RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for March 23, 2024
Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of Canada with this week’s bulletin.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. Registration for the Basic Qualification Spring course
is now underway
Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio
course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur
Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification.
It is open to everyone across Canada and even abroad. Classes will be
recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.
The course will be held on Thursday evenings from 1800 – 2100 Eastern
Time and Sunday afternoons 1300 – 1600 Eastern Time commencing
on Sunday, April 15 and ending on Thursday, June 20.
It is essential that all students have the equipment and bandwidth capable
of taking the course – at least a tablet or PC and a DSL broadband connection.
For more information about the course please contact the Course Administrator
at [email protected].
— Alan Griffin, RAC MarCom Director
2. International Marconi Day 2024
This year, International Marconi Day (IMD) is on April 27.
IMD was created to honor Marconi and is hosted annually by the
Cornish Radio Amateur Club, GX4CRC. The purpose of the day is for
amateur radio enthusiasts around the world to contact historic Marconi sites
using communication techniques similar to those that he would have used.
The 24-hour event will operate from 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC, and registration
is required. Participants can register at GX4CRC’s registration web page.
Stations in the United States, including Marconi Cape Cod Radio Club,
KM1CC, in Massachusetts, are already registering for the event.
KM1CC hosts several on-air events each year to keep the accomplishments
When possible, KM1CC sets up a temporary radio station inside the park.
More information about KM1CC is available on their Facebook page.
— arrl news
ONTARIO SECTION NEWS
ITEMS OF INTEREST
3 POTA Begins Park Prefix Updates
In an effort to reorganize the Parks on the Air (POTA) database in a way that
meets ISO standards, POTA has begun rolling out changes to the way park
entities are prefixed. Beginning with the United States and Puerto Rico, parks
previously coded with a K prefix will now be listed with a US prefix.
For example, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail was previously K-4556
and is now US-4556. Additional prefixes will be updated in the coming days.
From a political perspective, the prefix change has resulted in China choosing
to no longer participate in the POTA program due to the ISO3166-2 standard
recognizing Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as top-level entities.
— Source: Parks on the Air
4. Recent FirstNet Outage in Ohio
I don’t know if you heard anything about this, but when parts of AT&T went
down recently, parts of FirstNet (AT&T First responder network) went down
as well. The FirstNet rep in western Ohio said it was for less than an hour,
but that may be the official line.
You might mention this if anyone tries to convince you that amateur radio
isn’t needed anymore.
— Michael Schulsinger, N8QHV (arrl ares newsletter)
This concludes this week’s bulletin.
Bulletin sent from Official Bulletin Manager VA3PC
RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for March 23, 2024
