Dayton Hamvention

Dayton Hamvention® 2012
May 18-20 2012

The Dayton Hamvention is closing vast, so get you tickets online now and save $$$ at the gate. 

If you want to know more here is the site  http://www.hamvention.org/   hope to see you there

as I know some of the Directors of ECOA and members will be there, looking for bargains .

2012 AGM is over

ECOA held its first AGM this past Saturday, March 3rd, at the historic Fort York Armouries in downtown Toronto.  Our most sincere thanks go to LCol Greg Sasyna, Commanding Officer of 32 Signals Regiment, for hosting this years meeting.

Thirty-Nine members packed the lower brigade room in the armoury and listened to directors reports, and several briefings on available training and interoperability with other agencies during emergencies. 

Jim Taylor-VA3KU gave a good talk on the ECOA liability insurance package that is available to all our members. 

Several excellent discussions took place on where and what ECOA should be doing over the next 12 months.

Malcolm Kendall-VE3BDG was elected as Secretary/Treasurer and Russ Hemphill-VE3FI became the Vice President (Administration).

ECOA looks forward to moving forward and building up its Field Service over the next 12 months.

2012 ECOA AGM

Location:

Fort York Armoury
660 Fleet Street W, Toronto, ON M5V 1A9
Telephone: 416 633-6200

Time  12:00pm, 3rd March 2012.

This location has lots of parking,  If coming in from east of toronto  take 401 west to DVP ,  Gardiner expressway  over to Bathurst then south to lakeshore to fleet street.

Please pencil in this date and attend the AGM.  This is your association and you have a voice in how it is run.

Amateurs Asked to Listen for RS-39 Satellite

The Chibis-M microsatellite, also known as RS-39 (RadioSputnik 39), was jettisoned from the Progress M-13M cargo spacecraft Tuesday evening (UTC).

The satellite is designed to study atmospheric phenomena such as Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs) associated with lightning. RS-39 has CW beacons on 435.315 and 435.215 MHz and amateurs are asked to submit reception reports via email to the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences at amateur-rs39@chibis.cosmos.ru. Each report will be acknowledged with a special QSL.

The CW telemetry format is available here. Telemetry decoding software written by Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN, can be downloaded here.

ECOA - "To Serve and Communicate"

ECOA is building EmComm leadership for Public Safety and Service in Ontario.  This is your opportunity to consider joining our new Provincial Association with all the following benefits of membership available at one low cost annual fee.

1. Blanket liability Insurance coverage with no conditions.

2. Effective online Amateur Radio and EmComm training material and resources.

3. Government funding and grants to upgrade communications networks.

4. The latest EmComm news events available on two online websites and also a linked Blog for comments and postings related to Emergency Communications.

5. Free website hosting for EmComm Chapters and Groups throughout Ontario.

6. Free e-mail alias server, your callsign @ emergencycom.ca or emergencyradio.ca

Chart your volunteer EmComm future with ECOA and enjoy community and public service planning with coordination that will keep Ontario on the leading edge of Emergency Communications technology today and tomorrow.

R. Gammon. VA3RX.
ECOA President and Provincial Emergency Coordinator

Winter Field Day - 2012

Since emergencies and natural disasters don't always happen in the summer, during Winter Field Day, frigid winds, icy limbs and bitter cold replace the thunderstorms and blistering heat of summer.  You don't need to be really smart to figure out that holding practice deployments only during the warmer months isn't going to help you when you get called out at midnight on a sub-zero, and very snowy mid-February night!  

This is the sixth year SPAR has sponsored this event. The 2012 Winter Field Day will be held from 1700 UTC (12:00 noon EST) Saturday January 28, 2012 through 1700 UTC (12:00 noon EST) Sunday January 29, 2012.

The object of the event is familiar to most Amateur Radio operators: set up emergency-style communications and make as many contacts as possible during the 24 hour period. The rules encourage as many contacts on as many bands and modes as possible, because during a real emergency, the most important factor is the ability to communicate, regardless of band, mode or distance.

The official rules can be found at the SPAR web site. The event is open to all amateurs, and we hope to hear some of our EmComm groups taking part.

Website Update

Just a quick post to let everyone know that our webmaster has updated our main webpages at http://www.emergencycom.ca/ .  Check it out!!