RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for September 30, 2023
Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of Canada with this week’s bulletin.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. Update on Phishing attempts using RAC email addresses.
There have been several recent reports from RAC members of phishing attempts by someone
purporting to be from Radio Amateurs of Canada.
Phishing attempts use publicly available information to fake legitimacy. In some cases they use
the names and contact information of RAC officials to gain your trust.
For example, this week’s phishing attempt falsely states that it originates from “Phil A McBride”
and this is not the case.
It also uses the fake heading “Radio Amateurs of Canada Closing Special Report ’23” to encourage
users to open the document by clicking on a link. **Please do not!**
To date, there have been no direct successful attacks on the RAC computer system. Unfortunately
attempts to defraud people through email messages are a part of the world we live in today.
We will continue to take measures to ensure that our computer system is as safe as possible and that
our members are provided with information.
Radio Amateurs of Canada is continuing to increase our cybersecurity. We do not keep any financial
information and only widely available personal information (such as name, call sign and dates relating
to current membership) is available in our system so our risks are considerably less than compared to
commercial systems. For more information please see our Privacy Policy and Cybersecurity webpage.
We continue to stay abreast of any changes in cyberthreats and their responses. We are also planning
on making available to members the use of security systems you may already be aware of in other
systems – such as providing for the use of complex passwords as well as Two-Factor Authentication
to log in to our website. We will provide additional information on security updates as they are made.
In closing, any email claiming to have your @myrac.ca address and password is a scam and should be
deleted. Radio Amateurs of Canada will never ask people to download files from a third-party site in
their email communication. Always check to see if the sender of a suspicious email has an @rac.ca
email address as all RAC officials use @rac as their domain.
If you are concerned or suspicious always contact the RAC office before opening any files in an
email message that appears to come from RAC.
Alan Griffin, RAC MarCom Director
— RAC bulletin
ONTARIO SECTION NEWS
ITEMS OF INTEREST
2. Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) ( October 14, 2023 )
The SEQP is a typical ham radio contest for those who wish to makes tens, hundreds or even
thousands of CW, SSB and digital mode QSOs on 160-6 meters during the 2023 and 2024
solar eclipses. Each QSO will become one of millions of data points which will help researchers
answer science questions about ionospheric variability. Please pre-register if you will take part.
Pre-register form: https://hamsci.org/contest-info#PreRegis
SEQP FAQs http://hamsci.org/seqp-faqs
SEQP Rules https://hamsci.org/seqp-rules
— HamSci.org
3. Join us for the 1st Ever Wisconsin POTA Campout!
Parks on the Air and camping is a great combination and if you love both of those activities,
I invite you to attend our first ever Wisconsin POTA campout on October 13-15, 2023 at the
Clear Lake campground in the Northern Highlands American Legion State Forest (POTA K-7260).
Your hosts, Michael KB9VBR, Travis W9HDG, and Joe KD9CJX have been getting together
for an autumn campout for a few years. Parks on the Air has been always been a highlight of these
adventures. This year we are opening up our campout to the greater POTA community. This event
will be part social activity and part Parks on the Air activation. You can activate as little or as much
as you want, in whatever mode you choose. The sky is the limit. Learn new skills, see now other
hams operate, and learn how to deal with interference when a bunch of hams get on the air at the
same time. That’s always part of the fun. The weekend is guaranteed to be a blast.
Camp the entire weekend or just come out for the day/evening. We’d love to have you either way.
The campground is located off of State Hwy 47 between Woodruff and Lake Tomahawk Wisconsin
— Amateur Radio Daily News
4. New LoRA Distance Record: 830 Miles!
The LoRa radio communication system is useful for low-bandwidth communication, and as many
readers will be aware its special skill lies in delivering long range. For most of us that range tops
out at a few miles, but pushing the limits of what is possible for LoRa has resulted in some significant
records falling. Most recently this has reached an impressive distance of 1336 kilometres.
The record in question was set from near the Portuguese coast, from where LoRa beacons on a
fishing boat and its buoys were able to open up a gateway on the Spanish Canary islands. The
conductive surface of the sea makes an excellent aid to propagation, and from amateur radio
experience we’d guess that tropospheric conditions aided by the summer weather would have
something to do with it too.
via Blog – Hackaday https://hackaday.com/2023/09/15/new-lora-distance-record-830-miles/
This concludes this week’s bulletin.
Bulletin sent from Official Bulletin Manager VA3PC
RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for September 30, 2023
