WARA 2020 Annual General Meeting Report

30 Oct

The WARA 2020 AGM was held on Tuesday Oct. 27, 2020. Due to COVID-19, it was a “virtual” meeting conducted by a telephone conference call using a teleconference system provided by Trevor Peirce, VE7TAV. After one technical issue during the first few minutes, the meeting progressed smoothly and orderly.

We received reports from the President and directors. COVID has had an effect on all club operations including cancelling all of the public service events.

Our treasurer Brian Summers VE7JKZ presented a detailed report and a budget reflecting the changes to our income stream. The budget was passed by a majority vote. Thank you Brian.

We also held elections. There were 4 incumbents and nominations for 2 new Directors-at-large. See ve7vic.ca/executive/ for the updated board list.

New “Directors-at-Large” Board Members are

  • Glenn Lindsey VE7GRQ – HF Stations
  • Don Tolson VE7ATJ – Education

I would like to thank all of the members who attended the meeting and all the people who have supported the club the past year, Respectfully Brent VA7BNB, President WARA

Sunspots & Flares

24 Nov

HF bulletin #4

SpaceWeather.com has really interesting information on sunspots and flares, both of which affect HF communication.  It mentions sunspot AR2786 which “is so big it could swallow earth with barely a ripple.” (Nov. 24, 2020)

With HF conditions getting better with sunspot cycle #25 coming into full swing, check out this link.

https://www.spaceweather.com/

VOACAP Online for Ham Radio

5 Nov

HF Development – bulletin #2:VOACAP map

With Solar Cycle 25 ramping up with more sunspots, it’s time to dust off your HF rig.

VOACAP Online for Ham Radio is a great website to check out band conditions. It is a radio propagation model that uses empirical data to predict the point-to-point path loss and coverage of a given transceiver if given as inputs: two antennas, solar weather, and time/date. Written in Fortran, it was originally designed for Voice of America. (Wikipedia)

Web browser link – https://www.voacap.com/hf/