QRZ is pleased to announce two major developments in its evolution. After many months of program and systems development, QRZ will shortly make available an online Logbook that will be accessible by all of its Ham users. In addition, we are announcing today that QRZ will begin issuing operating awards and certificates for all classes of on-air activities with direct coupling to our online Logbook and Callsign Database. ... read more

NANAIMO CITY COUNCIL PROCLAIMS WEEK OF 22-28 JUNE 2009 “AMATEUR RADIO WEEK IN THE CITY OF NANAIMO” ... read more

Winter Cruise 2009
Feb.24/09 2100
We left home at 1700 with the truck loaded so heavy, it looked like we were going away for 10 years. We arrived at the marina and proceeded to return Karina to fighting form. We took off some of the maintenance tools and left them in the truck. ... read more

Please place all personal BLOGs under this Menu

Learning and Activities Night

Efforts are being made to organize weekly Training, Demonstration, and Hands on activities. An appropriate day and time would be Tuesdays at 7:30 PM. This is just after the weekly Emergency Group VHF Net (members could arrive at 7 and participate in the net from the clubhouse). This would be every week. The purpose is to elevate our club members basic skill set, inspire participation and spawn club projects. This is similar in concept to "Hot Solder Night" with the most emphasis being put on organizing topics to draw the member base in. It is being discussed that we should welcome the public as should these related interests mix, we may have a new ham.

* Basic Networking
Learn about IP addresses, NAT Routers, VPN, etc
* Path Estimation and Planning
Learn about transmit power, antenna gain, path loss, feedline loss, receiver sensitivities, and link margins
* Radio Mobile
Extension of Path Estimation and Planning, learn how to do coverage plot and link feasibility studies
* Feedlines
Comparisons of different feedlines, performance, market prices and availability etc.
* Drupal (ve7na.ca) Content Maintaining
Learn how to edit content on the NARA website without any HTML or programming knowledge
* 802.11a/b/g/n ("WiFi")
Learn about wireless networking. Infrastructure, Ad-Hoc, typical radio characteristics. Standard practices, etc. Extension of Basic Networking.
* Satellite
Learn about satellite modes, equipment required, etc. Plan a club station.
* Packet
Learn about the basics of packet radio. How the modulation occurs and typical interfacing to radios, etc.
* APRS
APRS System. Lead up into APRS build?
* IRC
Internet-Relay-Chat, Servers, Clients, Channels, Moderation
* Winlink

Hands On Topics

* Tune up your Radio
Bring in Spectrum Analyzer, DSO, Sig Gen, RF Sig Gen, etc. tune deviation, check splatter, etc.
* Anderson Powerpoles
Bring in proper powerpole crimper, learn to crimp and buy connectors, change over existing radio connections
* Build an emergency pack
Assemble various useful interconnects, etc. to equip your emergency radio system
* Build a portable VHF/UHF antenna
Build a
* Build an APRS Tracker
Group buy on parts, then build beacon.
* Build a TNC
Group buy on kits, then build basic TNC
* Show and Tell
Spectrum Analyzers, Digital Storage Oscilloscopes, Dynamic Signal Analyzers, RF Signal Generator, etc.

The long awaited activation of Desecheo Island is scheduled February 12 – 26,2009. Desecheo Island is currently ranked # 6 overall, #3 in Europe and #2 in Asia among the most wanted DXCC entities! This 2009 Dxpedition will be led by veteran DXers Dr. Glenn Johnson, W0GK and Bob Allphin, K4UEE. Collectively, both have unmatched experience in DXpeditions to environmentally sensitive areas of the world. The DXpedition team includes members from the US, Puerto Rico and Canada; many are experienced DXpeditioners and some newcomers. SEE: www.kp5.us

International Year of Astronomy - for use by all Canadian Amateurs, Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, 2009, the following prefixes may be used: CG for VE, CF for VA, CH for VO, CI for VY. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) will be a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, stimulating worldwide interest not only in astronomy, but in science in general, with a particular slant toward. (Click here for info on how Amateur Radio operators can contribute during the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.) More info at http://www.hamiya2009.info/

UPDATE: Below is a copy of the video segment which has been airing continuously since Thursday, November 13.

