All posts by va7mpg

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Aussie Fires And APRS

If you are interested in seeing the location of the fires in Australia the APRS site will provide that information for you. Go to the search bar on the site and type in the city in Australia you are interested in. Not only will you see the various ham stations, but also the locations of the fires of which they have a lot. The site is aprs.fi

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[RAC-Bulletin] Update on the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Program



There have been some recent developments with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) program in Canada.

First, a bit of background. There are four levels of ARES organization: National, Section, District and Local. Sections are geographically-based administrative units organized to deliver RAC services to non-government organizations and governments through the ARES program.

The senior RAC official in each Section is the Section Manager (SM). The SM appoints a Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) for the Section. The SEC, in turn, appoints District Emergency Coordinators (DEC) for each region. DECs, in turn, appoint Emergency Coordinators for each city in their District.

The ARRL and RAC both have Sections and – as in the case of some other administrative structures that RAC inherited from the ARRL as a result of our shared history – the functions of our Sections have changed over the years to meet our particular circumstances.

In 2012, RAC divided the previous Ontario Section into four distinct Sections because the province was too large for one SM to manage. As a result the Ontario North, Ontario East, Ontario GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and Ontario South Sections were born.

Recently, ARES groups in the City of Hamilton and in the Regional Municipality of Niagara indicated that it would be beneficial for them to move from the Ontario South Section into the Ontario GTA Section.

Niagara and Hamilton are located on the west and southwest borders of the GTA Section and both groups have a history of working with the GTA teams on Simulated Emergency Tests (SETs) and many public service events. As a result, the border between the Ontario South and Greater Toronto Area Sections is being moved to better reflect operational needs within ARES and its served agencies.

Effective April 1, Amateurs in the City of Hamilton and in the Regional Municipality of Niagara will from then on be in the Greater Toronto Area Section, not the Ontario South section as before.

In addition, RAC members in Prince Edward Island have been working for some time to create a separate section for RAC ARES activities in their province. I am happy to report that their work has been successful and we are now seeking a Section Manager, a key step in establishing the new PE Section (see page 58 of the January-February 2020 TCA). Once elected, the new SM will start a two-year term on April 1, 2020.

In the future, the Maritimes Section that had earlier coordinated the ARES activities in the three Maritime provinces will continue to be responsible for the activities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the new PE Section will deal with the activities on Prince Edward Island. We look forward to reading about the new PE Section in the Public Service / ARES column and in the Section News in upcoming issues of TCA.

Additional information will be posted at the following link when it is available:

https://www.rac.ca/ares-sections/

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
RAC President and Chair

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[RAC-Bulletin] January-February 2020 eTCA now available

Happy New Year! Welcome to the January-February 2020 issue of The Canadian Amateur.
The electronic TCA (eTCA) version of the January-February 2020 TCA is now available for viewing or download.
The print version is now at the printer but will be delayed due to the closure – both at the printer and at Canada Post – for the Christmas holidays.
To download your copy please visit: https://www.rac.ca/digitaltca/

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US FCC Issues Largest Fine Ever $450,000



From the ARRL Letter of December 2019



From the ARRL Letter of December 2019

The FCC has proposed fining an alleged pirate broadcaster in the Boston, Massachusetts area more than $450,000. According to the FCC, Gerlens Cesar, who operated
Radio TeleBoston, used three separate transmitters for his broadcasting enterprise,
resulting in three separate violations of the law.”The Commission proposed imposing
the statutory maximum forfeiture amount for each of these three apparent violations,”
the FCC said in a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) released on December 12. Under the Communications Act, it is illegal to transmit above certain low-power levels,
defined within FCC Part 15 rules, without an FCC license.”Such pirate radio broadcasting can interfere with licensed communications including public safety transmissions,” the FCC said. The FCC said Cesar apparently simulcasts Radio TeleBoston on three unauthorized transmitters on two different frequencies. “His operation thus had the
potential to cause interference in various locations in and around Boston and at
different channels on the FM dial,” the FCC said. “As a result of the scale of this operation, its potential impacts, and its continuous nature, the Commission proposed the
maximum penalty for all three transmitters.”The FCC reported receiving complaints
from Boston-area residents of an illegal station operating at both 90.1 and 92.1 MHz. One complaint identified Cesar as the operator of Radio TeleBoston. The FCC said it had issued multiple warnings. — FCC Media Release