I visited BCIT (The British Columbia Institute of Technology) ARC location today to test a microwave data shot on 5.8 GHz. Until recently we had a 2.4 GHz VINE link between the BCIT ARC station and the BCWARN hub-site on the roof of the WAC Bennett library at Simon Fraser University, however the VINE at the SFU side started producing noise on the VE7RBY repeater. Instead of tracking the noise source down to a specific stage of the VINE radio, we opted to swap it out for a newer, higher capacity, and much cheaper Ubiquity radio.

Thanks for checking it out. Hopefully before long I can put up more videos of this going up on the tower.

73 – Bob, VE7WNK

I added a 20 meter element to the vertical by simply extending the element and adding tuned radials. I needed to shorten it multiple times, and the final length was probably closer to 15ft than 16+ like the calculations called for.

Here are some videos from my test with the two configurations of this antenna.

20:

How do you key the next track, show that you are on air, mute the studio monitors, answer the phone and show when it is ringing? Easy… With this:

It is a work in progress…

Here is the audio from my call with Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, regarding unlicensed use of the two meter band by paragliders.

We were discussing a bulletin released by RAC discussing this matter. http://rac.ca/en/news/bulletins/2012/49/ Dave was working up at a repeater site in Penticton BC which was just a few kilometers from a launch site being used for the Canadian Paragliding National Championships 2012. The issue started when Dave heard the traffic and noticed that there was no identification happening. Dave was not too concerned until he did a little research and found that on the organizer’s rule book for the event they had required that all pilots use a frequency in the ham bands.

8. Communication
8.1 Safety frequency is 146.415 MHz. All pilots must have radios equipped to receive and transmit on this frequency.
8.2 All pilots must submit cellphone numbers during registration.
A cell phone is required so that the organizers can ensure communication with a pilot in case of failure to report at the end the day’s task.
8.3 For pilots using SPOTS, contact information will be given out during registration.

RAC has engaged IC who reminded the group of the requirement to hold proper certifications and the group agreed to do their best to comply. The organizers did mention that it was particularly difficult to police this as they have no idea who is and who is not a licensed operator. Dave did go through the list of names and found that of the Canadian participants, at least 40% of their names were found in the RAC callsign database.