Shaw is set to air a segment about NARA on Thursday evenings and the weekend. The segment will air during community programming on channel 4.

The player will show in this paragraph ... read more

For the convenience of the community, we provide some interactive calculators to make quick work of some of the more tedious or difficult formulas.

Power Calculators

mW to dBm

dBm is an absolute decibel power ratio referenced to one milliwat (mW). Remember this by understanding the m stands for milliwatt.

Predicting RF Coverage and Link Performance

Calculating RF Links and coverage plots must take many influencing factors into consideration including, but not limited to:

* Propagation and Absorption
* Power output
* Antenna gains / patterns
* Topography and obstructions
* Receiver sensitivity
* Feedline losses

Tools

Radio Mobile

Radio Mobile is a freeware windows software application written by VE2DBE. It is available on the web here. This program has a learning curve but the results are very rewarding. Radio Mobile can take all of the above mentioned radio link & coverage variables into effect and produce coverage maps, and link calculations. RM supports multiple topography data formats with SRTM being the most convenient.

Radio Mobile can be found here
A tutorial can be found here.

Modeling Data

SRTM Data

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) obtained elevation data on a near-global scale to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of Earth. SRTM consisted of a specially modified radar system that flew onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour during an 11-day mission in February of 2000. This topographical data can be used directly by some software.

SRTM Data Sources

After substantial editing efforts by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, NASA released Version 2 of their SRTM data. It is referred to as the "finished" version. Some incomplete data still remains but is highly usable.

The resolution of the data is measured in arc-seconds with the lower number being greater. Most of the world has SRTM3 (3 arc-second) data while SRTM1 or 1 arc-second data is only available for select regions. The map showing the 1 arc second regions is available here.

SRTM V2 3 arc-second

ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/SRTM3/

SRTM V2 1 arc-second

Locals Note: 1 arc-second data covers at the most the lower half of Vancouver Island.

ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/SRTM1/

Longley Rice Modeling

http://lrcov.crc.ca/cov.php?lang=en

Misc Data

Typical Parameters

"Typical" 25W VHF Transmitter (Motorola CDM-1550-LS+)
Output Power: 25-45W (44-46.5 dBm)
Receive Sensitivity: 0.3uV/-117.5dB (0.23uV/-119.8 Typical)

Page Maintainer--
Matthew Currie VE7MJC

This page serves as a central list of proposed and upcoming group build projects and group buys.

Group Builds & Projects

Planned
Dual band VHF/UHF J pole antenna

Proposed
VHF & UHF Helical Antenna.

Portable

APRS Tracker

A TinyTrak-3 (or functional equivelant) controller to receive NMEA GPS data from a standalone GPS and transmit APRS/Packet over a VHF Radio.

TNC

A KISS-mode TNC, built with through hole components. Approx cost $50-80 per participant.

Group Buys

Current

RG 213/U

The club has RG 213/U available for club members at wholesale prices. Contact a member on the executive.

The Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association would like to recognize support and donations from the following entities in alphabetical order.

Please support the people who support us!

Sponsors

Cercomm / Island Communications

Website: http://www.island-communications.com

2540 Bowen Rd
Nanaimo, BC
250-758-7301

NARA's deepest thanks to everyone at Island Communications for hosting our UHF repeater 444.725 repeater on Mount Benson at 3400 ft. Their great support to Amateur radio is greatly appreciated.

City of Nanaimo

Website: http://www.nanaimo.ca

The Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association sincerely thank the City of Nanaimo for their support and encouragement.

Comprod Communications

Website: http://www.comprodcom.com/en

Established in 1975, Comprod Communications has become an industry leader in the design, manufacturing, and supply of RF Antennas, Filters, and In-Building Systems worldwide.

Our thanks to Comprod for providing quality products and outstanding customer service to the Amateur radio fraternity.

