RAC Bulletin 2015-07-18

RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for July 18, 2015

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

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. Dayton Hamvention attendance up this year.

The official attendance at the 2015 Dayton Hamvention® was 25,621.
That’s an increase from the official count of 24,873 visitors last year.
The 2013 attendance was 24,542.

Hamvention attendance peaked in 1993 at 33,669, before the 1996 change
in date from April to May.

While attendance has fluctuated over the years, Hamvention has grown to
international proportions,
attracting members of the worldwide Amateur Radio community each spring.

The sponsoring Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) already has begun
counting down the days
to the next Hamvention on May 20-22, 2016.

— Thanks to Henry Ruminski, W8HJR

ONTARIO SECTIONS NEWS

2. Ontario QSO Party results are now posted on the Contest Club Ontario
website.

We are happy to report that we received 95 logs. While not record setting,
the organizers do appreciate everyone who submitted a log.
Having other contests running on the same weekend is a mixed blessing –
more activity is always welcome, but can add to a bit of extra QRM.
As several folks noted – conditions were less than stellar, but a good
time was had by all.

You can check out the results at http://www.va3cco.com/oqp

-- VA3PC

ITEMS OF INTEREST

3. SAQ suffers feed line short circuit and fire.

Sweden’s Alexanderson alternator station - SAQ - said this week that a
feed-line fire adversely affected
the tally of listener reports from the station’s June 28 “Alexanderson
Day” transmissions.
Lars Kalland, SM6NM, at SAQ said there was a problem with the antenna on
the first transmission
from the vintage equipment at 0900 UTC.

An insulator in the antenna feed system caught fire, during the startup
and tuning of the Alexanderson Alternator.
As a result, the transmitter was shut down, and no transmission was made
at 0900 UTC.

Kalland blamed the incident on a short circuit and said the problem was
repaired in short order,
in time for SAQ to return to the air for its scheduled 1200 UTC
transmission. SAQ transmits on 17.2 kHz.

The vintage SAQ Alexanderson alternator, dating from the 1920s —
essentially an ac alternator
run at extremely high speed — can put out 200 kW but typically is
operated at less than half that power level.
Once providing reliable transatlantic communication, it is now a museum
piece and only put on the air on special occasions.

The next planned SAQ transmission will take place on Christmas Eve,
Dececember 24, 2015.

-- ARRL News.

4. VY1AAA Put Northern Territories on the Air for Field Day, Canada Day

If you worked VY1AAA in Yukon Territory (Northern Territories Section)
during Field Day 2015 or Canada Day,
the operator was actually remote. VY1AAA is a club station call sign for
the station of J Allen, VY1JA,
near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
Gerry Hull, W1VE, was among those operating VY1AAA remotely from the K1B
Field Day site of the
Contoocook Valley Radio Club (CVRC) in New Hampshire.
The operation was part of a project to provide remote control capability
for VY1JA,
and Hull said the point of the VY1AAA call sign was not to burden Allen
with QSL chores.
VY1AAA uses Logbook of The World (LoTW) but will have some QSL cards
printed too.
He added that he’s already received “a ton” of requests as a result of
the Field Day and Canada Day operations.

Andy McLellan, VE9DX, has been working on getting WSJT, PSK31, and RTTY
modes up and running.
Hull said he doesn’t think there’s been much digital mode activity from
Yukon Territory for some time now.

-- For the full article, see the ARRL News at www.arrl.org

This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or
clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V__3____ returning the frequency to net control.