothing to report.

Ken reported that he had picked up some mobile and handheld units at Rochester, programmed for a number of channels in the 902-928 MHz band. The mobiles have about 15 watts output. Repeater channels use a 25 MHz separation - input/output. Ken and Rick are planning 902 band repeaters, one in the east and one in the west, linked together probably on the 440 band. Doug, VE3XK, donated a filter to the project.

Ken also reported that Digital Everything is coming to town. Ken, Rick, and a group of interested members are looking into the potential applications of D-STAR equipment and the likely establishment of a digital repeater on the 1240 band in Ottawa. ICOM has equipment for the 144, 430 and 1240 MHz bands and may have incentives for equipment purchases. Currently, equipment for 1.2 GHz is priced around $1100C. Applications for personal and emergency operations and special events are numerous, with the ability to pass text and graphics as well as voice and with connections to the Internet. Members should advise Ken if they are interested in the D-STAR developments.

There is a discussion forum on D-STAR at http://www.k5tit.org/. Also see https://www.icomamerica.com/en/support/forums/ and check the local web pages at https://va3odg.webqth.com/.

Apparently Vancouver and Calgary (three bands) are on the air with D-STAR, and Montreal and Toronto are coming on line soon.

Al, VO1NO, will be going to the Magdalen Islands for the Islands on the Air Contest. Activity will include 2 and 6m as well as 160-10m. Al may try WSJT meteor scatter.

Doug mentioned a tower and rotator are available free for taking it down. This needs a few volunteers. John, VE3IAO, expressed interest.

The club’s Field Day activities with the Lanark/North Leeds ARES Group were very successful with 1063 QSOs in total, around 4300 points. This should place the operation in the top five in Canada for its class. There was an Es opening on 6m to Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. There were no injuries or mishaps during the event, and everyone had a fun time.

Congratulations and thanks to Al, VO1NO, for his phenomenal job of organizing the Field Day exercise.

The next meeting will be on August 1, 2006 in the Kanata Room at Sobey’s.

Graham Ide VE3BYT
Secretary.