Discount Battery Warehouse

11B Cliff Street
Nanaimo,British Columbia
V9R 5E6
(250)753-7050

The Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association appreciates the great service and donations generously provided by the Discount Battery Warehouse

Daniels Electronics Ltd

Website: http://www.danelec.com

Daniels Electronics Ltd., a North American leader in the design and manufacture of customized radio communications systems for public safety and other niche applications, is a privately held company.

Our thanks to Daniels Electronics for providing quality products and outstanding customer service to the Amateur radio fraternity.

Kal Tire

Website: http://www.kaltire.com/corporate/locations/location.php?storenum=671

837 Old Victoria Road
Nanaimo, BC V9R 5Z9
250-754-4456

The Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association appreciates the great service and donations generously provided by Kal Tire.

Amateur Radio Associations / Regulations

RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada)
Official Canadian Call Sign Database - http://www.rac.ca/database.htm
Island Trunk System Web Page - http://www.islandtrunksystem.org
Westcoast Amateur Radio Association - http://www.ve7vic.ca/
Canadian Amateur Radio Bulletin - http://www.hfradio.net/
American Radio Relay League - http://www.arrl.org/
The QRZ Callsign Database - http://www.qrz.com/cgi-bin/webcall/
eHAM.net - http://www.eham.net/ A great source of everything!
Hamgallery.com - http://hamgallery.com/ Offers many goodies for the HAM
British Columbia Amateur Radio Resource(VE7TMQ) "BC" oriented - http://www.hamradio.bc.ca/
AMSAT - http://www.amsat.org/ Non-commercial Amateur Radio satellites
Radio station search engine - http://www.radio-locator.com/
Antique Radio Collector's Library Old Time Radio Programs - http://www.oldtimeradioprograms.com/
Northern Alberta Radio Club - http://www.narc.net/
Trans Provincial Net - http://www.tpn7055.ca/
Observe seismic activity at the NARA Lost Lake repeater site (NLLB) - http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/browse_plots_png
Internet Radio Linking Project http://www.irlp.net/
Basic amateur radio course and other great info
http://www.emergencyradio.ca/course/

Technical

Amateur Radio application of Frequency Modulation - http://www.vk1od.net/FM/FM.htm

Solar Weather: Solar Cycle 24.com

Repeaters

The Repeater Builder's Technical Information Page
The British Columbia Amateur Radio Coordination Council

Radios

Batwing Laboratories - Thorough specs and information on Motorola radios and paging equipment. Plans to build programming interfaces, etc.

Equipment Vendors

Canadian

GPS Central, Calgary - Source of consumer, marine, aviation, and OEM GPS equipment, RAM mounts, etc.
Radioworld, Toronto - Source of most amateur radio equipment from transceivers, to antennas and accessories
Burnaby Radio Communications, Burnaby BC - radio equipment
Durham Radio, Ontario - online radio equip sales
NTF Communications Inc., Calgary, Alberta - online radio equip sales

Foreign

Ham Radio Outlet, USA - Large inventory amongst nearly 10 warehouses
Buxcomm, Virginia USA - online radio equip sales

Surplus

Almost All Digital Electronics, Washington USA

Contesting

WIKI entry on contesting
Information on Contesting
Contest Calendar
Swedish Contest Service - Great english site
G4FON Morse Code Practice Software

**Remember** to check your SPAM folders. It is quite common for mailing list emails to go to spam folders. If you find emails in your spam folder attempt to indicate to your mail program / system that that email is not spam and it should remember for the next emails.

NARA General Mailing List [NARA]

The NARA General Mailing List is a mailing list for club-wide distribution of announcements, agenda topics, club related business and brief off-topic questions. All club members are strongly encouraged to be subscribed to this list, if none others as they will miss out on a lot of club related announcements if not.

To Subscribe, Unsubscribe, View Archives, View Member List, etc. visit the following pages:

Mailing List Information: http://mailman.bcwarn.net/mailman/listinfo/nara <-- JOIN

Technical & Discussion Mailing List [NARA-TECH]

A separate mailing list is provided to discuss non-business related topics, including technical discussion, etc. This allows members to opt in or out of receiving a higher volume of emails.

