NCAARC will be partnering again to provide radio communication during the Tour de l’Alberta on Sunday, July 22, 2012. The event starts off at the Town of Morinville (minutes north of St. Albert). This is Alberta’s largest single day recreational bicycle ride including distances of 20 km, 50 km, 100 km, or 180 km. The event also has a 5 km Kids Mini-Tour!

Radio communication during the event plays a critical role in the success and safety of each participant. Volunteering for this event is really good practice for how you might respond in an emergency as there are opportunities that give operators really good practical field experience. Your time and efforts will be appreciated and rewarded. On the day of the event, there will be food and drink supplied for you.

We are in need of volunteer radio operators to help make this event a success and you don’t need to be a NCAARC member to participate. There will be numerous positions that will need filling including: Command Post; Stationary Check Points, and Roving.
Check out the area maps:

20 KM Route
50 KM Route
100 KM Route
180 KM Route

Communication information will be posted as we get closer to the event date. For more information on the Tour de l’Alberta, visit their website at http://www.tourdalberta.ca.

To register as a radio volunteer for the ride, please contact Dave GERVAIS (VE6KD) via Email or call him directly at (780) 939-2938.

NCAARC members are reminded that we are participating in the RAC 2012 Canada Day Contest (0000 UTC to 2359 UTC July 1, 2012). Dave GERVAIS (VE6KD) will be hosting the event from his contest station north of St. Albert and we are once again honoured to be an official RAC station, VE6RAC, in the Multi-Operator Multi-Transmitter category.

If you are interested in helping out behind the microphone during this 24 hour event, please contact Dave.

If you make contact with us, remember that RAC official stations are worth 20 points during the contest.

This past Saturday – May 12, the City of Edmonton Emergency Preparedness department hosted the annual Get Ready in the Park event in Hawrelak Park.  This event is hosted as part of emergency preparedness week. ARES Edmonton has a presence at this event each year and it is a great opportunity to demonstrate to the general public what Amateur Radio is all about.

This year a couple of our members assisted with setting up, manning the demonstrations, and tearing down.  As one of those members it was a great experience as it was almost like a field day.  Most of the equipment onsite was set up in the morning and torn down in the evening.  The Northern Alberta Radio Club had their communications trailer on site as well which was used as a portable repeater to cover the park, as well as a home base for net control.

An hourly net was held on VHF/UHF via the SARA backbone.  Net Control was alternated between Edmonton and Red Deer.  Red Deer was also hosting an event at Red Deer College so it was a great way to demonstrate how flexible we can be in the event of an emergency.  Nets were also held hourly on 40M and 80M.

Some technologies that were demonstrated were:

• Winlink (http://www.winlink.org)
• DSTAR
• HF
• IRLP

All in all it was a great day had by all – even if the wind turned our tents into a giant sail (knocking over a few tables in the process, but I believe all gear survived).

Below are some pictures of the event.

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On May 6th, ten members from NCAARC assisted NARC with the communications for the 2nd Annual Leading Edge RunWild Marathon held in St. Albert. Events included the Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K, and the WildOnes Kids MaraFun.

Club members were set up at various locations throughout the race and provided routine and emergency radio communication support for the event.

A big thank you goes out to NARC for taking the lead on this St. Albert community event!

Members present were:  John (VE6HEP), Andrew (VA6AWS), Mark (VE6BHO), Tom (VE6PTL), Hans (VE6HBA), Garry (VA6GB), ED (VE6ULH), Ken (VE6KCF), Steve (VE6STE), and Kelly (VA6UC).

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