RAC Bulletin 2009-10-31

RAC Ontario Section Bulletin for October 31, 2009

NATIONAL NEWS

1. GlobalSET November 14

On Saturday November 14, from 1800 to 2200 UTC, the International
Amateur Radio Union will activate "GlobalSET 2009", a Global
Simulated Emergency Test that encourages Hams to pass simulated
emergency traffic using standard National Traffic System format.

The Radio Amateurs of Canada, a member society of IARU Region 2,
encourages all Canadian Radio Amateurs having an interest in
emergency communications to participate. Rules and a list of
participating stations may be found at www.iaru-r1.org. Search
under the heading, "Emergency Communications", working group.

This is great opportunity for RAC members to observe and practice
important traffic passing skills that are so important to the
fundamentals of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. Those Amateurs
planning to participate are requested to register with the RAC Vice
President for Field Services as soon as possible by emailing
vo1dtm (at) hotmail.com .

-- Doug Mercer, VO1DTM, RAC VP Field Services

ONTARIO SECTION NEWS

2. OPN Needs Liaison Stations

The Ontario Phone Net (OPN) needs needs volunteers to carry traffic
to and from the Second Region Net (2RN). Stations are needed to
check into 2RN at 13:45 Eastern Time on 3.925 MHz, pick up any
traffic destined for Ontario, and then check in to OPN at 16:00
Eastern to pass that traffic to the net. Stations are also needed
to pick up OPN traffic at 16:00, and pass it to 2RN at 18:30 Eastern,
again on 3.925 MHz. These are all phone nets; no CW is required. If
you can help, please email me, opnreport (at) gmail.com

-- Bob Sharp, VA3QV, OPN Net Manager

3. U.S. and foreign hams not exempt from Bill 118

It seems the three-year exemption from Ontario's Bill 118 granted to
amateurs applies only to operators holding radio certificates issued
under the Radiocommunications Act (Canada). This means foreign
amateurs including hams from the U.S. are not exempt from immediate
prosecution under Ontario's distracted driving legislation.

-- RAC Blog

ITEMS OF INTEREST

4. Winter Olympics Special Event Stations

Members of the Vancouver Olympics Amateur Radio Group will be
activating three special event stations to promote and commemorate
the Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in
February and March of 2010.

The first station, VG7V, is on the air from October 1st through
November 30th. Then Then, VG7W will be active from December 1st
January 31st. Finally, VG7G will be active from February 1st and
continuing through March 31st, 2010. Operations will be on all bands
and modes. Contacts will be posted to ARRL's Logbook of the World.
Commemorative QSLs will be available in April 2010; see qrz.com for
details.

-- Amateur Radio Newsline

5. Amateur Radio Newsline on Echolink and IRLP

Thanks to Skip Hansen, WB6YMH, the weekly audio newscast from Amateur
Radio Newsline can now be heard around the clock via Echolink and
IRLP.

On EchoLink just connect to the Newsline conference, node number
6397, or dial the word "news" on the DTMF pad. On IRLP connect to
experimental node 0016 providing that access to "experimental nodes"
have been enabled by the node operator. Once you do either, the
server will play the news in 2 minute chunks with 10 second pauses
between them to reset timeout timers and give you an opportunity to
disconnect simplex nodes. Audio is stopped during the pauses so no
content is lost.

-- Amateur Radio Newsline