VECTOR December 2021 News

Posted 8 December 2021 in newsletter

Previous newsletters can be found in the archive.

Our next members' meeting will be held December 2, online using Zoom: to celebrate our accomplishments together and cover our annual Societies Act requirements.

1. Coming Meeting | 2. News | 3. Learn | 4. On Air | 5. Notable | 6. Secondaries | 7. Meetings

1. Coming Meeting

Details attached to mailed version.

1. Advisory Board
2. Annual Reports (Treasurer, Secretary)
3. Active Team Key Accomplishments
4. President’s Report
5. Nominations

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2. Community News - What’s Coming

• Choose Meeting Day for 2022 first quarter
• Ponder holding Backyards On The Air in Vancouver
• Dave VE7CNV Memorial - Recorded
• What do you need so you can find meaningful volunteering in VECTOR?
• Whom would you recommend for director?
• You could be a director
• VECTOR using Loomio to coordinate together
• COVID-19 Update
• How do you want to help? (opportunities)

Choose Meeting Day for 2022 first quarter

Vote

• VECTOR’s Thursday nights experiment ended at the AGM
• Meeting attendance appeared to drop between 20 and 50% (many possible reasons, though)
• Which day would you prefer? Vote

One third of members already verified vaccinated within days of opening

Attest

• After Monday, December 6, City staff will set ‘inactive’ members who have yet to attest to vaccination
• Members with an outstanding dose will remain active unless second dose missed
• COVID-19 vaccination as important to the City as Police Information Checks
• VECTOR only sends emails to Active members and (where appropriate) occasionally to Prospects

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Ponder holding Backyards On The Air in Vancouver

Details

• Would you operate portable from your back yard to make contacts?
• Operators in other countries had fun doing it last year (New Zealand, USA)

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Dave VE7CNV Memorial Recorded

Obituary | KPU Bursary

Meeting Recording

• Visit his resting place in the Willow Garden at Heritage Gardens, Surrey
• Kishore updated the list of pledges, donations, and attendees. View
• Collected pledges cover memorial costs
• Read Dave’s Obituary
• KPU Bursary created: Friends of Dave Koyanagi Memorial Bursary - pick amount first, search for named fund next
• Bursary will help students based on their volunteer efforts and financial need

For more information, email [email protected], or through Facebook Group “Happy memories of Dave Koyanagi”.

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What do you need so you can find meaningful volunteering in VECTOR?

• I notice that many of VECTOR’s work and projects remain incomplete
• Our leading hypothesis is that you remain unaware how you can help
• You can still add your ideas to improve how we enable you in our survey

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Whom would you recommend for director?

• Send your recommendation to Jesse'
• 9 people appear interested, several other candidates have too much going on

Post-AGM note: 9 people agreed to take on director or officer roles

You could serve as a director

• Directors look out for VECTOR: exercising wise judgement, navigating risk, serving as ambassadors, and identifying funding sources
• Directors need wise perspective more than technology-specific knowledge
• Members deliver VECTOR services (to each other and the community)
• Next year, we seek to include team leads for tactical insights occasionally at board meetings
• VECTOR holds Directors and Officers Liability Insurance to protect you
• Roles:
  • President chairs meetings, serves as public voice
  • Vice President (deputy president) helps the president
  • Treasurer covers banking, accounting, and financial reporting
  • Secretary makes sure we keep complete records and files our annual records with the Societies Registry
  • Directors and officers together monitor risks, find funding, and support team leads
• Follow-up details about being a director

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VECTOR using Loomio to coordinate together

• To give us a single, easy, and common operating space for coordinating our work together, with handy polling tools
• Any member can join; choose to use your Google account to avoid making another password
• Check it out: https://www.loomio.org/vector-vancouver/
• Check in with Jesse'

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VECTOR COVID-19 Update - BC Vaccine Card for events

Response - November 23 | Restart | Golden Rules

• Restrictions Updated - December 3
• VECTOR will only organize large in-person activities based on collective member comfort levels – any director will accept your concerns and raise them as appropriate
• VEMA-verified vaccinations 80% likely to give us access to City rooms at posted reduced capacities
• Community centres serve as example for how to behave at all city sites: wear masks indoors, carry your BC Vaccine Card

Use Jitsi for pop-up meetings when you need to share screens

• Use just your web-browser: https://meet.jit.si
• Zoom is like Room 1, Jitsi is like Room 2
• Jitsi reference

Thank you for being a protector for people in our communities who could suffer from the impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC Provincial Health Officer:

“Be kind, be calm, and be safe.”

