Congratulations Swap Meet Raffle Winners!

26 Sep

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to support the first WARA Swap Meet in quite some time and in particular those who participated in the raffle, where 100% of the proceeds will go back to supporting club activities.

Massive shout out to our prize donors Alpha Antenna, Icom, Radio World, Ham Radio Deluxe, Radio Amateurs of Canada, and Hamshack for their generosity in donating these prizes at no cost to WARA.

Official Winners List

Gerry Trueman 2023 WARA Membership
Matt King Radio World $50 Gift Certificate
Darryl Downey Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate
Joe Savoy 2023 WARA Membership
Andrea Goodman Radio World $50 Gift Certificate
Robert Crouch Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate
Rick Chan 2023 WARA Membership
Dom Kapac Hamshack Custom Callsign
William Freeman RAC Membership
William Freeman Ham Radio Deluxe Software License
Daryl Cowden Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate
Andrew Macaulay Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate
John Walls Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate
Dom Kapac Icom IC-V86 Handheld VHF Radio

The raffles were held at Da Vinci Centre on Sunday, September 25, 2022.

Sunspots, CMEs and HF

27 Aug

If the prognosticators for increasing numbers of sunspots and the ramp up of the new sunspot cycle are correct, then those radio amateurs who enjoy HF will be dusting off their rigs, keys and microphones in anticipation of good DX.

Here’s a link to the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations which gives us a taste of what’s to come for sunspot numbers. Today’s numbers can be found at Space Weather Live.

There’s always a possible fly in the sunspot ointment and they’re called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which can disrupt communications. A nice CME was observed on Tuesday August 4th. Check out this GIF.

Lancaster Bomber project in Sidney – parts needed

3 Aug

The British Columbia Aviation Museum (BCAM) at the Victoria International Airport is in the process of restoring a Canadian built Lancaster Mk.X Bomber, eventually to return the airframe to certified flying status. The airframe, serial FM104, was on unprotected display on the Toronto waterfront for many years, resulting in the loss of all equipment on the inside of the aircraft fuselage. The aircraft will be restored as a post-war Search & Rescue variant which had been converted from the Maritime Reconnaissance role.

The artifacts the project is looking for (which radio amateurs might help find) include transmitters, receivers, power supplies / dynamotors, antennas, interphone station boxes, mounts for any of this equipment and also cabling and connectors.

This link will take you to a well-researched website that describes in detail these various electronic systems incorporated into a post-war RCAF Lancaster. BCAM would be interested in hearing from you if you have any of the components of these systems that you would be willing to donate to the museum.

For donations or questions, please contact restorer Paul MacNeill at paulmn@shaw.ca