RAC Bulletin 2015-09-12

RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for September 12, 2015

This is V__3____, Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of
Canada, with this week's bulletin

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS

ONTARIO SECTIONS NEWS

1. RAC would like to welcome our new Director .. Phil McBride VE3QR

"As Director, I intend to use my knowledge of Amateur Radio, business
management and corporate governance
to serve RAC, and through RAC, the broader Amateur Radio community in
Canada, by encouraging not only membership,
but participation within the organization. With both small and large
wireless communications firms working to
acquire vast amounts of RF spectrum, it is vitally important, now more
than ever, to have a strong, unified lobby
that can sit across the table from our country's wireless regulators and
represent the collective interests
of the thousands of Amateur Radio operators throughout the country.

I look forward to working with all of those currently involved in the
management of RAC,
and welcome anyone with questions or concerns to contact me via e-mail
at va3qr @ rac.ca."

-- Phil A. McBride, VA3QR

2. The Hamilton Amateur Radio Club Flea

Date: Saturday, October 3, 2015
Location: School Fair Building at the Ancaster Fair Grounds, 630 Trinity
Road, Ancaster, L0R 1R0
(south-west corner of highways #52 and #53, just west of Ancaster)

General Admission: Doors open at 9:00 a.m. Vendor access : After 7:00
a.m.
Cost: General Admission: $7.00 per person
Talk-in frequency: Talk-in 146.76 (-) with tone 131.8 VE3NCF

Visit the HARC website at: www.hamiltonarc.ca for further info.
Email contact: ve3htf @ hamiltonarc.ca

ITEMS OF INTEREST

3. Chess and Morse code

The BBC reports on a case of a chess player who allegedly used Morse
code to cheat.
Officials believe the 37-year-old was using a camera, hung around his
neck, to transmit the game
to someone with a chess computer program, who was feeding back moves
using Morse code.
The 37-year-old player was also "batting his eyelids in the most
unnatural way", the referee said.
"Then I understood it, He was deciphering signals in Morse code."
When the player refused to open his shirt, officials asked him to pass
through a metal detector
which picked up a pendant hanging underneath his shirt.
The pendant contained a tiny video camera connected to a small box under
his armpit, officials said.

-- Read the BBC story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34184940

4. 156 YEARS AGO, A GEOMAGNETIC MEGA-STORM:

On Sept. 2nd, a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into
Earth's magnetic field.
Campers in the Rocky Mountains woke up in the middle of the night,
thinking that the glow they saw was sunrise.
People in Cuba read their morning paper by the red illumination of
aurora borealis.
Earth was peppered by particles so energetic, they altered the chemistry
of polar ice.

It really happened -- exactly 156 years ago. Sept. 2, 1859.

As the day unfolded, the gathering storm electrified telegraph lines,
shocking technicians
and setting their telegraph papers on fire. Magnetometers around the
world recorded strong disturbances
in the planetary magnetic field for more than a week.

The cause of all this was an extraordinary solar flare witnessed the day
before by British astronomer
Richard Carrington. His sighting marked the discovery of solar flares
and foreshadowed a new field of study:
space weather. According to the National Academy of Sciences, if a
similar storm occurred today,
it would cause a trillion dollars in damage to society's high-tech
infrastructure and require
four to ten years of repairs for a complete recovery.

In fact, a similar flare did occur just a few years ago. On July 23,
2012, a CME of rare power rocketed
away from the sun. The storm was in all respects at least as strong as
the 1859 Carrington event.
The only difference is, it missed the earth. no harm done. The July 2012
event serves as a reminder, however,
that extreme space weather is not a thing of the past.

-- spaceweather.com

This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or
clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V__3____ returning the frequency to net control.