Paul VE7PXG
David: VE7MDE
Sean
Farell VA7FSE
Ian (missed callsign)
license 25 years ago
lapsed
got year ago, done nothing with it since
keen to get back into it
want to do everything, learn CW, build a kit
Andrew (VA7HEX)
VECTOR training course last year
struggled to connect
simple radio, BaoFeng
excited to get a repeater working
VECTOR has a weekly network
VECTOR great organization, focused on emergency response
large gap in experience between new people and most members
Ian
same thing I noticed at North Shore radio club
big gap in experience between beginners and most
hard to get people up to speed
so much protocol and buzwords
Andrew
did a lightning talk here at a SHH
bit of a turn off to hackers: non-anonymity, can't use codes, many controls on behaviour
Real advantage:
falled back so much
bands quiet
used to be many people acting as guardians of the air waves
CB, lots of guys clatter all over it
rise of digital, opened up
Paul
over the last week since I sent out first message, about 20 people responded privately or openly.
some couldn't come due to other commitments
definitely interest to set up another radio club, our own
VHS ARC is my suggestion
doing my training, told people at VECTOR that bunch of people have gone through the course
VECTOR would like us to set up our own club and affiliate with them
show up at their field days
work with them at symphony of fire
encourage others to partake in hobby of amatur radio
told them that our goal was to hold workshops and get people qualified
VECTOR: good, if we can help you let us know
if you need qualified examiners, we have members who are willing to do it for no cost
they're realy enthusiatic
Paul (other Paul) manages apartment block (15th and Fir, could put repeater on its roof
people are keen to be involved
first meeting: wanted to see if anyone would show up
next meeting: do on Wed night
time when VECTOR does their net
people bring their radios if they have them
if they don't, that's fine too
can practice calling in to the VECTOR net
Sean: you can still use the radio even without a license
under direct supervision of any one of us
I don't know where else to go from here
other ideas: you may have seen my email regarding lotteries money
not as difficult as people think
put in the proper application
one of the women involved with VHS, Ifny, definitely knows her way around
I am involved in another non-profit that gets $30K a year from lotteries
before I got involved, it was costing them $6000 for audits
figured out you could get a letter from an accountant that said everything was fine for less than $500
that's a way to get seed money
talked to Hackery, they get Ham Radio equipment often
start looking out stuff for us
looked into repeater and what it takes to set one up
doesn't look hard
few radios, buy them from people who have built them
-
Farrell:
the easiest way: equipment often gets obsoleted
even tube equipment
reason it gets thrown out, channels keep narrowing
companies to narrow things down just replace the equipment with transistorized stuff
usually find if you go to companies and say you are using it for a ham repeater you can get it for nothing
as long as they know it won't end up sold
often nothing wrong with old equipment, just needs a module to turn down the deviation
I'm really keen
I'm one of the people who made a mobile truck
last year I built a few direction finding for fox hunting
the idea is to hide a little transmitter once a month
take the mobile truck, when everyone gets there, have a barbecue
to get people excited, it's very easy to build a simple receiver
once you get into that, it bites you, you can get you license and build your own
3-4 Watts on shortwave you can go all the way around Vancouver
Sean:
Farrell:
if you get involved in contesting in Ham, really serious contests, some people almost give up their lives
I've been involved in that, people setting up stations,
try to talk with as many people as possible
nowadays especially with power lines, you've got to get out of the city, there's too much noise
it's sort of died
there's still satellites up, HamSat organizations
really cool to intercept weather satellites
once you start playing with RF stuff, it's really easy, nice and easy, it's just a way of doing things
software radios, I'm amazed. Just a little USB stick and you have a spectrum analyzer
Sean:
[ED: was it this one? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1085541682/bladerf-usb-30-software-defined-radio?ref=live]
[ED: nope, this one: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mossmann/hackrf-an-open-source-sdr-platform ]
Farrell:
on deal extreme they're 7-8 dollars
what happened with that business is pre-digital TV
people were making these sticks to receive TV data
then that market sort of disappeared
they just open sourced the coding for the receiver
Paul:
radio choice for those guys at VECTOR are those handheld Kenwoods
they have GPS location on them
showed us a display, 50-100 radios that had them on
people are out there, what they are saying to each other I don't know
you could actually track where they were
one of those things, Farrell knows about this, being used during the Celebration of Light
th
David:
when I'm traveling to Alberta, I check all the nodes along the way
some of them answer, some of them don't
I've used it for emergencies
Farrell
Ian:
offset, private/public
Andrew:
David:
you can buy a CD for $30 that has all the mapping, all the offsets
you can program it for your travel plans
