RAC Bulletin 2009-10-17

RAC Ontario Section Bulletin for October 17, 2009

This is V__3____, Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of
Canada, with this week's bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

ONTARIO SECTION NEWS

1. New Time For OPN

Effective Sunday, October 25, the Ontario Phone Net will move its
start time up to 16:00 hrs local time. That means 16:00 Eastern
Daylight Time for the week of October 25th, and 16:00 Eastern
Standard Time starting November 1st.

The time change is due in part to the changes in propagation with the
80m band. When the conditions change in the spring the net will
revert to its 19:00 local start up time. For more OPN information
please visit the Ontario Phone Net Blog located at
ontariophonenet.wordpress.com

-- Bob Sharp, VA3QV, OPN Net Manager

2. New EC For Cornwall

The Seaway District in eastern Ontario has a new Emergency
Co-ordinator for the City of Cornwall. Earle DePass, VE3IMP of St.
Andrews becomes the latest addition to the ARES team and provides an
impressive background in community services and dedicated leadership
skills in the Cornwall area.

Several Assistant EC's have been selected to help build a viable
Emergency Communications program and the Ontario ARES welcomes Earle
to this new role and wishes every success in all his future efforts
to co-ordinate this expanded ARES group.

-- Bob Gammon, VA3RX, Ontario ARES SEC.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

3. 4U1UN Special Event Station

To celebrate the 64th General Assembly of the United Nations, 4U1UN
-- the Amateur Radio station at the UN -- began operating as 4U64UN
on September 22. According to The Daily DX, 4U64UN will be on the air
for 64 days on all bands and modes. QSL via Logbook of The World
(LoTW) or direct to Herbert Aeby, HB9BOU. Logs will be uploaded to
LoTW once the event is over. QSL cards will be mailed out starting in
December 2009.

-- ARRL Web

4. Nominations Open for 2009 ARRL Humanitarian Award

Nominations are open for the 2009 ARRL International Humanitarian
Award. The award is conferred upon an amateur or amateurs world-wide
who demonstrate devotion to human welfare, peace and international
understanding through Amateur Radio. Nominations and supporting
materials for the 2009 Award must be submitted in writing, in
English, to the ARRL by December 31, 2009. For details see
www.arrl.org/FandES/field/awards/humanitarian.html

-- ARRL Web

5. New Canadian Callsign Lookup Database

Dave Allen, WB0TAQ, has released a new version of his CallWin
callsign lookup program, that will look up Canadian as well as US
callsigns. Go to Dave's website, wb0taq.home.att.net, look for the
file callwinplus.zip. Download the zip file, and unzip into an
appropriately named folder on your computer. You will get three
files, callwin+.exe, autoupdate+.exe and zlibl.dll. The dll file
goes to the IC website and downloads the latest Canadian update.

The new autoupdate program has two update buttons, one for US and
one for Canadian calls. The US updates are posted each Sunday by
Dave. The Canadian updates are posted daily Monday to Friday; you
can update CallWinPlus once a week if you prefer.

The main advantage of this database is that it is resident on your
computer, so you don't need to access either RAC or QRZ for address
information. Questions may be e-mailed to me at ve3gna (at) xplornet
(dot) ca.

-- Glenn Killam, VE3GNA, Ontario STM