It’s Field Day time again, where amateur radio operators get to showcase and practice their emergency communication by setting up and operating a radio station under impromptu or unusual conditions.
Once again, local pandemic conditions have restricted access to our usual preferred site, so we are adapting by once again setting up a hybrid operation.
The club station VE6FAR will be on air as a 5E station on emergency power, operated by Vince VE6LK and Dann VE6TD, along with some guest operators.
Operators that wish to join in the live action can attend on site and operate out of the Okotoks Composite High School parking lot on Woodhaven Drive. A logging computer and wireless access can be provided. Contact Vince or Dann for details.
A Zoom video conference call will be set up and open starting at 11:30 MDT for those wishing to join.
[call has ended]
When joining, please be sure to set your name and call sign in your Zoom client.
Feel free to drop in and encourage the operating team at any time during the 24 hour event.
Into the late hours Saturday, you may find the team has signed off for the night. If so, come back to the Zoom session Sunday morning some time.
FARS/Cycle25 Winter Field Day 2022
Winter Field Day is January 29th and 30th, running noon Saturday to noon Sunday, Mountain Standard Time.
FARS will be taking part under similar Covid restrictions as last year, and your support is needed.
We will be doing an all virtual event, including the VE6FAR station spanning and operated by the VE6LK and VE6TD stations. This includes combined, network-based logging.
We will have a Zoom conference call open during the entire event for anyone to drop in and visit. Winter Field Day is, after all, a very fun and social event.
The Zoom meeting is on the air. Kindly ensure you set your name with your call sign when joining the call so we recognize you and admit you.
Meeting ID: 862 0611 1266
the password wfd22@FARS
We have prepared an operating and logging guide for our participants. It describes the very important submission process and details of the participants’ logs, and how to make sure your entry and your score is counted toward the overall VE6FAR Cycle25 club score.
Last year we had 9 team members amassing a combined 14,754 points. Our aim this year is to blow past that total in the first few hours of the event.
There have been some changes to the WFD rules this year, most notably imposing a maximum output power of 100W for all stations. And FT-8 is still not permitted. Logs are due March 1.
Additional points are available for anyone operating QRP.
For more information about Winter Field Day rules take a look at the official website www.winterfieldday.com
VE6HRP offline
Please be advised that the VE6HRP repeater and the BURMIS digipeater located in Burmis is offline. Watch this website for further updates.
VE6HRB Hub Upgrade Complete
The VE6HRB hub repeater upgrade was completed July 25.
The upgrade brings some improvements to the network, most notably better receive sensitivity, and higher transmit power for better link performance to all VHF repeaters. We also have better voice announcements and remote manageability.
Another round of small enhancements is planned, but with minimal service interruptions.
Many thanks to the technical members who assisted on site:
VE6QLT, VA6IAB, VE6LK, VE6AZX, VE6TD
Planned Maintenance Outage – July 25
The FARS Technical Team will be performing an upgrade to the UHF hub repeater on Sunday July 25 between 10AM and 4PM.
This will affect the entire network where all repeater links will be disabled.
There will be an outage to the VE6HRB VHF repeater.
All other FARS VHF repeaters will continue to operate in standalone mode.
Winlink Node VE6FAR-11 Offline
The node no longer has internet connectivity over the AREDN mesh network to reach the Winlink CMS servers, so it returns a “no CMS available” error when connecting. The RF portion remains functional, but it can not be used to send or receive messages.
The VE6FAR-10 node in Calgary remains fully operational.
IRLP Node 1483 Update: On the Air
FARS’ IRLP Node 1483 has been successfully moved to its new home at the VA6CTV repeater site.
It is now on 446.150MHz with a 110.9Hz tone.
The coverage is expected be similar to the voice repeater, but with slightly reduced distance.
Winlink Update
FARS has stood up another Winlink node, this time in Calgary, to enhance our growing Winlink network and add to our coverage area.
Node ID : VE6FAR-10
Freq: 431.000 MHz
Baud: 1200
Protocol: Packet Winlink (AX.25)
In addition, the High River node has been renamed
Node ID : VE6FAR-11
Freq: 431.000 MHz
Baud: 1200
Protocol: Packet Winlink (AX.25)
To provide a better coverage footprint, we’ve added a digipeater at the Aldersyde repeater site southeast of Calgary in the MD of Foothills, also on 431.000MHz. It is named VE6HRA-8.
This digipeater allows Winlink users to access either node.
The combined coverage area is
Joel VE6EI and Dann VE6TD recently presented an introduction to Winlink and a live demo to the SASTAR group. The slide deck is available here: Winlink Intro and Demo
IRLP Node 1483 On The Move
FARS’ IRLP Node 1483 is in the process of being moved to its new home at the VA6CTV repeater site.
Along with the move comes a new frequency assignment and an improved coverage area.
It is presently off the air – stay tuned to this page for updates.
VE6FIL Repeater Upgraded
FARS’ UHF repeater VE6FIL has been upgraded with new hardware, and now includes the Wires-X capability locally.
The repeater remains in C4FM (Fusion) mode exclusively.
Users are able to connect the repeater to various rooms and other Wires-X nodes using the Wires-X key on their radios. These connections time out after 1 hour if there is no local RF traffic.
FARS wishes to thank Greg and the team at GPS Central for the donation of the Wires-X HRI-200 interface that made this part of the project possible. We want to further acknowledge Steven, VA6DWF, who has provided Wires-X connectivity on this repeater in the past.