do it for every carrier along the route
Farrell
Andrew:
David:
like I said, I have a CD, it's got all the stuff there
a lot of it is on the Internet
[crosstalk]
Sean:
for Ham stuff, all the pages look like the were made right at the start of the web
I've been trying to find information on how to build a radio
it's like that gap you're talking about, it's all aimed at people who have been doing it for 30 years
not people just getting into it
after several days of searching, I found "build a simple FM transmitter"
but it was a Make project on how to build it with the fewest components possible
for plugging your iPod into for your car
hard to get information to get off the ground
David:
it's like there's an old community of Ham guys
there's an exclusitivity to it
you got your chops by knowing all the vernacular, acronyms, all that stuff before you ever got near a radio
Ian:
Farrell:
I struggled for 2 years before I could get my callsign
only about 1978 they eased the restrictions
couldn't get a Ham license without Morse
Paul
for those of you who have taken the test, I was amazed
if I'd known it was this simple to qualify for your basic
I believe they've made it simple because people aren't doing it anymore
my guess is that there are elements of the government who don't want people using it so they can sell off the amateur bands
Farrell:
very strong amateur radio union delegation that goes to ID conference
struck down age restriction
people pon air discipline people
David:
Farrell:
biggest concern is that you screw up some commercial interest
they're paying for that spectrum
we don't pay for it
amaeur allocation is bigger than any other allocation
if you don't use it, you lose it
above 2 gigs, enormous spectrum available for amateurs
we don't use it
sad things, industry watches Ham experimentation and then they want them
Paul:
[referring to LED sign marque scrolling radio club name]
Farrell:
Paul:
let's decide
next meeting, VHS ARC member form, collect $10 from everyone
you're qualified to apply for club callsign
-0 under your name, you're responsible
Farrell:
Andrew:
Paul:
Farrell:
what is freq?
may have to join later
Andrew:
repeater frequency
-
600 minus offset
no tone
Paul:
Telephone Pioneers Amateur Radio Club maintain the repeater
on the "Boot"
for those of you not from Vancouver, the Boot is the Telus building at Boundary and Kingsway
building on Burnaby side has step terraces
VECTOR bounces off mountains, their setup is at E-COMM
Farrell:
Paul:
Sean:
UBC Amateur Radio club is trying to start up again
Joe: (VA7JBO) arrives
Paul:
problem: run by student
after Daniel leaves, it will die again
John Oliver has possibilities
especially if they are going through hassles about ripping the school down
I'm an alumni of there
really interested in other stuff we talked about
Farrell
Andrew:
problem has never been availability of equipment, it's availability of people
it's why VECTOR training
need influx of people
need to keep people engaged
Joe, you mentioned on mailing list that you've been to these nets, and that they are boring, nothing is happening on them
Joe:
David:
that's the think about Ham Radio
what's the length of your antenna
how's your signal strength
nice talkin' to ya
Joe:
if you have a limited number of people, it's going to be boring
used to be a guy out in Delta, kind of pissed me off
had an emergency, his emergency was that he had too much recycling
Paul:
Farrell:
there needs to be a network
if you create these networks where people get on to chat, the advantage is that there's always someone available close to a telephone
emergency support if needed
problem if you have a network that is monitored, people are very quick, just announce their checkin and leave
nobody is allowed to chat about what projects they are working on
Joe:
I know of at least four nets that are active right now
Burnaby repeater on Monday night
North Van repeeater on Tuesday night
VECTOR on Wednesday night
9am Rainbow Valley net on North Van repeater
cordial enough
I have no interest in getting a biggger 2 meter radio
these (handhelds) work just fin everywhere I've taken them
basically, the VHF bands are boring
David:
one of this things is, it's just one channel
whomever has got it, has got it
if you tend to talk on and on, block the channel
that's why these protocols were developed
keep range on topic and time
Andrew
keep in mind repeaters have a built-in time limit
fundamentally, built around emergency response
without emergency, quite limited
intrigued with Farrell's idea around direction finders
cool idea for contest
any organization has trail off
people excited the first time, either they will engage or they won't
big thing: communication strategy
I think VECTOR struggles with it
have trouble contacting people, i.e. mailing list
need an influx of people, and need to engage people currently there
some people will be more technically inclined and want to build a receiver right away
I don't have the skill set for that; I'd like to build on what I have before I make that investment
David:
Paul
Farrell
I've done this for too long already and I've become very blase
as a non-amateur, there's nothing stopping you from going in and buying equipment
it's switching it on, powering up and transmitting that's the restriction
if you want to do that in the amateur radio band, on a regular basis
[missed a bunch of talking; too much crosstalk]
in South Africa we used to have what they called Desert Island [?]