To Subscribe, Unsubscribe, View Archives, View Member List, etc. visit the following pages:

Mailing List Information: http://mailman.bcwarn.net/mailman/listinfo/nara-tech <-- JOIN

Emergency Group Mailing List [NARA-EMERG]

A separate mailing list is provided for members of the NARA Emergency Communications Group to aid in group communications, arranging meetings, and even in the event of an incident if the email servers are operational. The server is located in an emergency operations center @ Simon Fraser University.

To Subscribe, Unsubscribe, View Archives, View Member List, etc. visit the following pages:

Mailing List Information: http://mailman.bcwarn.net/mailman/listinfo/nara-emerg <-- JOIN

What is an Electronic Mailing List?

According to Wikipedia, an electronic mailing list (sometimes written as elist or e-list) is a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to its members or customers, but typically refers to four things: a list of e-mail addresses, the people ("subscribers") receiving mail at those addresses, the publications (e-mail messages) sent to those addresses, and a reflector, which is a single e-mail address that, when designated as the recipient of a message, will send a copy of that message to all of the subscribers.

Regular Activities

Koffee Klatch

When: Saturday Mornings, 0900 hrs
Where: Windward Pub, Beaufort Centre / Boundary Avenue

NARA Regular Club Meeting

When: 3rd Thursday of the Month, 1930 hrs.(all months except July and August)

NARA Emergency Group Meeting

When: 4th Thursday of the Month, 1900 hrs
Where: Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Centre (1415 Wingrove St., Nanaimo)

Open House Nights

When: 1st,and 5th Thursdays of the Month, 1900 hrs.
Where: Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Centre
What: Misc Activities, "Hot Solder"

Executive Meeting

When: 2nd Thursday of the Month, 1930 hrs (all months except July and August 3rd Thursday)
Where: Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Centre

Ham Tutoring

When: Tuesday Nights, 1900 hrs.
Where: Nanaimo Volunteer Emergency Centre
What: Visit the Training Page for more information

On the Air

“Ragchew and More”

When: Sunday Evenings, 2100 hrs
Where: Ten Metres (28.400 MHz, Upper Side Band)

NARA Club Net

When: Monday nights 2000 hrs
Where: 145.43, 146.64 MHz, 444.725 Mhz and Island Trunk System

NARA NTS Practice Net

When: Tuesday nights 1900 hrs 146.64 only

Contesting

When: Weekends
Where: Club Station
Misc: This is a great way for new Hams to get their feet wet. If you are interested in contesting please visit here.

Officers 2009-2010

Committees

Links to our members personal web pages, in alphabetical order.

Bill Stewart, VE7JY http://members.shaw.ca/ve7jy
Dave Marshall, VE7TWO http://members.shaw.ca/warp.two
Dick, VE7RLH http://members.shaw.ca/ve7rlh/index.htm
Tricia Marshall, VE7SPI http://members.shaw.ca/polgara.vale
Mike Hale, VE7DXD http://members.shaw.ca/brasskey
Gabor, VE7DXG http://www.islandserve.com/~ve7dxg/

Membership Dues

Basic NARA Membership: $30.00
Family NARA Membership: $45.00
Repeater only Membership: $ 10.00

Mailing Address:
N.A.R.A.
1415 Wingrove St.
Nanaimo, BC
V9S 3L8

Membership Dues are collected by the current treasurer every September with the cut-off for collection at the end of December.

It provides you with full access to all local repeaters and it also helps with the cost of maintaining our repeaters and Club projects. Members also benefit from Club purchases and supporting Amateur radio in the Mid Island area.

We are also pro–rating dues for those members who join halfway through the year. This is valid for new memberships only.

Please make cheques payable to: N.A.R.A.

Download membership form:
NARA membership (NARA Membership app.doc)

Contact us at ve7na@shaw.ca
Tel: (250)758-9331

NARA's fiscal year is from September 2009 until August 2010.

For membership in the Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association, fill out the attached membership application and mail to

Club Mailing Address

1415 Wingrove St.
Nanaimo, BC
Canada
V9S 3L8

Thanks from NARA