RAC would like to welcome Allan Boyd, VE3AJB, as our new Director for the Ontario North/East Region. Allan was recently appointed by the RAC Board of Directors as the Director for Ontario North/East to fill the vacant position of RAC’s newly elected President Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA. He will complete the remainder of a two-year term that started in January 2015 and will end on December 31, 2016.

Allan was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and his family moved to Ontario after he graduated from high school. After completing his post-secondary education, he joined the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). In fact, Allan just retired as a Senior Officer on December 31, 2016 after 35 years of public service to the people of Ontario. Allan resides in Little Current, Ontario with his wife Judy of 33 years of marriage.

Allan was first licensed as an Amateur in the summer of 1987 with the call sign VE3AJB and he joined both the Canadian Amateur Radio Federation (CARF) and the Canadian Radio Relay League (CRRL). A year later he obtained his Advanced licence with 20 WPM Morse code endorsement. Allan was a founding member of the Manitoulin Amateur Radio Club in 1988. He has held many Executive positions in the club and is currently serving as its President.

In 1993, Allan became a member of Radio Amateurs of Canada when CARF and the CRRL merged to form a national society. He became a Volunteer Examiner for Industry Canada and taught many Amateur Radio courses. Allan was appointed as Emergency Coordinator for ARES for the District of Manitoulin. His experience with emergency planning was one of his duties as an OPP officer and he established an Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) plan for emergency responders and municipalities which is still in use today.

Allan has held many positions with Radio Amateurs of Canada including: Net Manager for the ARES HF Net; Official Bulletin Station Manager; Section Manager; Assistant Director; and Deputy Director. He was instrumental in reorganizing the ARES Districts to align them with Emergency Management Ontario (EMO), and in 2012 he became the Section Manger for Ontario North (ONN) when the Ontario Region was realigned. In addition to serving as the new RAC Director for the Ontario North/East Region, Allan will continue to serve as the Section Manager for Ontario North.

Allan maintains many repeater systems for the Manitoulin area and enjoys HF and VHF/UHF communications. He also serves as Net Control for the Canadian D-Star Net on Friday nights, which averages about 70 to 80 checkins from all over the world.

Allan plans to stay in Little Current during his retirement and devote his time to RAC and Amateur Radio.