Ralph met with the Fire Chief earlier today. Unfortunately, Eric did not make the meeting as he had hoped. Ralph reported that it went well.

Two of our club members each puchased a new Icom radio at the Burnaby Club Flea Market this past week-end.

Stuart was first across the line with a new IC-208H dual band VHF/UHF radio. He secured the only new one available at the show. Ross quickly got in on the act and purchased an IC-2200 VHF single band unit which can be upgraded to the new D-start digital mode.

Great news for activity in our club, I expect the repeater will see some intense use between members in the days ahead. I look forward to meeting you both on the air soon.

The evening of Wednesday July 4 we did a bit of reception testing on the repeater to see if there was any noticable improvement in the reception capabilities of the system. I am pleased to report that it has improved a bit. Ross can now work the repeater from his home using his hand-held which he could not do before. The area around South point mall has some what better coverage though still a bit broken. Ralph can use his hand held around his yard quite reliably.

The new quad folded dipole repeater antenna has been installed. Eric & Ralph spent a few hours during the lovely afternoon of Monday July 2nd adding the new antenna to the existing pole used by Eric's base station vertical. The old antenna was also taken down. The new setup has its main lobe oriented towards western White Rock, so it is our hope it will pick up hand helds better than before.

For a detailed account see the story: Eric & Ralph install a new club antenna

Ralph picked up a new antenna today for our repeater. This antenna comprises four folded dipoles arranged in two horizontal groups with each group separated by around 4.5 feet vertically. The antenna should give us around 6dBd gain.

I'll report back when it is installed and operational.

Here is a photo of the new antenna: