Register now for the RAC Advanced Course: Winter/Spring 2021
https://www.rac.ca/rac-online-advanced-course-winter-2021/
RAC's next online Advanced Certificate course for Winter/Spring 2021 is filling up quickly.
Since May 2020, 400 Radio Amateurs across Canada have used this course to prepare for the Advanced exam.
This instructor-led, 10-session course will begin in early February and end in early May. You can choose to attend either the Sunday afternoon sessions or the Monday evening sessions.
Background information:
In response to the global pandemic, Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio Course so that individuals can upgrade their qualifications while continuing to practise social/physical distancing.
With your Advanced Certificate, you can run higher power, operate a remotely-controlled station, obtain operating privileges when travelling overseas, set up repeaters, be the trustee for club stations and even become an Accredited Examiner (AE).
Course information:
The course will be 10 sessions in length and each session will be two hours long.
In order to offer maximum flexibility, we will be running two Advanced courses so students will be able to choose one of the following two options:
- Sunday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm EDT (12 pm PDT) starting on Sunday, February 7 and ending on Sunday, May 2
Or
- Monday evenings from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm EDT (5:30 PDF) starting on Monday, February 8 and ending on Monday, May 3
Note: There will be no sessions on February 14 -15, March 28-29 and April 4-5.
Course Instruction:
The course instructor is Dave Goodwin, VE9CB. Dave has been an Amateur since 1975, is an active HF Contester and DXer and his DXpedition to Point Amour Lighthouse was featured on the front cover of the November-December 2020 issue of The Canadian Amateur. Dave has also been a long-time volunteer at the national level and has served as the RAC President and as the RAC Director for the Atlantic Region. Since 2015, he has also has been teaching Basic and Advanced certification courses with the Fredericton (NB) Amateur Radio Club.
Course material pertaining to all topics covered in the course syllabus will be provided to all registered students and is available online at:
https://www.rac.ca/rac-online-advanced-course-winter-2021/
Course Requirements:
The RAC Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio course is being offered at no charge to RAC Maple Leaf Operator Members – both current and future as described below.
Participants in the course will need to meet all of the following requirements:
- Participants must already have the Canadian Basic Amateur Radio Qualification and a Canadian call sign.
- Participants must already be a RAC Maple Leaf Operator Member or become one by joining RAC at the Maple Leaf Operator level or upgrading to that level.
- Participants must have a copy of the Canadian Amateur Radio Advanced Qualification Study Guide provided by Coax Publications. For more information please visit the RAC Study Guides webpage.
- Participants must have a computer and Internet connection capable of using the GoToMeeting (GTM) conference platform. You do not need your own account on GTM to take part in this course, but you will have to download an applet from the GTM site to participate.
- Participants must have a working email address to receive course materials and links to the sessions.
There is room on the conference server for 200 participants in each session. Auditors are welcome to attend on a space-available basis, provided they are RAC Maple Leaf Operator members. You can sign up by following the instructions on the Winter 2021 Advanced Course Registration Page.
Other Amateur Radio Courses:
Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.
https://www.rac.ca/amateur-radio-courses/
Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
RAC President and Chair
Thursday, January 21, 2021 is our next scheduled NORAC club meeting.
The event will be held online using Skype and starts at 7:30 PM.
For more information and to get set up and ready to attend, please review this news article.
73 and hope to see you virtually,
NORAC Executive
As a resident of British Columbia, Canada, if you are at all interested in HF contesting, or love it when people want to talk to you, consider participating in the BC QSO Party this year.
Last year, Kevin VE7XY, Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ experienced the fun firsthand. Check out their event report here. Kevin picked a gorgeous roving location to operate and the pics were so good that they were featured in ARRL's National Contesting Journal publication.
The BC QSO Party event is put on by Orca DX Contest Club. You can find the rules for the event here: http://www.orcadxcc.org/bcqp_rules.html
The schedule for this year's event is very civilized (no overnight required):
February 6-7, 2020
Two Segments:
1. Starts 1600z Saturday, Feb. 6 -- Ends 0359z Sunday, Feb. 7 (effectively 8 AM - 8 PM local time)
2. Starts 1600z Sunday -- Ends 2359z Sunday, Feb. 7 (effectively 8 AM to 4 PM local time)
Make sure your 80m setup is tuned up as one of the primary goals of the event is to QSO with others in BC.
Also, brush up on your 42 BC electoral districts ahead of time. If you call out and get responses from British Columbians who are new to the event, you'll be helping figure out what electoral district they are in.
And then, obviously, know your own district so you are ready for the exchange with all of the local and international participants who want to QSO with you.
If you have any questions about the event, the BC QSO Party coordinator is Rebecca VA7BEC. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
If you are thinking about doing a roving setup and want to run your plan by someone, shoot This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. an email.
Hope to hear you on the air,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Vice-President, Technical Coordinator and planned 2021 roving BCQP participant
Please visit https://www.winterfieldday.com/ for full details.
From the updated rule book for 2021, we note:
Covid 19 Pandemic scoring changes for Clubs/Groups:
These changes apply ONLY to groups who, due to the Pandemic, won’t/can’t be congregating to compete this year. If your group wishes, you may have a “group/club” score tallied by having individual members fill in the “CLUB:” line in their Cabrillo log file (above). Individual members would send in a log under their own callsign (operating under their own privileges) with the name or callsign of the group noted on the “CLUB:” line. If a simple callsign is used in the “club” line, it cannot be one used in the contest or on another member’s entry log (it’ll confuse the scoring software). If your group uses a club name, be sure to advise everyone in your group to use the exact same unique name. Choose wisely Grasshopper! There are dozens of clubs with the same abbreviation (as in LARC, PARC, etc), but it’s unlikely there’s more than one Livonia ARC, or Lincoln ARC. Club scores will be the aggregate of the individual members’ scores, regardless of how they operated ad will be posted as distinct “Club/Group” scores once tallied. Your individual members’ logs and scores will be tallied and posted as well (each under their own call), the same as any other entrant. It might be a good idea to have someone in your club/group collect members’ logs and check them to ensure the logs are correct before sending them in. It’ll save us time and you aggravation. “Club/Group” scores will likely be the last to be posted as we can’t be sure all the individual logs are in until the actual log deadline.
It would be great to have all NORAC participants add the "CLUB:" line to their Cabrillo logs.
If you would like to have your personal score added to the club score, please add the line:
CLUB: North Okanagan Radio Amateur Club
to your Cabrillo log file submission.
Hope to work you during the event,
Mike VE7KPZ