• Home
• The Executive
• Meeting Minutes
• Newsletter

P.O. Box 8873, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3J2

Minutes of the October General Meeting
Oct. 12, 2005 19:37

Photos here

The OARC monthly meeting was held at Oct 12^th, 2005 at Ottawa City Hall, Ottawa, ON and was called to order at 19:37 by President Diane, VA3DB. About 30 were present.

• Diane, VA3DB welcomed everybody and called for visitors:
  • Ed Blaser, VE3LZV is from the Barrie, ON area and now lives in Kanata. We hope Ed will join us every month.
  • Lockie Scott has no call, but is a Sagittarius. He still gets free coffee.
  • Since we are spinning our wheels waiting for the computer to show, Gord Holmes, mentioned he has a new call, VE3AVA.
• There were no corrections offered to the published September minutes.
• Joe Norton Award: A final call for Joe Norton submissions was made. All members are asked to encourage those eligible hams to make a submission. The deadline for submission in next month. Additional information is available from the club website.
• Strangely, there were no announcements from the floor this month. Especially ironic since we are still wasting time awaiting the laptops arrival and you can always milk a few announcements for more minutes than they deserve.
• Haves & Wants: A question from an aspiring ham:

  Q: How do the exams work now with the recent changes from Industry Canada?

  A: Mike Kelly, VE3FFK one of the club examiners answered that the exams are still the same, but the pass mark has been raised from 60% to 70%. You have access to all amateur frequency bands if you achieve an 80% or higher. The advanced exam is the also the same as before and additionally gives you access to all amateur frequencies. You may also still do the Morse test which is also unchanged.

• Contact of the Month: Still trying to waste time, we called for a "contact of the month". Ian, VE3IGJ worked Phil, K1ICO in Massachusetts on AO-51 and QSL'd. Later Ian received a QSL card directly from Phil with a much coveted U.S. green stamp. Ian returned the dollar.
• The laptop arrived at 19:47 and Ben left immediately.
• Diane, VA3DB called on the night's speaker, Ian, VE3IGJ to introduce himself. He is currently the club Groundwave editor and was the club secretary for a couple of years. He was licensed in 2000. Since he seemed easy to talk into a job, he was immediately offered the jobs of Repeater Chair, Ski Marathon organizer, Hamfest manger and Bottle washer (chief). He declined them all.
  • Ian works for a company which works to make submarines electrically invisible.
  • The system causes the unsuppressed signal of 1000 microvolts per metre to reduce to about 10 microvolts per metre with active and passive suppression.
  • I can't divulge the rest in the minutes because we'd have to "take care" of all the readers and the secretary was working the PowerPoint on the laptop and couldn't take notes.
  • Ian was done at 20:31. You should've come to the meeting, we have real cool speakers!
• Martin, VA3SIE spoke about the highly successful Maple Island “DXpedition” with Bob, VA3RCS and Harold, VE3UNK on September 25^th, 2005. He had a very nicely done PowerPoint presentation with lots of pictures Canadian Islands on the Air. Maple Island was immediately granted island ON277 as Martin and his crew met the requirements of island designation.
• Since Martin was still at the front and having received word of his amazing accomplishments, Martin, VA3SIE was awarded a certificate for 1st place in the NA QRP CW contest. He also received his 1000 miles per watt certificate for a contact with EA6UN on about 800 milliwatts.
• The night business, having been concluded broke for coffee at 20:45.
• The 50/50 draw included unclaimed prizes from the Hamfest. Al, VE3ZTU won an ARRL Antenna book, Harold, VE3UNK and Steve, VA3MGY won a$10 gift certificate from Radio HF. Steve kindly allowed a redraw for his certificate which was won by Ernie, VE3OEB. Gord, VE3XGP won the $23.
• After a bunch of coffee and talk people left.

Signed Richard Hagemeyer, VE3UNW club secretary.

Secretary's Postscript: In June, Martin, VA3SIE gave a short talk on his QRP setup. The crowd was clamoring for a Groundwave article. How about it Martin, I'm still waiting?