Featured Items
Field Day 2025 (28-29 June 2025)
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- Category: Public Information
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RAC/ARRL Field Day 2025 is rapidly approaching. Last year, the Society did not participate although some local amateur radio operators may have. Our last station was in 2023, pictured above, two months before the wildfire evacuations. Field Day is an opportunity for local amateur radio operators to become "radioactive" and test and experiment with old and new equipment and try out experiments. It is also a chance to exercise emergency preparedness skills. We are there independent of government and of the regular infrastructure of a modern society. The technology we use is modern but build upon technology that is considered by many to be obsolete. But it is resilient to natural and man-made disasters. We are not dependent on StarLink... Details follow (from ARRL https://www.arrl.org/field-day#rules )
Wildfire Report for Wildfires of 2023
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- Category: Civil Defence
- Hits: 196
The After Action Review Northwest Territories 2023 Wildfire Season: Final Report produced by Transitional Solutions Inc. is now available online at: https://www.maca.gov.nt.ca/sites/maca/files/resources/nwt_after-action_review_-_bilingual.pdf . The report is 164 pages. There is significant discussion of the role of the Incident Command System (ICS).
The Society has no comments in respect of this or previous reports. The amateur radio community was active in maintaining radio communications locally and globally for the entire period from about May to October 2023. Local amateur radio operators maintain their stations which are capable of running on emergency power and independent of infrastructure (whether hydro, phone lines, fibre optic cable or satellites). The troposphere is generally always there (and if it is not, well...that would be the end of the Anthropocene epoch). The Society also continued to operate its repeater network based in Yellowknife and Behchokǫ̀ with coverage 40 km outside of Behchokǫ̀ all the way to Tibbet Lake and well into Great Slave Lake (Inner Whalebacks).
Notice of Annual General Meeting
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- Category: Society Governance
- Hits: 1484
[2025-04-23] In accordance with Part G, section 1 of the Constitution of the Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society, the Executive has announced that the Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held as follows:
- Place: Javaroma on Franklin (50th Avenue) [Nortwestel Tower]
- Time: 0900 h
- Date: Sunday, 6 July 2025
We need a quorum of 3. This is your chance to take a leadership role in the Society.
RAC Will Not Attend Hamvention this Year
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- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 192
For immediate release | Pour diffusion immédiate
April 8, 2025 | avril 8, 2025
At its meeting on March 27, 2025, the Board of Directors of Radio Amateurs of Canada voted unanimously to cancel RAC’s plans to operate a booth at Hamvention (Dayton) in Xenia, Ohio in May. This decision was not taken lightly and was made with deep regret as our members and volunteers always look forward to attending this significant international event.
Lors de sa réunion du 27 mars 2025, le Conseil d’administration de Radio Amateurs du Canada a voté à l’unanimité l’annulation du projet de RAC de tenir un kiosque à la “Hamvention” (Dayton) organisée en mai à Xenia, en Ohio. Cette décision n’a pas été prise à la légère et a été rendue avec un profond regret, car nos membres et bénévoles ont toujours hâte d’assister à cet important événement international.
The relationship between Canada and the United States has become increasingly strained due to recent trade disputes and tariffs imposed by the US government. Adding to these challenges, controversial remarks from US leaders, including suggestions of Canada becoming the 51st state, have heightened concerns about Canadian sovereignty.
Les relations entre le Canada et les États-Unis sont de plus en plus tendues en raison des récents différends commerciaux et des tarifs douaniers imposés par le gouvernement américain. En plus de ces défis, les remarques controversées faites par divers dirigeants américains, au nombre desquelles les suggestions selon lesquelles le Canada deviendrait le 51e État, ont accru les inquiétudes concernant la souveraineté canadienne.
Voice of America Developments (DOGE Target)
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- Category: Public Information
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[Update 2025-05-17] NPR reports that a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from dismantling VOA temporarily. The latest developments as reported by Wiki (up to 2025-05-06) and based on a report from Reuters:
On April 22, 2025, a federal ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Trump administration to restore VOA and return its employees and contractors to work.[151] On May 3, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit blocked the ruling in a 2-1 decision citing a lack of jurisdiction by the district court.[152]
On May 6, 2025, Kari Lake announced that One America News (OAN), a far-right, pro-Trump network known for promoting conspiracy theories, will provide news coverage for VOA.[19][20]
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Many an amateur radio hobbyist developed their interest in amateur radio through shortwave listening. Many stations have come and gone and others have morphed into the Internet of all things. Shortwave stations are generally expensive to set up and maintain. Some stations, such as at Sackville, New Brunswick are no more. It has become increasingly evident in a series of man-made events and politics that the Internet can be shut off such as revolt, revolution, war etc. Some shortwave transmissions have been re-activated as a result.
Late in the evening of March 14, 2025, President Trump declared a number of entities as no longer necessary:
- This Executive Order eliminates non-statutory functions and reduces statutory functions of unnecessary governmental entities to what is required by law. Affected entities include the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Institute of Museum and Library Services, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Minority Business Development Agency, and Arctic Research Commission.
- This action builds on an Executive Order President Trump previously signed to reduce unnecessary governmental entities and Federal advisory committees.
The Commonwealth
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- Category: Public Information
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The Commonwealth of Nations is often referred to as the British Commonwealth or just the Commonwealth. There are 56 member states, most of which are former members of what was known as "the British Empire".
They are connected by language, history and culture. Members include the United Kingdom, the former Dominions of Canada, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. They also include British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It is headed by Charles III. The Commonwealth was formalized by the Statute of Westminster in 1931. There are 15 Commonwealth realms, including Canada. There are 36 republics. There are 5 other members that have different monarchs (Brunei, Eswatini, Lesotho and Tonga. {Yes, we have heard of Lesotho}.
Developments in Encryption and the Amateur Radio Service
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- Category: Public Information
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There have been developments about the use of encryption and the carrying-out of cryptographic experimentation in the amateur radio service. Two articles follow - 1) a press release from RAC on this subject; and 2) a portion of an article/FAQ by Dave Goodwin VE3KG – RAC Regulatory Affairs Officer.
Read more: Developments in Encryption and the Amateur Radio Service
Report of 2023 Wildfires and Response by YARS
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- Category: Civil Defence
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[2024-06-17] From about May to October 2023 a series of wildfires occurred across the Northwest Territories. The wildfires were wide-spread geographically and coincided with abnormally high temperatures and a major drought. Significant loss of forests occurred as did loss to private property including homes and infrastructure (roads, fibre optic cables, hydro-electrical transmission lines etc.). The community of Enterprise was consumed. Fort Smith, Hay River, Enterprise, Kátł'odeeche First Nation, Yellowknife, Behchokǫ̀ etc. were all evacuated amongst other locations. Fortunately there was no direct loss of life.
WordPerfect on Linux
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- Category: Technical Notes
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Retrofuturism - Anachronistic Technology and HAM Radio
The figure above may seem rather silly. It shows WordPerfect 8.0 for UNIX running - roughly the equivalent of WordPerfect 4.2 for MSDOS - mid to late 1980s. WordPerfect 6.0 for MSDOS is shown running in the DOSBOX, an emulator for MSDOS - late 1990s). Finally WordPerfect X.13 is shown running in a virtual machine that is running Windows 7. All of these are running under Linux Mint 21.x. The laptop on which they are running is an old ASUS X55U, with motherboard manufactured in 2013.