Featured Items
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 137
The news from Hawaii has focused on personal accounts and images of damaged housing and infrastructure from the recent wildfires on the island of Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago. Communications have been reported as intermittent and the full extent of casualties is still not yet known.
Limited contact with radio amateurs occurred in Lahaina due to there being very few HAMs in the area. A report of confirmed active and destroyed repeater systems is at: https://amrron.com/2023/08/10/maui-disaster-ham-radio-updates/ . Further updates are at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CfWIk6ZTlbcbfizyZ9-DOJyqHusbA0KWBE2RSVMCtMg/edit .
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 526
VE8NSD has been kind enough to share some dramatic images from his QTH of the fires in the Hay River area, taken 2023-05-14. He and his family and several cats were evacuated during this period from Hay River to the Yellowknife Multiplex facility. The fire broke out on the outskirts of the Town of Hay River and the town was evacuated around 2023-05-14. The fire was brought under control on 2023-05-26 and the evacuation alert cancelled on 2023-06-06. There was significant damage to Kátł'odeeche.
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 925
[2023-09-14] While Yellowknife remains under an Evacuation Alert and a number of communities in the South Slave are just starting to be "repatriated", the Society is returning its website back to normal operations. Local amateur radio operators no longer are requested to maintain a radio watch on the VE8YK and VE8RAE repeater network. Many thanks to those who maintained HF contact with the south during the Evacuation Order. The Society will be re-examining its emergency planning along with that of the the GNWT's NWT Emergency Plan and the City of Yellowknife Emergency Plan. Comments may be email to the Society via the reflector -
YARS Repeater Frequencies.
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 1194
NEW - Field Day Report
Field Day is an annual event where amateur radio operators across North America (and beyond) set up an emergency amateur radio communications centre and run it for 24 hours. While dressed-up as a competition, it is partly to promote the amateur radio service and partly to carry out a continental emergency exercise. Points are awarded for emergency-related activities including the handling of messages, low power operation, alternative power, contacts made via digital and CW (i.e. Morse Code). In some ways this is a minimalist exercise in that we operate using modern technologies but operate independent of infrastructure. Radio signals are bounced off the atmosphere, not through fibre optic cables or telephone lines. This is particularly useful when infrastructure is damaged such as in an earthquake or tornado or ... a sneak attack by the Cylons.
The Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society finished RAC/ARRL Field Day in the afternoon of 2023-06-25 after operating for 24 hours at the Sandpits. And no this is not a tropical beach...
Our 1B TER station ran well and we made a variety of contacts despite a very significant auroral oval.
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 1668
The Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society (YARS) is a not-for-profit Society incorporated under the Northwest Territories Societies Act. It is a term and condition that any user making use of this website does so subject to the laws in force in Canada and the Northwest Territories - including the Copyright Act, RSC, 1985 c.C-42 and in particular section 29 (Exceptions) of that Act. While the Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society is dedicated to the amateur radio service, this website performs a largely educational function and no commercial function. The fact that the domain name has a ".com" extension does not signify that YARS is a commercial entity - just that it has an old domain name extension.
Generally the images and articles on this website are the intellectual property of the Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society, unless otherwise attributed. Any materials used on the site are used in good faith and in the belief that they are either in the public domain or licensed (for example with items that may purport to be part of the Creative Commons). YARS endeavours not to violate any copyright in any materials. If such a violation is suspected, please notify the Administrator of the website or any of the members of the Executive (i.e. directors). You may also send the Society a letter by mail bringing this matter to our attention. The Society does check its mail but infrequently. We reserve the right to respond or not to such a complaint, without any adverse inferences being made.
In the interests of promoting the amateur radio service, users are permitted to make use of materials on this website with proper attribution. A donation to the Society would be welcome but is not mandatory. Commercial use of this website and its materials is not permitted without permission from the Society.
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 8285
Inuvik
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 5522
Electromagnetism (Light)
Amateur radio is a hobby that allows enthusiasts to make use of radio communications in and experiment with electromagnetic (EM) waves in the radio frequency part of the electromagnetic spectrum (about 3 Hz to 300 GHz). Some hobbyists experiment outside of the regulated radio spectrum - for instance they experiment with visible or infrared light. EM physics applies universally across the EM sprectrum. Fundamentally, amateur radio is the use of radio waves to communicate with other amateur radio operators - in non-commercial activities. One masters the way in which radio waves propagate in order to achieve communications links. These techniques have application in the commercial sector - but the amateur radio service itself is non-commercial.