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How do you want to help?

Give as much commitment as fits your life as a helper to finish jobs

Get advice | Help a team | Get the code

Please respond to the 2021 survey so we can make finding cool, meaningful volunteer work easier for you. Respond now

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3. Upcoming Training & Practice Opportunities

Review Learning Program | Dive into Exercises

Radio Skills | Tech Nights | Net Control

Level-up - Radio Skills Course

Register now

• Coming up in early 2022
• Presenters needed. SSTV, APRS, digital voice, high-speed data, satellites
• Details in October meeting summary
• Online examinations still progressing over coming weeks for students from Basic Proficiency Course

ON HOLD: Level-up - Tech Night and Troubleshooting

Session Overview | Add to Calendar

• Will resume based on member interest
• Help each other solve someone’s latest communications problem
• Come together monthly?
• Get help with a problem that frustrates you

Level-up - become a Net Control Operator

• Write an email to Andrew VA7YAA to join the list
• First step: attend the introduction to the net control operator program on Zoom

Find more

• Course Details
• Event Updates
• Key Files
• EmComm Skills Notes

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4. On Air Radio Activities

Local Nets | Program | Calendar | Jessé VE7DET | Team Page | Team Mail

Connect Casually Any Night - 19:05 nightly on VE7RVF

Time Estimate: 30 minutes

• Members have run these nets for over 520 nights (since 2020-04-01) (except for 2021-07-25 when there was no net controller available)
• Please take your shot leading as net controller for one night
• Nightly Net Controller chooses a question or topic to inspire sharing (anything from radio to food to entertainment to no topic at all)
• Connect to around 15 fellow operators (from 8 to 35 people any day)
• Remember to identify your signal
  • your call sign at both the beginning and end of each period of communication
  • per RBR-4 — Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service section 9.3
  • even a casual net gives time to practice good procedures

Email Christin VA7WIE

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New VECTOR Winlink Gateway active - 441.025 MHz simplex

Time Estimate: 15 minutes

Tune your radio to 441.025 MHz and run your Winlink session to become more comfortable using Winlink email over radio. Finicky 440 reception means repositioning your antenna by as little as 10 cm can make a difference. If you still can’t connect, you can relay through various other Winlink nodes.

• Added new Lenovo M90n after rack server hard drive packed it in

• New Lenovo M90n running RMS, BPQ, and APRS-IS

• VA7EOC-10, 441.025 MHz simplex

• VA7EOC-1 active for APRS-IS

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Keep Formal Net Skills Sharp on Weekly Net - 20:00 weekly on Wednesdays, VE7TEL

Time Estimate: 30 minutes

Checking in on Wednesdays stretches a few less-used skills. Details below in 6. Weekly Nets.

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5. Announcements, Notables, etc.

Trout Lake to get Olympic heavy kit

• Andrew VA7YAA confirmed storage with acting recreation supervisor
• Team Grab and Go has outfitted a kit with a new laptop and a temporary antenna system
• VECTOR to work with Vancouver Parks Recreation, City Protective Services, and VEMA to install a permanent antenna at Trout Lake

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Get to know other members on air

Nightly Check in and Chat | Monthly Exercises

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6. Weekly Net

Catch the weekly net at 20:00 every Wednesday on the VE7TEL repeater: VECTOR channel 2, 145.170 MHz -600 kHz.

Each week, a secondary net follows on a different frequency, providing opportunities for amateur radio operators to test radios using other bands and modes of operation.

Schedule for upcoming secondary net frequencies:

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7. Monthly Members' Meetings

VECTOR gathers on the first Thursday of the next 2 months to keep its operations flowing. Connect in our Zoom virtual space unless otherwise noted.

The next 4 Monthly Members' Meeting dates:

• December 02 at 18:30 - Annual General Meeting
• January - first week, poll pending
• February - first week, poll pending
• March - first week, poll pending

Connect with others before and after the main session:

• Join early (15 minutes) at 18:15
• Hang around after (20 minutes) until roughly 20:50
• We’ll have breakout areas available

Please find the link to the Zoom online conference room in your email edition of the newsletter for joining remotely or on your BetterImpact homepage. You can sign up for upcoming members' meetings in BetterImpact to log your meeting time automatically.

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Tnx es 73,

VE7DET || Jessé Neri, President (he|him)
[email protected]

VA7DPO || Darryl Pogue, Director (he|him)

https://vectorradio.ca/members/discuss/
https://loomio.org/vector-vancouver/ https://keybase.io/team/helpingvector
Traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), and Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilwətaɁɬ) peoples.