Club News

HRB Repeater Outage Notification

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Jan 7 2025 Update

Members of the FARS Executive Team attended the VE6HRB hub repeater site at Nanton today and assessed that a serious failure has occurred which has taken both the VHF and UHF repeaters off the air. This event has also affected the ‘NANTON’ APRS digipeater.

Fortunately (except for VE6HRB) each of the other FARS repeaters remain operational for local communications, in stand-alone mode only. This will continue for an indeterminate period of time.

The FARS Technical Team is presently investigating an interim solution to return our radio network to at least a semi-operational state, thus allowing us to re-link some of the repeaters.

We will post further updates as they develop.

We thank our members for their patience during the network interruption.

Notice of Network Outage

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Please be advised that the FARS VE6HRB Hub Site has suffered an outage, resulting in both the VHF and UHF repeaters being off the air. The cause of the outage is currently unknown.

As a result, all other FARS repeaters remain fully operational, however they are all stand-alone and no longer linked together.

With the current state of the snow pack locally as an example, it is expected to be worse at the hilltop site, therefore access via conventional road vehicle is expected to be impaired, or even impossible.
Now if only someone had a Nodwell. Or a dog sled… 

VE6HRC Operational; Replacement is Complete

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As of October 24 2024, the repeater VE6HRC at Millarville has been returned to operation.

As announced earlier, and in conjunction with the frequency change of VE6HRA at Aldersyde, repeater VE6HRC is on the air with it’s new frequency 147.000 MHz with a plus offset and both PL and CTCSS tone of 110.9 Hz.

In addition to the voice repeater, we’ve added an APRS Digipeater at the site. The digipeater tactical name is QUIRK and will provide good fill-in coverage into the broad McLean Creek recreational area.

Many thanks to Dale VA6DD and Vince VE6LK for the on-site support and assistance with the installation. Here’s your happy crew after the work was done, and the outcome of the project.

As one more reminder now that this big network change is complete, now is a good time to reprogram your radio memories to reflect these new repeater frequencies.

VE6HRA Frequency Change Sept 22 2024

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As previously mentioned, the frequency of the Aldersyde repeater VE6HRA has been changed on Sunday Sept 22.

The frequency is now 145.190- 110.9Hz PL and CTCSS

Please update your radio memories to reflect this change and to make it easier to remember the frequency.

VE6HRA Repeater Planned Update – Frequency Change

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In the mid-September timeframe, the repeater VE6HRA at Aldersyde will acquire a new frequency.

It will change from 147.000+ 100Hz to 145.190- with 110.9Hz tone.

You may recognize this frequency, as it was formerly used at VE6HRC.

 The Aldersyde repeater callsign VE6HRA remains the same, as it is associated with the repeater location, and not the frequency. The A means Aldersyde.

So you may wonder about the 147.000 frequency pair and the Millarville repeater…
The obvious assumption would be that 147.000 gets moved to VE6HRC, and that is correct.

Why are we doing this? 
To accommodate the addition of an APRS digipeater at VE6HRC, the frequency separation between 144.390 for APRS and the input to VE6HRC is simply too close for us to be able to multi-couple into our antenna. So the frequency swap becomes necessary.

What does this mean?

Quite simply, you’ll want to reprogram your radio memory channels to reflect these changes.

Get out your manuals and programming software, and change away.
It’s always good practice to do this once in a while. Sometimes it takes someone to give you a reason to do so. So here is that reason…

When is this change taking place?
VE6HRA at Aldersyde will be changed first, some time in September. The exact date will be posted on FARS.ca in advance of the change.
The replacement repeater VE6HRC in Millarville in the lab now, and will be installed some time in late September or into mid-October, but a date has not been set at this time.

Exciting Network Changes Are Coming

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Starting in the month of September, some exciting changes are coming to the FARS Repeater Network. 

These changes will extend into October, as they are a little complicated and require coordination of several activities affecting two repeaters at two different sites.

The first change is the addition of an APRS digipeater at the VE6HRC repeater site at Quirk Creek, west of Millarville. A digipeater at this location will greatly enhance APRS coverage in a highly popular recreational area where numerous FARS members play. SOTA activators will also gain benefit by being able to post activation spots over APRS.

The next change is the VE6HRC voice repeater, which is being replaced with new radios and a new controller due to the failure of the previous system.

But wait, there’s more…

Watch for our next update in the coming weeks.

VE6HRA Aldersyde Repeater Update

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On Sunday August 11 2024, the VE6HRA repeater at Aldersyde/Gladys Ridge remediation was completed and the repeater is back to normal operation.
The original repeater, which had failed some time ago, was repaired. During the repairs, it was discovered that the repeater controller also had developed a fault, so it was also replaced.

VE6HRC Millarville Repeater Update

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The VE6HRC repeater was running in a compromised state, and unlinked from the FARS network for a while. Vince VE6LK and I attended the repeater site this week to assess the situation. We found good news and bad news. Antennas and feedlines are ok, but not the radio components.

We retrieved the radio gear to allow us to develop a new repeater package for the site.

Further to this visit, the suggestion to add APRS at the site is closer to reality, in a physical sense. I still need to work out the frequency spacing, which will be challenging.

FARS/Cycle25 Winter Field Day 2022

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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