It has been a while since I updated the ERC Blog. Over the weekend Al, Jim, Reg and I went to Bing’s house and took down the HF antenna as well as the tower. All went very well with no accidents or things dropping from above.

For those of you who are interested in the antenna and tower, please contact Al. The rotator is sold and the trust bearing might have to be sold as a package with the rotator. All material is in good shape however the tower needs a good scraping and coat of paint. The bottom is section is shortened since we had to saw it off from the concrete base. It still is usable.

Photo’s were taken however the writer had not received these.

Mrs. Bing was very pleased with the cheque of the radio equipment sale.

RAC Bulletin 2013-017E – Radio Amateur of the Year for 2012
2013-05-04

The RAC Board of Directors takes great pleasure in announcing the selection of Scott Wood, VE1QD of Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the Canadian Radio Amateur of the Year for 2012.

Scott celebrated sixty years in Amateur Radio in 2012. Over these years he has contributed enormously, and in many and varied ways both to our hobby and to radio in general. In his youth as a net controller in the Oregon State Fire Service, later as a radio operator in the US Naval Reserve, as a member of the Board of Directors for Radio for Peace International, in contesting and DXing, and in Elmering aspiring new hams, both young and old. However, it is the leadership in Amateur Radio that Scott has demonstrated locally, regionally, and internationally that is being recognized with this award. Scott has demonstrated vision, enthusiasm, dogged determination, and commitment to excellence in the area of Amateur Radio DXing through the establishment and management of the Maritime DX Forum for eight consecutive years. Scott envisioned the forum to be a venue where DXers in the region could come together annually to hear world-class, as well as local DX experts speak about important and current DX topics, and to provide a forum in which to share ideas with some of the best operators and leaders within the Amateur Radio community.

A presentation will be made to Scott by the RAC President at the RAC booth at the Dayton Ham Fest this month. A more detailed article will appear in an upcoming TCA/RAC Report

Geoff Bawden, VE4BAW
President and Chair RAC

Scholarship Trust Announces Call for Applications
2013-05-05

The Brit Fader Scholarship was established in 1993 by the Halifax Amateur Radio Club and endowed through the generosity of Club members and Radio Amateurs throughout the Maritime Provinces of Canada. This scholarship is intended exclusively for post-secondary educational use, to provide assistance with the cost of tuition, room, board, books and/or other fees essential to the advanced education of the recipient. The amount of the 2013 award will be $1000.00.

Applicant must be a Canadian Citizen, but without regard to gender, race, national origin, handicap status or any other factor and must be performing at a high academic level.

Applicant must, hold an active Basic Class or higher grade of Canadian Amateur Radio license.

This Scholarship will be provided for attendance at an accredited Canadian post-secondary technical school, college or university, with preference given to applicants who have been accepted into a program in the field of electronics or electrical engineering, or related area.

Application submissions must be postmarked no later than July 12 th , 2013.

A zipped application package (Criteria; Application Form; Reference Form) is available for down-loading from the HARC website at www.Halifax-arc.org. Follow the link to the Brit Fader Scholarship from the Home Page under Education .

D. Howard Dickson, VE1DHD

for the Brit Fader Scholarship Committee

D. Howard Dickson
Radio Amateur – VE1DHD // VE1ZD
Seabright, Nova Scotia
CANADA

RAC Bulletin 2013-016E – RAC completes Review of Amateur Radio Exam Questions
2013-04-27

On April 17th 2013, RAC submitted the final documents called for in the contract it won to review the question banks used for exams for the Basic and Advanced certification of Canadian radio amateurs.

Industry Canada had issued a request for proposals to undertake the review in December 2012. RAC engaged RAQI to collaborate on the French language component of the work and submitted a response to the proposal. The $20,000 contract was awarded to RAC late in January.

The first phase of the contract, completed on March 13, consisted of a complete review of all the questions and answers used for amateur radio certification in Canada. At the end of this phase RAC delivered a comprehensive set of recommendations to improve and modernize the question banks. In most cases this involved detailed editing of existing questions but proposals were also made to delete or replace obsolete or inaccurate questions and add questions on aspects of amateur radio that had grown in importance since the last review.

The review concentrated on the accuracy and clarity of the questions and answers and recommended changes where required to eliminate possible confusion over the correct answer to each question. Some errors were easy to identify such as typing mistakes showing an obviously incorrect answer as correct. Others, particularly related to ensuring that all incorrect answers were truly incorrect, required more careful study. The review team took special care in comparing questions in both languages so that the English and French versions conveyed the same information.

Clear, accurate and understandable exam questions are an important element in making amateur radio accessible to all Canadians. RAC sees an up to date and well functioning exam system as an important element in bringing more people into amateur radio to ensure its continuation and growth, a priority objective of the national organization.

On April 4th, Industry Canada officials kicked off phase 2 of the project by providing a preliminary reaction to the RAC recommendations made in phase 1. Over the next 13 days the RAC-RAQI team reviewed the Industry Canada comments and where appropriate provided additional comments and recommendations.

The first phase had identified most areas of needed change and as a result the Phase Two report contained a significantly smaller set of recommendations. Industry Canada will make the final decision on changes to the questions after considering the RAC Phase 2 report. However the exchange of comments so far suggests that the RAC review will lead to a significant improvement and updating of the question banks.

RAC understands the importance of amateur radio courses and educational material developed and delivered by dedicated volunteers across the country. Changes in the question banks can lead to increased work by these volunteers and the Review Team worked to propose changes in ways that will minimize the updating. Many questions will remain as they were before the review. When proposing deleting obsolete questions the Team recommended replacement questions so that question numbering of the unchanged questions would not have to be changed.

RAC is already planning for the transition. Once Industry Canada makes public the updated questions banks, we will prepare information identifying where changes have been made to assist instructors in modifying their course materials and examiners in preparing for the change. As has been mentioned in previous bulletins, the curriculum has not been changed. The topics addressed in the exams and consequently in courses and educational material remain the same. The changed questions will assess the knowledge of these same topics but should be clearer, more accurate, more understandable and relevant to modern amateur radio.

RAQI has been an excellent partner in this project and all francophones should immediately see the vast improvement in the French language questions when the new questions banks are approved and made public.

A great deal of effort has gone into the review and we are happy that it is being received well. RAC will continue to work with Industry Canada through existing consultative arrangements to provide Canadian radio amateurs with the best possible circumstances to pursue their hobby. As well, based on the success of this project, RAC looks forward to competing for contracts on significant projects related to amateur radio if the opportunity presents itself in the future.

For more information contact Glenn MacDonell, Project Manager, Question Bank Update Project and Deputy Director Ontario North East, (ve3xra@rac.ca).

Geoff Bawden, VE4BAW
President and Chair RAC

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Vernon Ikeda – VE2MBS/VE2QQ
Pointe-Claire, Québec
RAC Blog Editor/RAC E-News/Web News Bulletin Editor