March Meeting Report

    The March meeting was well attended. In attendance were VA3PC, VA3DLJ, VA3BDR, VE3RRA, VE3XKB, VE3YYB, VA3NDJ, VA3SPT, VE3LOR, VA3JGH, VE3MAF and Mike Andrews a guest. Mike resides in the Bonfield area and is interested in obtaining his ham ticket. Welcome to the club Mike.

1) Correspondence: We have been contacted to assist with the MS Walkathon to be held in May 24th this year. Bill VA3SPT is getting more info. Watch the website http://ciinet.org/nbarc for more info as it becomes available.

2) CANWARN: We are having our own CANWARN Session right here in North Bay. It is going to be held Wednesday May 13th. starting at 1900ET at the OPP Regional HQ in the board room. This will be our regular May Meeting. Come out and learn what to look for. These sessions are very informative.

3) NETS:  Both the 2M and 80M nets are running normally. We would like to thank both net controllers Dave VE3GTM and Paul VA3PC for being there to keep us in touch.

4) Repeaters: Paul VA3PC has reset the time on VE3ERX and upgraded the controller software. Both repeaters appear to be functioning normally.

5) Both the IRLP and Echolink nodes are working well.

6) The NBARC Website is up and running on Paul VA3PC's server. It has many features and Paul is adding more all the time. He has added a NEWSLETTER feature that you can subscribe to. Check it out. Paul is always looking for suggestions on how to improve the site.  For the next while I will be posting information on both the YAHOO NBARC site and Paul's site. I have a mailing list for those who do not get club info from the YAHOO Group. I would eventually like to have all those who get the info directly from me to subscribe to the Newsletter list on Paul's site. This allows you the flexibility of subscribing/unsubscribing on your own. I can also send out information from any computer vs having to use my own which has the e-mail addresses and can only be used at home. When you get subscribed to the Newsletter let me know and I'll take you off my internal list.

7) ARES: The trailer is still at Bill's place. The snow has melted enough that he can probably get it out of his driveway now. April 16th there is a CEMPC meeting. We usually have a good delegation in attendance.

8) April 18th is the Durham Hamfest. A carload of us are going. I don't think there are any spare seats but if one turns up I'll let you know. We leave about 0400ET and get home about 1600ET and always have a great time.

9) CONTESTS: The next one is the WPX coming up March 28/29. Don't know if the Corbeil Contest Club (CCC) will be active.

10) The NBARC Website has a RAC Section. Paul VA3PC posts the RAC bulletins and notices on it. Look under the "BOOKS" section on the upper left side of the page.  If there is anything you want to check out look there.

11) Due to time constraints the discussion on the Constitution was put off until the April 8th Meeting. Bruce VA3BDR would appreciate comments.

12) Bill is still taking orders for the reflective safety vests. Cost $20.00. He has orders for about a dozen so far. He will be ordering them soon so please get your orders to him. It is easier to order them all at once. silver@ontera.net or 705-476-4752.

13) The 1st week in May (4th-8th) is Emergency Prepardness Week. Northgate Square is hosting displays and demonstrations. On Tuesday may 5th there is going to be a tabletop exercise demonstration. We have the chance to set up a table with an NBARC/ARES display. We need a couple of people to set-up and help staff and answer questions etc. I am working and don't know which shift at this point in time but should be available depending on my shift. If you can help even for a little while please let me know.

14) FIELD DAY:  Chris VE3YYB is attempting to set-up field day this year. It is held the last full weekend in June. This year that is June 27/28. If you can help or would like to come out and operate please let Chris Know. Keep watch on teh website for more as it becomes available. When I know more I'll let you know.

15) SUMMER IN THE PARK: There is still some question as to whether we will be participating this year. Keeling, Paul, and Bruce will be talking to the committee to straighten out a few issues. More will be posted on the website and I'll drop around a note when everything is finalized.

16) ARES WEBSITE: The ARES MAGNETAWAN Sector Website is located at http://www.ciinet.org/ares/index.html . The information located here is used to give Bill VA3SPT our Emergency Coordinator an idea of what is possibly available in the event of an emergency. Entering information here doesn't commit you to assisting during an emergency but does let Bill know what you could provide if you were able to assist. This could be as simple as running a VHF or HF net for the first 30 minutes or so until a Emergency Operations Control Station gets set up or a complicated as setting up the emergency control station. If you could fill out the form it would be appreciated. There is a NOTES area where you can add comments.
    Along with this I am in the process of updating the ARES CALL-OUT Phone List. It is severely out of date. I am still not sure as to what form this is going to take. When I get the form fixed as to the best way I'll be looking for names and numbers. We are coming into the summer and severe weather season.

17) Doug VA3DLJ gave a presentation on 'Incident Command and Management'. This included a short exercise. It was very informative and a number of good questions and comments were generated. Thanks Doug.

73/Drew VE3MAF