So it’s been a little quiet on the news front on the site and I apologize for that. Even though it was the holiday season there has been quite a bit happening. Probably one of the biggest is the trailer being decaled. Steve Pedersen put in many hours working with The Patch Man to design a layout that would work with the graphics and the design of the trailer. We have a very sharp looking trailer now!

Steve P. took some pictures of the trailer during the install process which you can see below. We’ll work on getting some pictures outside once it warms up and a bit and we can wash the trailer.

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The next steps on the trailer will be outfitting the inside. Gary is currently working on a mount for the fridge so that it isn’t bouncing around all over while it’s on the road. Currently the trailer is having an additional cabinet installed above one of the work tables which is likely where a lot of the radio and power gear will be mounted. Once it is safe to be up on the roof antennas will be installed.

A few of us participated in the Radio Amateurs of Canada Winter Contest. Dave – VE6KD  hosted the lot of us at his contest station. Thank you Dave for the use of your equipment, space, and a special thanks to your wife for providing us food while we were there. Also thank you to David Doyle for bringing the snacks for us to munch on while working the band and for taking some of the pictures you will see featured below.

All in all it was a great contest. The bands were open and we managed to rack up a decent amount of points. We had a total of 6 operators which were; VE6KD, VA6AWS, VE6EFR, VE6AMT, VE6STE, and VE6HEP. We completed in the multi-operator, multi-transmitter category using the callsign VE6KD.

Here is the unoffical summary of the results.

The North Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club was recognized for its contribution of time and talents in providing the communications for the Tour de l’Alberta held last July,  at  a brunch sponsored by the Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club on November 25 at the Executive Royal Inn in Edmonton.

“This event owes a great deal of its success to the services provided by these volunteers.”  said Dan Boonstra, co-ordinator of the Tour de l’Alberta bicycle event which this year attracted over 1,300 participants.

The Radio Club coordinated all communicatons between the base and each of the ten rest stops throughout the counties of Westlock and Sturgeon.  Volunteers were stationed at each location and managed all requests for rider pickups, food transfers, supplies delivery, and first aid.  A motorcycle sweep, a roving operator and base personnel were also provided.

This is the fourth year of NCAARC involvement.  We look forward to participating in the next Tour de l’Alberta which will be held July 21,2013.

Below are some pictures of the event.

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Below is a message from Dave Gervais who spent many hours organizing everything to allow us to provide support for this event. Thanks to all who helped out and a special thanks to Dave for all the hard work. Below you will also find a gallery of photos from the day of the event courtesy of Steve Pedersen.

Hello,

On behalf of NCAARC, I wish to thank each and everyone for volunteering your time for last weekend’s Tour de l’Alberta event. The tour was a great success, thanks to all of you. All traffic was handled quickly and very professionally. The person announcing each event made a point to give credit to NCAARC for doing the radio communications; this was wonderful promotion for our radio club.

Members who participated were: Tom Lauder – VE6PTL; Al Roth – VE6ALR; Ernie Clintberg – VE6EC; Dave Cope – VE6AVJ; Denis Coolican – VE6AQ; Garry Bukowiecki – VA6GB; Hans Kruse – VE6HBA; John Heppleston – VE6HEP; Bart Vinkenborg – VE6VB; Lyle Moulton – VE6EMF; Paul Gervais – VE6PGA; Stephen Johnson – VE6CYR; Lorne Hawrelak – VE7BB; Dennis Lukawesky – VE6DI; Neil Smith – VE6AZA; Adrien Timmer – VE6AMT ; Norm Dust – VE6NHD; Steve Pedersen – VE6STE, and Dave Gervais – VE6KD.

Later this fall there will be an appreciation brunch for all volunteers. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

73
Dave
VE6KD

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