RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for January 27, 2024
Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of Canada with this week’s bulletin.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. Former RAC President Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA SK
Radio Amateurs of Canada has received the sad news that former RAC President,
Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA, became a Silent Key on December 2, 2023, at the age of 79.
RAC would like to extend its sincere condolences to his family and friends. A tribute article
will be included in an upcoming issue of The Canadian Amateur magazine.
In addition to serving as RAC President, Daniel was also a member of the Administrative and
Finance Committee for several years. He also served as Area A Director of Region 2 of the
International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).
Daniel served as President of the Fédération des clubs radioamateurs du Québec (RAQI)
for several years from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.
— Phil McBride, VA3QR, RAC President and Chair
ONTARIO SECTION NEWS
ITEMS OF INTEREST
2. 2024 Orlando HamCation Awards
The HamCation® Awards committee has announced the 2024 Orlando HamCation
recipients of the Carole Perry Educator of the Year and the Gordon West Ambassador
of the Year awards. Both awards will be presented at the 2024 Orlando HamCation,
on February 9 – 11, 2024.
Lewis Malchick, N2RQ, is the recipient of this year’s Carole Perry Educator of the
Year Award. He formerly taught chemistry at the Brooklyn Tech High School, where
he’s an advisor to the school’s Amateur Radio and Wireless Tech Club, W2CXN.
Malchick is the trustee for the Stuyvesant High School Amateur Radio Club, W2CLE,
the chairperson of the Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club Education Committee
and has participated in five ARISS contacts. He’s spent his lifetime educating children
and adults about amateur radio.
The 2024 Gordon West Ambassador of the Year Award winners are Fred, AB1OC,
and Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB. The Kemmerer’s hold Amateur Extra-class licenses and
are active in the Nashua Area Radio Society promoting amateur radio instruction,
youth outreach, and STEM education. Together, they’ve created and helped grow
Ham Bootcamp, a program encouraging more than 900 hams to learn new skills.
They’re active in the club’s training and licensing events, along with Tech Night, which
complements club meetings. Their participation in STEM activities includes
high-altitude balloon launches, foxhunts, and ARISS contacts for many schools.
HamCation has been sponsored by the Orlando Amateur Radio Club, W4PLB,
since 1946, and is held annually on the second weekend of February.
— ARRL News
3. QRP Self-Spotting Website
Low power is fun, but especially if we manage to make QSO’s or contacts. QRP signals
are usually weak and easily missed in noise and interference. That’s why we came up
with the idea of creating a QRP self spotting Cluster, where every QRP broadcasting
enthusiast can announce on which frequency they are working, in which mode, or
with what equipment and power they are working.
— QRP Cluster https://www.qrpcluster.com/
4. Why We Need “Shortwave 2.0”
Debate about the future of shortwave broadcasting focuses on the correct observation
that shortwave listening is no longer a mainstream activity in most of the world.
The future of shortwave broadcasting — “Shortwave 2.0” — will not involve any revival
of those large audiences. Instead, it will be an activity of communications enthusiasts and
professionals. They would comprise a reserve corps able to relay information to larger
populations in their countries when newer media are blocked or become unavailable.
The beginning of the end of “Shortwave 1.0” was described in “Shortwave Broadcasting
Begins Its Long Slow Fade,” an article in the 1995 World Radio TV Handbook.
The really big chunk fell from the shortwave glacier six years later, when BBC World
Service ended its English broadcasts to North America. In the following years, other
international broadcasters followed, first dropping shortwave to North America, and
eventually to other parts of the world.
Read more – RadioWorld: https://bit.ly/4912TYi
This concludes this week’s bulletin.
Bulletin sent from Official Bulletin Manager VA3PC
RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for January 27, 2024
