VECTOR February 2024 News

Posted 24 January 2024 in newsletter

Getting started on key events for the spring.

Previous newsletters can be found in the archive.

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

1. Coming Meeting

Our next members' meeting will be held Wednesday, February 7 in the E-COMM Media Room.

Detailed agenda included in e-mail to members.

2. Community News - What’s Coming

• Winter Field Day - 2024-01-27, 12:00 to 24:00, Radio Room
• Respiratory Illness Season - monitoring wastewater
• Data Practice Night - 2024-01-24, 18:30, E-COMM Media Room
• Emergency Prep for Pets - 2024-01-25, 19:00, Dunbar Community Centre
• Distant Hams appreciate our LoRa Project
• Radio Skills Course coming soon - great intro or refresh
• VFRS work ramping up - VA7DPO, VA7IT
• Testing upgraded HEMBC Kits
• CERV Grant Rejected
• Renew for 2024
• Missed Something?

Winter Field Day - 2024-01-27, 12:00 to 24:00, Radio Room

Sign Up

• Hands-on with VECTOR’s HF radios in our Radio Room
• Multiple bands and multiple modes (including HF Winlink, Pactor digital)
• Work alongside experienced members
• Small VECTOR crew in international on air activity
• More on Loomio (invitation in emailed version’s signature)

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Respiratory Illness Season - monitoring wastewater

Health care is circulating invitations for our annual immunization for Influenza and COVID-19.

• Monitoring Infection Levels in Wastewater

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Data Practice Night - 2024-01-24, 18:30, E-COMM Media Room

This Wednesday! (6:30 pm) Sign Up

• Get hands on with tools like WinLink radio email and APRS position reporting
• Bring your laptop and radio, or borrow from VECTOR
• Practice point-to-point digital messaging over radio

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Emergency Prep for Pets - 2024-01-25, 19:00, Dunbar Community Centre

This Thursday with DEEP! (7 pm) Sign up!

• Preventing and coping with pet medical emergencies
• Disaster preparedness for pets
• Online over Google Meet: mg1.co/deep-presentation

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Distant Hams appreciate our LoRa Project

Rick W6KKO sent his gratitude for how our article gave him enough insight to appreciate its features – terrain-willing, of course. VECTOR’s LoRa Trial Setup and Results

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Radio Skills Course coming soon - great intro or refresh

We pick a day when we have around 12 people.
Join the Waitlist

Scheduling our next four-week deep dive into radio procedures, events, message handling, and more. Learn more about our key technologies and buying your first radio. Play in three specialized on-air nights. Non-VECTOR operators welcome with $ 20 fee.

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VFRS work ramping up - VA7DPO, VA7IT

• Darryl VA7DPO and Ian VA7IT to lead work
• Assembling special three-band kit for the Fire DOC
• Advising on messaging to bring family status to firefighters in a disaster
• Monthly opportunities for DOC drills
• DSA drills with NEAT and VECTOR

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Testing upgraded HEMBC Kits

We need regular operators to use the kits for net check-ins and note down observations about them. Would you like to take one home to use for a few weeks and comment on?

• HEMBC is Health Emergency Management BC
• Each kit is a UHF-VHF deployable station with Winlink

Contact Anthony

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CERV Grant Rejected

Gaming Grant Commission needed to see more detailed matching of funds from initial vehicle purchase to fully finished CERV replacement. Board to seek alternatives for funding and procurement of a used 16-foot Ford E-450 Cube Van.

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Renew for 2024

To remain active volunteers, we need three things current:

• getting a Police Information Check every fifth year
• accepting the City Volunteer Waiver every January
• updating our MyVolunteerPage (or BetterImpact) profile

You can pay your dues via Interac eTransfer to [email protected], or by cheque.

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Missed Something?

We intend that this news looks forward unless we wish to commemorate accomplishments. I expect to know about 20 - 50% of what’s going on. You can easily make sure we get closer to 80% of what matters using our news form: Recommend Item.

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Help with, Work On, and Learn about

• Online Task Board shows active opportunities. Eight parts of VECTOR you can get involved in: Invitation Link. Task cards include links to file folders, checklists, and conversations.
  • DSAs
  • Civic Events
  • Field Day
  • CERV
  • Maintain-Repair-Overhaul
  • Next Drill
  • High Speed Data
  • Board

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3. Upcoming Training & Practice Opportunities

• Data Night - APRS, Packet, Winlink. Register now
• Radio Skills - Register now
• Net Control - Email Andrew VA7YAA
• Key Files
• EmComm Skills Notes
• Updating Learning Program - best learning at monthly drills

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4. On Air Radio Activities

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

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Winter Field Day - 2023-01-27

• Join a few members to use the Radio Room overnight on air with the Winter Field Day Association
• Sign Up

Get to know other members on air - Friday Nights at 20:00 on VE7RVF

Time Estimate: 30 minutes

• Please take your shot leading as net controller for one night
• Connect to around 15 fellow operators (from 8 to 35 people any day)
• Origin
• 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

Get involved

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Practise with VECTOR Winlink Gateway - 441.025 MHz simplex

• Give it a shot Time Estimate: 15 minutes

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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.

• Learn when two-letter call signs become available. Jen VE7KIP wrote a tool that shares the latest two-letter call signs with Jesse VE7DET when released. Autumn 2023: VE7TW, VE7RM, VE7VF, VE7JQ, VE7SJ, VE7YW.

• Open Emergency Map. General reference for current conditions: Map

• Linking remote coastal communities with fibre-optic lines. Our Mid-Island colleagues noticed an ambitious project for communications in BC - The Connected Coast. 2023 achievements.

• US PACTOR 4 allowed for US stations: we can use it in HF communications relays through the US. Winlink announcment

• Order pizza on a Baofeng. Chris W6AH uses a DigiRig and BaoFeng radio to order via Winlink and Vara FM. (Thanks, Tamara VA7ETR!) Video.

• Rally racing for hams: How fast can you setup, operate, move, and do it again in 4 places? You can join a Rapid Deployment Rally.

• Packet Radio Intro Videos: XSS Adventures shows AX25 and more in 12 minutes - TCP/IP over Packet

• Hams helping when climate change hits communications. Victoria County re-introducing amateur radio to the municipal emergency management plan. (Thanks, Jen VE7KIP!) CBC Nova Scotia article

• DEEP’s Event recordings: November 2023 session has Go Bag tips! Posted online each month

• SEPAR and SARC magazine: John VE7TI publishes latest issue right before our monthly Members session on a bi-monthly interval: VE7SAR

• Keep an eye on Zoom. Company looks like it wants to train its own ChatGPT on users' calls.

  • Quartz report
  • Backlash

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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 Wednesday of each month to keep its operations flowing. Connect in our Zoom virtual space unless otherwise noted.

The next 4 Monthly Members' Meeting dates:

• February 7 - 18:30 (E-COMM Media Room and Zoom)
• March 6 - 18:30 (E-COMM Media Room and Zoom)
• May 8 - 18:30 (E-COMM Media Room and Zoom)
• June 6 - 18:30 (E-COMM Media Room and Zoom)

Please find the link to the Zoom online conference room in your email edition of the newsletter for joining remotely or on your MyVolunteerPage 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] Recommend Item

VA7DPO || Darryl Pogue, Vice President (he|him)

Join Loomio to pitch in
https://loomio.org/vector-vancouver/
https://vectorradio.ca/members/discuss/ (Jump to) Traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), and Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilwətaɁɬ) peoples.