There are legal conditions attached to an amateur radio licence as there is a great deal of responsibility attached to being allowed to operate on these bands. The amateur radio service is by law not for profit and not commercial. Radiowaves can be made to bounce off the upper atmosphere or celestial objects - resulting in interesting modes of propagation and communications being established all over the world without any infrastructure (such as the Internet). The possible applications are only limited by the constraints of imagination.
Quite often amateur radio plays a role in emergency communciations because much of the equipment is privately owned and functions independently of existing infrastructure. The amateur radio service is resilient. In disaster situations, amateur radio is usually the first means of communicating with affected areas (e.g. Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami or the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami).
Somewhat Technical
Generally a very basic high school level of understanding of science is all that is needed. There is no age limit (lower or upper). Visually impaired persons can be accommodated and are quite adept at the use of Morse Code.
While a basic level of knowledge is necessary for passing the exams and getting licensed, one should not be put off by this.
Some might see "HAM Radio" as being archaic or old fashioned. It is not and the hobby incorporates computers, internet, satellites, advanced signal processing techniques and state of the art techology. Indeed many an IT professional has realized the allure of the hobby. Physics is physics regardless of its application in the amateur radio service or in its application in other areas...
A Hobby Limited by Imagination
The limits of amateur radio are only constrained by one's imagination. For many this hobby is a stepping stone into becoming a technologist or engineer or scientist. Here is a list of some of the activities that the members of the Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society have engaged in:
- contests (national and international);
- antenna design and construction;
- radio direction finding (Fox Hunting/ARDF) (cross between direction finding and orienteering);
- emergency preparedness planning and exercises;
- amateur radio astronomy and astronomy;
- observing atmospheric phenomena (RF propagation, solar noise, effects of aurora);
- computer programming;
- digital signals and modes of communications;
- very weak signals;
- study of the weather (thunderstorms, refraction of light in ice etc.);
- satellite tracking and communications;
- electronics, building of radios and test equipment, lasers, microwaves etc.;
- website design;
- bookkeeping;
- desktop publishing.
Going Global
To get a better flavour of the hobby, one might try any of the following:
- Radio Amateurs of Canada;
- Radio Society of Great Britain;
- REF-Union (France);
- American Amateur Radio Relay League;
- eham.net;
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Promotional Videos
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 1974
The Society meets weekly at the Red Apple on 50th Avenue (Franklin). The Society also has an Annual General Meeting annually and files a Notice of Directors and Financial Statements annually with the Registrar of Societies, Department of Justice, Government of the Northwest Territories.
To be a full member, one must be a licensed amateur radio operator in accordance with Canadian laws. It is possible for others to be associate members (for instance students and significant others (XYLs), but associate members cannot vote. Bodies corporate may become members too.
Membership dues are the primary form of revenue generated for use by the Society. This revenue is used to subsidize projects for the Society, run the Basic Qualification Course, pay for maintenance of three operational repeaters (two in Yellowknife and one in Rae) and pay for equipment obtained by the Society such as repeaters, digital communication devices and the like. Generally Society members maintain our own equipment as there is a repository of technical knowledge in the membership. That said, components still cost money. Some members pay for their own equipment. Each project provides an excellent opportunity for members to apply their skills and to learn more about radios, computers and more.
- Details
- Category: Public Information
- Hits: 5974
Welcome to the Home Page of the Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society (YARS). We are the main amateur radio club in the City of Yellowknife and have been in existence since being established on 19 April 1985 by Daniel Piche (VE8DP), Rolf Ziemann (VE8RZ), Paul Hokkinen (VE8PB) and Joe Hamacher (VE8JH).
Our objects, as stated in our Articles of Incorporation, are
- to foster, encourage and assist on projects, which in the opinion of the members will promote Amateur Radio;
- to further the enjoyment and understanding of amateur radio; and
- to provide assistance and support to Civil Authorities in times of emergency.