VECTOR June 2021 News

Posted in newsletter

Previous newsletters can be found in the archive.

Our next members' meeting will be held June 2 online using Zoom. Checking in with VPD, helping our community partners, and preparing for June activities.

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. Checking in with VPD - Inspector Kevin Bernardin - 20 minutes
  2. Brief Practical Exercise - Winlink - 15 minutes
  3. O&I Forum - September Basic, Partners, ESS, Field Day, and June Exercise - All - 55 minutes

2. Community News

Guest Speaker: Checking in with VPD - Inspector Kevin Bernardin VE7TDK
Helpers for Delivering September Basic Course
ESS-VECTOR Joint Exercising
Connecting with Our Community Partners
What’s a Disaster Support Hub to VECTOR?
Surrey ARDF postponed to August
Field Day and June Exercise
Catching up on Special Guests
COVID-19 Update
VECTOR seeks Techs, Devs, Helpers, and Teachers

Checking in with VPD: Inspector Kevin Bernardin - 2021-06-02, 18:30

  • 15 months of pandemic response

  • VECTOR helping check VPD’s amateur radio assets

  • VPD has several amateur radio systems that need periodic exercising and testing

  • What pathway for serving Vancouver with VPD does Kevin perceive in 2021?

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Helpers for Delivering September Basic Course

Team Page | Contact Anthony VE7XAK

  • Hiroshi VA7LET has retired from VECTOR and training

  • One way VECTOR serves Vancouver: helps people become amateur radio operators

  • Join the current team and get ready to teach new operators in September

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ESS-VECTOR Joint Exercising

  • To help us better prepare to work with Emergency Support Services volunteers

  • VECTOR will meet with VEMA ESS volunteer coordinators to review expectations for how VECTOR works with ESS (Miranda M., Jackie K.)

  • Miranda (VEMA) hopes City Volunteers can hold joint exercises

  • City Volunteers: ESS, NEAT, NEPP, VECTOR

City Volunteers | VECTOR’s City Page

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Connecting with Our Community Partners

  • Your community centre may need VECTOR’s help to prepare for being a Disaster Support Hub - can you help? (see What’s a Disaster Support Hub below)

  • Community partners also have opportunities for exercising your skills and knowledge

  • VECTOR already supports Vancouver ESS and 6 go-to community centres with VEMA

  • The other 20 community centres must become Disaster Support Hubs (see next headline below)

  • VECTOR’s new Grab and Go Kits are designed for storing in the ESS containers at community centres to aid Disaster Support Hubs – or any ESS use

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What’s a Disaster Support Hub to VECTOR?

Resilient Neighbourhoods

  • City needs community help to make sure we have Disaster Support Hubs

  • Local hams serving hubs allow VECTOR to focus on DSAs and ESS

  • We can help communities get gear and find local hams for DSHs

  • Kerrisdale and Dunbar already have ham systems and DSHs; and need help updating radio programming

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Surrey ARDF event - Saturday, 2021-08-28, 09:00, 3 h

SARC | Event Sheet

  • Postponed from earlier date to avoid COVID-19 third wave

  • Beginners welcome (loaners)

  • Kits available to purchase

  • See you at Crescent Park? (north side)

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Field Day and June Exercise

You have an HF rig

Contact as many other stations as you can and collect each person’s “exchange”

  • May operate from home using the pandemic rules and submit as VECTOR (ARRL)
  • Use your own call sign
  • Limit your power to 150 W PEP
  • Mention VECTOR when you submit your logs (optional for an aggregate club score)

You only have a VHF-UHF rig - Option A

Contact as many other stations as you can and collect each person’s “exchange”

  • Consider sending your own CQ or looking for someone on simplex: tips
  • Capture your contacts: log
  • Web app for submitting your logs: ARRL web app
  • Example exchange from Jesse VE7DET:
    • “One Bravo British Columbia” (1B BC)
    • means 1 portable on battery with 1 or 2 operators

You only have a VHF-UHF rig - Option B (June Exercise)

Take a shot at finding Wumpus or other operators (at 14:00, 2 hours).

Details | WUMPUS

  • Public health orders have no room for outdoor events without chairs
  • Join in starting at 2 pm (from wherever you can) on the VE7RVF repeater
  • Play runs from 14:00 to 15:30 for all amateur radio operators
  • Encourage friends and family to go on-the-air for the first time
  • ‘Guess’ (radio direction-find) location of one of the other participants while that person’s finding the Wumpus
  • VE7RVF - VECTOR Ch. 1: 145.450 -0.600 MHz, T100.0 Hz

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Catching up on Special Guests

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VECTOR COVID-19 Update - Stay local with your core bubble

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

Latest Pandemic Awareness and Restrictions

Summary information and links | Direct link

Restart

  • Buy time for cases to drop and vaccinations to reach 65% of BC
  • Vaccinations available for people 12+
  • Respect people’s core bubbles (10 people)
  • Outdoors only updated details – next checkpoint: June 14
  • Limit outings to essential travel and careful neighbourhood walks
  • Travel regions: Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland Fraser Valley, Northern and Interior (map)
  • Our sites remain restricted as noted previously with our work rules posted in the members section of the website

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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VECTOR Seeks Technicians, Helpers, Devs, and Teachers

  • Give as much commitment as fits your life as a helper finishing jobs

Get advice | Help a team | Get the code

  • Teach radio handling to Lookout Society’s Harm Reduction Workers?

