Hi Folks
 I know that we have not finished with the Lost in the Rocks and Trees yet, but we have another event on the horizon.
 The Mattawa River Canoe race is the following weekend July 24th.
 
I will need volunteers for this event as well  8-)
So far on the list: VA3DLJ, VE3GMG, VA3BDR, VE3YUI andVA3SPT
 
This is a very challenging and fun event (What other event have we had to stop 3 speeding police cars with lights flashing in split seconds.... 8-)   )
If you are interested in finding out more or would like to volunteer blindly please let me know.... or sign up on the web site under events.
 
Thanks
 
Bill
 

Emergency Preparedness Week runs May 3rd through May 8th. NBARC is going to have a display table set up in Northgate Square Friday/Saturday May 7th/8th. We need people to staff it for a few hours each and this is a good way to bring ham radio into public attention. Unfortunately my boss wants my body at work.  Doug VA3DLJ   is organizing it. He is looking for volunteers for Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday. He will be setting up Friday morning and taking it down Saturday afternoon. You will meet the public and answer questions about amateur radio. Doug is going to be bringing some equipment which he is hoping to demonstrate. If you have equipment or a computer with an amateur radio related program feel free to bring it along and then take it home with you. no equipment will be left unattended at the display. If you can help please drop Doug a line at va3dlj@yahoo.ca [11] and let him know when you would be available and for how long. He will do up a mini schedule and then confirm with you.
73/Drew VE3MAF

One of the better hamfests. We have a van load going.

Hello everyone;
This year I am happy to report that no one got lost for long. There was a report of several bikes heading the wrong way between CP1 and CP3, but they were chased down and turned around quite quickly.
Approximately 74 riders took part this year - 8 in the long race and the rest in the 61k. Start times were 09:00 long race, and 10:00 for short race.
There was a little confusion at the pre-race, and not all the lunches made it out by lunch time, but all in all the new start/finish venue worked very well. The rain made an appearance in Mattawa, but further out on the course it stayed dry (and sandy). I should also report that Bruce was right, there are no shortcuts to CP2 via the hydro line.
Thanks to Howard VE3GMG and Lori VE3LOR for the start/finish, Bruce VA3BDR and Chris at CP1, Ken VA3SK, Keegan and Trevor at CP3, Henry KD8LWV at CP4 and Keeling VE3XKB at CP5. Bill VE3TGI also floated near the triangle (optional hill detour) and was our designated rover.
Thanks to Chris VE3CEA for making the Mattawa repeater available, it worked well.  Now if we could get rid of some of the hills to eliminate the multi-path fades, everything would be perfect. ;-)
73 Paul VA3PC (aka CP2)

Hello Volunteers;
The trailer was relocated to Lee Park today, and I have picked up the portable radios. The city hopes to have the power connected tomorrow. I have Spectrum tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon to connect the base stations.
Keeling and I dropped off some furniture on Sunday and placed it in the trailer, so most of it should be there now. We did notice some water damage from ceiling leaks.  I also picked up the computers from Keeling that will be used for the terminals. 
If possible I would like to get a few people to help out tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon around 4:30 for an hour or so to sweep out the trailer and rearrange the furniture.
If you have any questions, give me a call on my cell 840-6577.
Thanks
Paul, VA3PC

Thanks to Keeling VE3XKB for the help leading up to the event.
73, Paul, VA3PC

As Bill will be away enjoying(?) his family wedding, I have updated the map with what I believe are the checkpoint lats/longs.
I have printed out 6 of them and will bring them to Mattawa for Saturday. If we get any additional volunteers, I'll print out a
few more. (Let me know if you will be attending)  The map is in archive/documentation/2010 Lost etc.
The long course race (112km) gets underway at 09:00 and the short course (61km) gets underway at 10:00 -
that means we don't have to get up really early.
So far on the list is VA3PC, VE3GMG, VA3BDR, KD8LWV, VA3SK, Keegan & Trevor, and VE3XKB.
I propose we get together at 08:00 at the start/finish (off Hwy533) in order to confirm coverage into the repeater.
(It should be good based on the tests Bill, Betty and I did last week).
That should leave us enough time to get to the checkpoints for the 09:00 start.
Bring Drinks & Eats, Chairs, Clipboard, Sunscreen, Flystuff, Umbrella? - something to read, etc.
Any other suggestions, please fire them my way.
73 and see you on Saturday.  -- Paul, VA3PC

Thanks to VE3YO Gerry for all his help this past weekend in anchoring the staffing with me in the mall. We had several dozen people stop to visit and talk about Ham radio.

Also thanks to others who volunteered to look after things over the time for a few hours or an afternoon. I include Bill VA3WFS, and Ev VE3MAA who assisted with enthusiasm, as well as Howard VE3GMG, who would have been with us Friday night until a family emergency arose. Also, thanks to Drew for the work in keeping us all posted on the club website.

We set up a temporary 2 meter station inside the mall and made contacts with a number of local stations over the two days, as well as brief IRLP connections with Mike VE3MW in Toronto, VE3CFR repeater Summerside, PEI when I tried to reach VY2WB, plus Dan VE3YUI mobile from Simcoe, ON. All of this, of course, once again proved our ability to communicate worldwide using the internet VOIP connections with our local repeater, VE3ERX.

Again thanks to all for supporting the Emergency Preparedness Week events.