build something to get you off a desert island
could be anything from flashing light, etc
create a community of people who actually get to know each other
David::
talking to Sean about website
most guys have a heavy hardware background
so our infusion of software into it could be a real boost
Sean
as far as retaining people or getting people interested,
to me that's just a problem of what project we're going to work on for the next 2 months
figure out instructino
fox hunt thing
or set something on mountain
crowdsource instructions on how to build a radio
for next 2 month, have a goal
get picture from a weather satellite
or contact a ham radio satellite
keep having idea
let's do this, let's do this
we all have enough ideas that can keep us going for next year or two
if we keep doing things, people will bee "that was really cool," I want to be around the next time they do that
Farrell:
there's a wide range of projects
radio beacon on balloon, look for where the device comes down
quadcopters
carry up a little parrot repeater on quadcopter
take it up high
repeats your message
I'd like to experiment with that
[too much noise]
track myself, see where I've been
often I'll get a call […] this morning
I only get it 2 hours after
I have access to ham radio
like to build tracking beacons
put the beacon on the car
Andrew:
like to put out a danger point
there's all this equipment out there, we could put up a receiver
what I'm worried about is that someone will engage with that, spend a great deal of time on that, and then nobody will use it
it's that sunk cost that I am worried about
so I think a structure where people rotate through is important
no-one becomes the sole keeper of the flame
that sucks
everyone's been there, people move on and get tired of it
Paul:
VHS has a process in place
no gatekeeper
if people walk away, it won't shut down
looking at Radio Amateurs of Canada, to get insurance, just have to be registered society
under VHS as a registered society we can get this
if we want to apply for gaming moneys
not as onerous as people think
1-2 years down the road before money comes
not a separate organization, as a subgroup of VHS
send an email to announce wed meeting
wed night is a craft night
check with people to ensure craft night is not impacted
send out email, suggested donation of $10 for radio portion of VHS
Farrel: lock down VE7VHS as soon as possible before someone else locks it down
still available
simple process, fill in form
Joe:
just log online, register club
toggle address as private
don't publish your address
caveat: kind of broken, got Oracle errors
Paul:
email someone at VECTOR if problems
initial fee of $60 to register
under assumption if under club
I don't know what else we want to talk about
doesn't help to have meeting drag on
try to get people out of here
Sean:
Paul:
Ian:
Paul:
David::
Everyone:
Joe:
Ian:
Paul:
Joe:
Baofeng pretty good
Paul:
bought them, soaked me $20 for programming cable
send me software
bought cable and software,
Ty and I found PDF to switch programmer to English
Joe:
Andrew:
Paul:
Ian:
Farrell:
wiki for information
i.e. BaoFeng information
saying to youngsters that there is a Jamboree on the internet
don't have to be scouts
advanced amateur
australia
coming up in Sept
away camping
set up a proper mobile station like that
like what VECTOR does with their bus
have to deal with city to get bus out
like to have my callsign on the truck
fun event
Andrew
Paul
Andrew
happy to scribe the first few meetings
important to have groundwork and history so that people releasing it's a living thing that is happening
there's a lot of excellent ideas, but if they don't make it out of this space and out of this group, it's not going to happen
we'll sort it out
Paul
Joe:
off topic
open source radio programming software
-
also have an App for it too
how many people are interested in doing HF?
Ian:
Joe:
Andrew:
Paul:
Farrell:
Paul:
Farrell:
happy to bring the radio here
insist on a mic and a key to disconnect it
don't mind setting up antenna
Paul:
let's hold off on that until we can talk numbers
20-25 people, VHS members
then we can turn around and say and get a table to be able to leave equipment here and secure it
have a locker, lock it up
issue right now, we don't know if we're going to get an extension on our lease
and they've sold the building
once that is sorted, we can make a proposal to get an antenna on the roof, or next to the building
other thing: Paul manages apartment , 15th and Fir apartment.
he'll let us put a repeater on here
have John Oliver school radio station to check out
callsign is gone, some guy in Cranbook or something has it
anything else to add?
put out email to the general list
let everyone know we're meeting on Wednesday
get non-members as members
20 people emailed very interested
keep on building from there
put together a list of licensed versus non-members
sit down and see resources for Advanced qualifictions
lots of people have an interested
Joe:
handy for going overseas
get your Morse code qualification
if you don't have your Morse, can't operate outside of Canada and US
Paul:
Andrew:
before people dash off, how many people are comfortable editing the wiki and putting up their project ideas?
send them to me, and I'll put them in
Paul:
Joe:
members only list
something on fire
Paul:
Joe:
Paul:
Andrew:
[General chatter about the cause of the interference and testing the LED sign.]