RAC Bulletin 101009

RAC Ontario Section Bulletin for October 9, 2010

NATIONAL NEWS

1. IARU Region 2 Conference Reports

RAC President Geoff Bawden, VE4BAW, and Vice President International
Affairs Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA, have been in Salinitas, San
Salvador to participate in the IARU Region 2 Triennial Conference
held from Oct 4th to 8th.  Their brief reports have been issued as
RAC Bulletins and can be read at tinyurl.com/2010rac, or at
blog.rac.ca.

-- RAC Bulletin Service

2. Ballooning and Ham Radio

As part of the Shaftesbury High Altitude Robotics Project (SHARP),
students and teachers from Shaftesbury High School in Winnipeg will
launch a balloon with two APRS beacons, VE4SHS-14 and VE4SHS-9, from
Erickson, Manitoba on October 22nd at 10:00 Central Time. The balloon
is expected to land near or east of Portage, Manitoba after a three
hour flight to an anticipated altitude of 100,000 feet.

-- RAC Bulletin Service  

ONTARIO SECTION NEWS

3. New OPN Net Manager

Ian Cope VE3HMS has been appointed Net Manager of the Ontario Phone
Net (OPN), effective Thursday, October 7.  OPN participants were
polled and wholeheartedly approved the selection, as has the Ontario
Section Manager.  Please join with me to welcome Ian aboard.

-- Glenn Killam, VE3GNA, Ontario Section Traffic Manager
 
4. SET and NTS

I encourage all groups in Ontario, who are participating in this
year's Simulated Emergency Test, to announce their exercises on the
Ontario Phone Net by way of NTS messages to other groups both within
and outside the province. By doing so you assist with traffic
handling training and help keep our nets solvent. The province-wide
SET date will be announced after October 23rd following a meeting
between EMO and ARES and RAC Field Services.

I also encourage groups holding local exercises to use NTS to promote
your local SET. Your scenario might require the help of non-local
amateurs to relay exercise traffic.  By advising neighbouring groups
of your plans, that assistance is more likely to be available.

-- Glenn Killam, VE3GNA, Ontario Section Traffic Manager

ITEMS OF INTEREST

5. OSCAR-11 Signals Heard

Clive G3CWV reported that OSCAR-11 was heard by JA0CAW on August 29
after being silent since March 30, 2010. Since August 29 it continued
to be heard until September 8 and then again September 18-29.
Excellent signals have been reported from stations located around
the world, and good copy obtained from decoded telemetry frames.

The 26-year-old satellite appears to be operating for ten days on,
followed by ten days off, so it should start transmitting again
around October 9. Listen for OSCAR-11's VHF AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry
beacon on 145.826 MHz.  Web site www.g3cwv.co.uk has sample sound
files, information about using soundcard and hardware demodulators
for data capture, and software for capturing data and decoding
telemetry.

-- AMSAT News