Ralph and Eric met with Phil at the Centennial arena this morning. We reviewed the installation of the new VHF/UHF antenna on the roof of the arena and the operating position for our ESS communications. Phil told us that they will be bringing in a desk with a lockable cabinet for storing the radio. We now need to arrange for a time to perform some path tests to ensure the antenna meets our needs.
Keith, age 85, passed away suddenly at home on Monday Nov 12. Keith was an R.C.A.F. veteran of WWII and then worked at Philips Electric for 29 years until he retired in 1985. Keith enjoyed HAM radio and was a member of the White Rock club for many years. A memorial service will be held on Nov. 21 at 2PM at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Roper Ave. in White Rock.
The recent wind storm took its toll out against our club this year by knocking Ralph's HF beam and tower off his roof. Fortunately there was only a small amount of damage done to the roof and shrubs in the yard. A number of club members met at Ralph's this morning to help move the tower off of some shrubs and into a safe location on the lawn, and Jim brought over his roof repair kit and quickly had the roof back in good shape. Unfortunately the beam itself was seriously damaged and it is not likely that it can be repaired.
The 10 commercial radios the club was expecting have now arrived and are at Eric's home. They have some basic channels programmed into them but we plan to adjust those frequencies to include a few more of the area's repeaters. As received, all radios work well but they need some work to setup the power and speaker connections. At present we need to either make or purchase a programming cable for the radios which will allow us to setup our own channels. We will also be receiving some better mics for the radios in the near future.
Ralph & Eric met again with Phil Lemire, this time we reviewed the equipment proposal that we had drafted for outfitting the Arena, EOC, repeater and future grab and go kit. Phil seemed quite interested in helping get the items needed for the arena and EOC as quickly as possible. He indicated that getting the items to upgrade the repeater were also possible in a fairly short time-frame. So the meeting was very encouraging. He will be giving the list to his own radio people to help price out the items and get them purchased and installed into the reception centre.