RAC Bulletin 2015-09-05

RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for September 05, 2015

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

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. Washington State Wildfires

News out of Washington State, where the largest wildfires in the state's
history have left casualties,
consumed more than half a million acres and destroyed at least 200 homes.
The fires surrounding the central Washington town of Twisp, where three
firefighters died,
were considered among the hardest to contain.
Police Chief Paul Budrow, KG7PTU explained how a collective of
relatively new hams in the police department,
working with hams in the community, has allowed residents to help one
another by keeping those all-important
channels of communication open. He also added that all members of his
police department are now licensed amateurs.

-- amateur radio newsline article

ONTARIO SECTIONS NEWS

ITEMS OF INTEREST

2. Ham-Cyclist Now in the Maritimes.

Cyclist Thomas Andersen, OZ1AA/K9DXX, completed his 6 week ride up the
US East Coast on August 29
and now is in the Canadian Maritimes, the 38th country he has visited
since beginning his “Cycling the Globe”
adventure in Copenhagen 5 years ago. Andersen already has put more than
26,000 miles on his bicycle —
more than the distance around the equator.

After crossing the border from Maine into New Brunswick, he stopped over
at the home of Andy VE9DX,
near St John. Once he reaches Newfoundland, Andersen will catch a flight
back to Denmark for a
3-month break to visit with his family. Right after Christmas he’ll
complete his round-the-world journey
in Africa, His idea is eventually to head through Morocco and then to
Spain on his way home to Denmark.

While he does carry a VHF/UHF FM handheld, Andersen said he really has
not used it that much.
He said he “definitely” wants to have some sort of HF radio with him as
he travels through Africa.

-- from arrl newsletter

3. Learning about CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams)

A CERT educates ordinary citizens about disaster preparedness for
hazards that may impact their area
and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety,
light search and rescue, team organization,
and disaster medical procedures.

One aspect of this training is communications. Many CERT teams use
Family Radio Service (FRS) radios for this.
East Lake CERT based in Palm Harbour, FL realized the shortfalls of FRS
and began to recruit and train
Amateur Radio operators to be their communicators through Amateur Radio
licensing classes,
mentoring and word of mouth.

from an ARES e-newsletter August 19th, forwarded by Dave, VE3JX

Note: Ontario at one time had a CERV program (Community Emergency
Response Volunteer), but it was cancelled in 2005.

4. HIHI: LOL of the 19th century ?

An article by Lauren Collister, an Associate at the University of
Pittsburgh,
looks at short forms and abbreviations used in the early days of Morse
to make messages as concise as possible
- a predecessor to today’s SMS textspeak.

See her complete article at
http://theconversation.com/lol-in-the-age-of-the-telegraph-42578

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