Doug
VA3DLJ

The walk was a success this year with about 250 walkers participating.  They were a little late getting started, and the sweep forgot to sweep, but we persevered.  Weather was great with no cases of over or underheating. Thanks to Norm VE3NLH, Bruce VA3BDR, Jerry VE3YO, Howard VE3GMG, and Pam H. (who kept me focused) for the assistance.
73, Paul VA3PC

 HI Folks
 
Mattawa River Canoe Race is this weekend.
So far on the list of volunteers are:
Paul VA3PC, Doug VA3DLJ, Howard VE3GMG, Bill VA3SPT, Betty Silver, Bruce VA3BDR, Dan VE3YUI and Henry KD8LWV.
We could use a few more volunteers if you are available.
I would like to have 2 people at each check point and the start / finish.
Betty and I will be paddling into check point # 2 again this year.
If you have a preferred check point you would like to work at please let me know. I will try to assign you to that check point but cannot promise that it will happen.  8-)
 
I may be in the need for a UHF radio for check point 2. I will have to cross band repeat from Cp2.
If you have a radio that I can borrow please let me know...Portable or mobile, BNC or PL
 I will have to do an equipment inventory to see what I have available it has been a hard year on equipment.
 
If you have any questions or comments please let me know.
 
silver@onlink.net [13]  476-4752
 
Thanks
 
Bill VA3SPT
 

*** Note: We (NBARC) have now (Saturday, Sep 11th) been requested by Harmony Haven to provide communications for their event.
Please sign up on the event page to indicate your interest.   Thanks..  Paul, VA3PC  ***
As a followup to an issue was raised at the meeting last night; whether there is sufficient interest in attending the first running of the Nature's Harmony Eco Race in Mattawa three Saturdays from now, September 25th.
From the information posted at the website, there will be aid stations every 5 km, and those runners doing 50 km will be looping the course, so it would appear that we'll need at least 5 radio operators out there to have a radio at each checkpoint to cover everything (assuming the repeater is available and the course is similar to the Lost in the Rocks course...).
If you are available and interested in attending, please do sign up using the "will attend" button on the NBARC website event posting.
Regards,
Henry,KD8LWV
Here is a link to the Nature's Harmony Ecolodge race website [14].
 

The race starts at 8 AM, so if we meet up at Tim Horton's on Seymour
St. in North Bay, between 6:15-6:30 we should have plenty of time to
get breakfast and get over to the site (Google Maps has 1 h 8 min to
the Ecolodge).

-Repeater access into 147.15+ is spotty at the site;
primary simplex on 147.420, backup 146.520
-Car access to 3 out of 4 checkpoints confirmed (I will bring a mobile
radio/booster battery setup in case driving is impossible to the
fourth- KD8LWV)
-Tarps will be set up at the aid stations.
-The organizers asked that we bring our own chairs if possible.
-No lunches provided as far as I know, but there will be a barbecue
after the race (~4:30).

va3dlj
va3bdr
va3cmx
Ve3YO (Doug has spoken to Gerry, he sounds like he's also confirmed)
Enclosed are two attachments - a png of the route and a google earth kml file, just remove the txt suffix to use it.
These are also saved on the website. 

73 Henry kd8lwv
 

Patrick4Life walk/run was held in the morning of Sunday June 13, 2010. It was a great day. Overcast with a bit of a breeze to keep the participants cool. I don't have any firm numbers but there were over 900 participants registered. This is a fun event consisting of a 1//2 marathon (21.1K) a 10K, 5K and 2K event. The 1/2 marathon left the gate at 0830. They run out to Cranberry Rd and the Kate Pace Way and turn around. The 1st runner was back about 0925. The 5K & 10K started at 0815 and the 2K started at 0930. The last runner was in at 1120. There was burgers, wraps and salad at the finish. Unfortunately Howard couldn't join us for a snack. Howard.. Give our best to Joan and tell her to take it easy and get better soon. We were cleaned up and headed home by noon. Thanks to Bruce VA3BDR at checkpoint 2, Gerry VA3YO at checkpoint 3, Doug VA3DLJ at checkpoint 4, Howard VE3GMG at the turn around on Cranberry Rd. Howard then got double dutied to checkpoint 1 for the returning tired runners. Bill VA3SPT kept us all in line. He was at the start during the set-up and then went around the course checking it out. Hopefully the pictures he took will get posted on the website. Thanks to Tim Silver who acted as my runner at the Start/Finish. Best of luck in your Australia enveavors Tim.
This is a great event for a great cause and we had lotsa fun.
73/Drew VE3MAF

Monday's forcast shows 20% chance of showers, so I propose getting together at 1:00 pm to try and finish off
the building and provide further mouse resistance.
We have to cut and put up sheeting on the interior walls, and stuff a bit of insulation on the wall where the
coax/power enters the building, then close off that wall as well. Sheeting/insulation is stored at the site.
Gerry said he will bring a skill saw and sawhorses, and there is power available, so any hand or power tools that you
think might be helpful feel free to bring along.  There is power available, so that should not be an issue.
I will bring my small trailer to carry away any refuse that we don't anticipate needing after the construction phase.
I also have a shop vac to remove some of the smaller bits (lets leave it at that) so we have a clean floor to walk on.
Most of the cutting will take place outside, so crowding should not be an issue.  In fact, I propose that the first thing
we do is empty the shack to give us some room to work.
If you can attend, please let me know by e-mail what you are bringing, and I'll post a followup tomorrow morning.
Thanks in advance & 73 - Paul, VA3PC