    We are working with the Lookout Society to set up a teaching materials. We hope to teach staff and workers in the summer. Would you help? Let us know.

  • Be an instructor for the Basic Amateur Radio Proficiency Course

    Best way to learn is to teach another person. Find full details on the course page.
    You can also become an organizer and help keep the course going.

    Training Team | Ask Anthony VE7XAK

  • Free the ideas from our Brainstorming Session recording

    Can you pull the treasure trove of ideas out of a recording we have from the August 2018 Brainstorming Session and into a spreadsheet?

    Email Jesse VE7DET | Check it out

  • Become an examiner for VECTOR

    VECTOR will help you become an examiner if you are interested and you can give time to invigilate exams for the Basic Proficiency Course.

    Ask Linda VE7LMP

  • Help local widow find new home for amateur radio gear

    Are you interested in an HF receiver or an Icom IC-706MKIIG radio from a silent key in Vancouver? We have the station bits and are looking for interested operators. Let us know.

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3. Upcoming Training & Practice Opportunities

Review Learning Program | Dive into Exercises

Radio Skills | Tech Nights | Net Control

Level-up - Tech Night and Troubleshooting, June 8

Session Overview | Add to Calendar

  • Help each other solve someone’s latest communications problem
  • Come together monthly: June 8, 19:00
  • 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

Get Perspective - Radiograms

YT:KD8TTE

  • Examples for smooth passing for radiograms (concise, clear, compelling)
  • Sure beats the hour-long seminar videos previously available

Find more

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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

Find like-minded operators at check-in and chat nets. Members have run these nets for over 420 nights (since 2020-04-01). The nightly Net Controller chooses a question or topic to share; anything from radio to food to entertainment to no topic at all. Connect to around 15 fellow members. A slow night might cover 8 check-ins, but several times 35 operators have joined and shared.

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New VECTOR Winlink Gateway active - 441.025 MHz simplex

Time Estimate: 15 minutes

Tune your radio (441.025) 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.

  • 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

  • Next Winlink exercise at a meeting: June 2

  • 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, Notable, etc.

Get to know other members on air

Nightly Check in and Chat | Monthly Exercises

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This Month: Field Day extends your abilities in a fun way

ARRL:

It is a time where many aspects of amateur radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practise their emergency response capabilities. It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate amateur radio to the organizations that amateur radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar.

  • I join Field Day to connect with you, play ‘disaster’, join a wide on-air contact pool
  • We can operate from home again this year([ARRL][arrlupdate]):
    • may contact any other stations
    • may mark your submission as part of an organization’s efforts
  • Stations operating from home must limit power to 150 W PEP.

Join | Learn more

[arrlupdate]: http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-to-extend-field-day-rule-waivers-from-2020-add-class-d-and-e-power-limit)

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Catch up on sessions from West coast emergency communications conference

CommAcademy | Recordings

  • “Disasters Here, There, and Everywhere - Are We Ready?”
  • 10 talks, training, and information sessions for emergency communications
  • Check out Tom Cox, Alberta Emergency Management, on “The Importance of ICS in Addressing the Big Ones”
  • Continue conversations on Slack

Talk about it with other members: Discuss group.

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Expecting to finish new kits this summer

Team Grab and Go

  • Have all the radios
  • Still waiting for laptops
  • Planning for next year
  • Next team huddle (bi-weekly) on Tuesday afternoons in Zoom: 2021-06-15, 16:00

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New city-wide amateur radio club for Vancouver

Lower Mainland Radio Room | Details

After serving as VECTOR’s training coordinator for over 6 years, Hiroshi VA7LET has stepped down to grow a fun-focused amateur radio club for Vancouver.

Please let Anthony VE7XAK know if you wish to join the team that carries the Basic course forward.

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Want to make your own VECTOR-compatible kit?

Team GnG

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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:
Date Channel Frequency Information
June 02 44 146.430 MHz
June 09 20 147.200 MHz +600 kHz T100.0 Hz
June 16 7 147.450 MHz T100.0 Hz simplex
June 23 4 146.580 MHz simplex
June 30 1 145.450 MHz -600 kHz T100.0 Hz

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7. Monthly Members' Meetings

VECTOR gathers on the first Wednesday of every month to keep its operations flowing. Connect in our Zoom virtual space unless otherwise noted.

The next 4 Monthly Members' Meeting dates:
  • June 02 at 18:30 - Guest: Kevin Bernardin VE7TDK - evolving VECTOR-VPD relationship
  • July 07 at 18:30 - Guest: VFRS?
  • August 04 at 18:30 - Guest: Erich VE7EEF - Electric Car as Power Source
  • September 01 at 18:30 - Guest: Gabriel VA7GXM - Being in Earthquakes
  • October 06 at 18:30 - Member Insights Special Session

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, Director (he|him)
[email protected]

VA7SWZ || Simone Hoedel, Writer and Communications Consultant (she|her)
VE7CNV || Dave Koyanagi, Proofreader (he|him)
VA7DPO || Darryl Pogue, Director (he|him)

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