The meeting schedule for 2022 has been posted on the meetings page  https://fars.ca/meetings/

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 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

FARS now has a Winlink node in High River, co-located with the VA6HRH repeater.

This relay node interfaces with the Winlink CMS nodes on the Internet using the AREDN mesh network, relaying your messages originating over RF to the Winlink servers.

Node ID : VE6OKT-10
Freq: 431.000 MHz
Baud: 1200
Protocol: Connect via Packet Winlink

The radio and TNC part of the system is battery powered, and the server is powered by a monitored UPS.

With thanks to Stephen, Ty, and Wade, the team and I made a trip through deep and drifting snow to the repeater network hub site. A provisional transmitter was installed, returning the network to an operational state, with the all repeaters linked again.