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RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for December 10, 2022
#1
This is V_3___, Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of Canada
with this week's bulletin.

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. RAC Winter Contest - 00:00z to 23:59z  December 17th, 2022

Bands and Modes: 160, through 2 metres (no 60m or WARC), CW and phone
(SSB, FM, AM, etc.)
Exchange: Stations in Canada send RS(T) and province or territory.
    VEØs and stations outside Canada send RS(T) and a serial number.
QSOs:  Contacts with stations in Canada or VEØs are worth 10 points.
    Contacts with stations outside Canada are worth 2 points.
    Contacts with RAC official stations are worth 20 points.
RAC official stations are: VA2RAC, VA3RAC, VE1RAC, VE4RAC, VE5RAC,
VE6RAC, VE7RAC,
    VE8RAC, VE9RAC, VO1RAC, VO2RAC, VY0RAC, VY1RAC and VY2RAC.
Multipliers: Thirteen in total, Canada’s 10 provinces and three
territories. Each multiplier may be counted
    once on each mode on each of the eight contest bands.
Final Score: The total QSO from all bands multiplied by the total number
of multipliers from all bands.
Categories: All categories are designed to be multi-mode, Phone and CW
categories except for the two
single operator single mode categories. It is required that single
operator all bands’ categories have at least
one contact in both modes to differentiate those categories from the
single model categories. All other
categories may operate single mode if so desired recognizing that it
reduces their potential contacts and
multipliers.

Info on the RAC website at: https://www.rac.ca/contesting-results/

ONTARIO SECTION NEWS

2.  ONTARS SANTA NET Reminder - Dec 14th, 15th,  2022

The popular SANTA Net will take place 14th and 15th December, 2022 on
3.755 MHz at 5pm
each night. Be sure to gather the children for an opportunity to chat
with Santa.
Frank VA3FJM will be Santa's helper this year.
-- Ontars Newsletter

ITEMS OF INTEREST

3.  Quarter Century Wireless Association to Celebrate 75 Years on
December 5, 2022.

QCWA's mission includes promoting "friendship and cooperation among
Amateur Radio (Wireless)
operators who were licensed as such at least a quarter of a century ago."

During the organization's 75 years, it has had nearly 40,000 members.
The Cleveland, Ohio, chapter
was the first chapter chartered in 1951, and now has over 100 members.

QCWA Special Event Station, W2MM, will operate from 0001 UTC December 3 to
2359 UTC December 10, 2022.

QCWA is also hosting the members-only Worked 75/75 Members Contest from
December 5, 2022, through February 18, 2023. The contest encourages QCWA
members to contact
a minimum of 75 QCWA members during the contest period. All contest
entrants will receive a special
certificate.
Additional information is available at
https://qcwa.org/1-worked-75-75-members-contest.htm.
-- ARRL news

4  A Christmas Message to the World from SAQ

On Christmas Eve morning, December 24, 2022, the Alexander Grimeton
Friendship Association,
in southern Sweden will be on the air sending out a special Christmas
message to the world.
The event will begin at 07:30 UTC with the startup and tuning of the
Alexanderson alternator
transmitter through Grimeton Radio Station, call sign SAQ. The
transmission will begin at 08:00 UTC
with the 98-year-old 200 kW Alexanderson alternator on 17.2 kHz CW.
Grimeton Radio Station, SK6SAQ, will be QRV (ready) on the following
frequencies:
3.535 MHz CW,  7.035 MHz CW,  14.035 MHz CW
3.755 MHz SSB,  7.140 MHz SSB
QSL reports can be sent to SK6SAQ via email at info@alexander.n.se.
The Alexanderson alternator transmitter is the only remaining example of
early pre-electronic radio
transmitter technology. The station, built in 1922 - 1924, has been
preserved as a historical site.
From the 1920s through the 1940s, it was used to transmit telegram
traffic by Morse code to
North America and throughout the world during World War II.
More information can be found at the Grimeton Radio website
https://alexander.n.se/en/
-- ARRL Newsletter

This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or
clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V_3___ returning the frequency to net control.
Reply
#2
The SAQ transmitter is a very weird & wonderful contraption.  Folks over there put a lot of effort into keeping it restored and functional.  Don't see that kind of respect for our history over here, we just tear them down (e.g. RCI Sackville).

Here's a link to a good video (albeit long) which gives a description of the transmitter, plus startup & sending a message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_cM10GTxXA

Apparently, two possible methods for receiving SAQ at 17.2 kHz are:
- use one of those little deck-of-cards size SDRs.  The SDRPlay RSP-series and similar ones receive down to 1 kHz
- building a simple front end to feed the signal directly into a PC sound card, which will handle 17.2 kHz easily

Not much time to get ready for Xmas Eve, but they also transmit in July each year.  Maybe a club project???

73
Dave, VE3WI
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