Downeast Flea Market

has been moved to June 14th, 2025 at the Waverly Legion from 9am till 1pm.

Date: March 2, 2025

The contest will take place each year on the first Sunday in March.

Hours:

The contest will run for EIGHT hours, two four hour sessions.

• Morning Session: 08:00 AM AST – 12:00 PM AST
• Afternoon Session: 02:00 PM AST – 06:00 PM AST

Operating Band:

All contacts for contest credit will take place on the 80 Meter band within the allocation(s) guidelines of the Radio Amateurs of Canada 80M Band Plan. A PDF of the HF Band Plans can be found on the RAC website.

• Phone contacts must occur in the PHONE allocation of the 80M band.
• CW contacts must occur in the CW portion of the 80M Band.
• Digital contacts must occur in the DIGITAL allocation of the 80M band.

Exchange:

Nova Scotia Stations will exchange: Call Sign, Signal Report, and County.

Non Nova Scotia stations will exchange: Call Sign, Signal report, and a contact number.

Nova Scotia Stations operating portable or mobile must make it clear they are portable or mobile. See bonus points

QSO Points:

Score one point per completed PHONE contact.

Score one point per completed CW contact.

Score one point per completed DIGITAL contact.

The same station can be logged on each mode (e.g. PHONE, CW, DIGITAL (PSK31, SSTV, RTTY etc.)) within the Band Plan Guidelines.

Multipliers:

The 18 counties of Nova Scotia will count as multipliers.

Any Amateur from anywhere can take part but only Nova Scotia Counties will count as multipliers. Each multiplier may be counted once on each mode.

Bonus Points:

Added to score after QSO Points X Multipliers

All stations: A bonus of 10 points will be awarded for each Rover or Field Day type station worked. The bonus is awarded for each mode worked with each rover or field day station.

Rover or Portable stations: 100 BONUS points awarded for each county worked from.

Scoring Example:

Phone QSOs = 61 Multipliers = 15 Total = 915

Bonus Points = 250 (5 Portable or Rover stations worked, plus you gave mobile contacts from 2 counties)

Final Score = 1165

Categories/Modes:

The following 4 categories are eligible for certificates as detailed in the Awards section of the rules.

• Phone
• CW
• Digital (All digital modes excluding CW)
• Mixed Mode

Category notes:

1. Single Operator or Multi operator permitted.
2. Single Transmitter operation ONLY, with no restrictions on the number of operators.
3. Field Day or Rover type of portable operations to rare counties is encouraged, especially if BASIC operators are involved. See bonus points
4. The contents of a log that is submitted for a specific Category must reflect that Category. In the event of a conflict between the actual content of the log and the stated Category in other elements of the entry material, the actual contents of the log will be used to determine the Category of entry where possible. In the event this cannot be determined or in the event where a log does not identify the entry Category, the entry will be classified into the most advantageous Category.
5. An entrant who enters a specific Category (i.e. Phone) but who also worked additional contacts outside that Category should try to mark (or highlight) the contacts they wish counted for their entry.
6. Each new multiplier in a Category must be clearly marked in the log.
7. Multipliers in a specific category entry will be counted for score only in that category.

Logging:

A separate log sheet should be kept for each mode (Category) of transmission by Call Sign. The log must clearly indicate the mode used for the contest contact.

The log must show:

• Station worked
• Time of contact (UTC or local)
• Mode
• Signal Report
• County, if the contact is with a NS station or a contact number for NON NS stations
• Claimed bonus points

Download log sheets here: Excel, PDF

Submit Logs:

Contest Entrants will have one month (30 days) to submit logs after the contest ends. Entries can be submitted by:

• paper log mailed in
• eMail in plain text
• electronically as an image or attachment on an eMail
• electronically as a file in plain ASCII/Text format or a generic spread sheet

Awards/Certificates:

Anyone who makes 25 or more contacts (any mode) in the contest (regardless of the score), and submits a log, will receive a “Participation Certificate”. Stations making contacts with all 18 Nova Scotia counties (all modes) will have “Clean Sweep” indicated on their certificates and they will also qualify for the NSARA Worked All Nova Scotia Counties Award (WANSC) without QSL card submission.

Winners:

Winners (1st Place) will be recognized separately for Phone, CW, Digital and Mixed Mode. The winner will receive a certificate (suitable for framing) as well as having their photo on the NSARA web page and in TCA and local media if desired.

Nova Scotia County list for use in the NSARA Contest:

Annapolis

Antigonish

Cape Breton

Colchester

Cumberland

Digby

Guysborough

Halifax

Hants

Inverness

Kings

Lunenburg

Pictou

Queens

Richmond

Shelburne

Victoria

Yarmouth

The list can be used to check off the counties as you work them. Some counties have a large number of Amateurs, while others have only one or two active Hams.

Contest Committee:

The contest committee, comprised of NSARA Directors, will make the final decision in all matters regarding the contest. The contest committee encourages Clubs or other groups of Hams to do a Field Day type of operation during the contest.

There are no contest restrictions on who can operate using one Call Sign, so a Multi/Single type of operation is encouraged, especially if Basic level Hams are involved. This contest experience may encourage them to pass the CW license requirements as well as experimenting with some of the new modes such as PSK31 or SSTV.

Send Logs to:

NSARA Contest Coordinator Peter Surette 20 Dresden Way Debert, N.S. B0M 1G0

Or e-mail them to: ve1pjs@eastlink.ca or ve1pjs@myrac.ca

Good luck and may the band be active this year!!

Craig Seaboyer

VE1DSS

NSARA President

All reactions:

11

Once again the club meeting has been canceled due to expected bad weather. The next club meeting will be January 8, 2023.

Don’t forget the open house on December 30 at the club room on Pictou Rd in Bible Hill at the EMO Bldg.

On December 30, 2023 the Truro Amateur Radio Club will be holding an Open House at our club room in the EMO Bldg @ 39 Pictou Road in Bible Hill.

This will take place from 1000 to 1600 hrs (10am to 4pm)

All are welcome at the Open House, from experienced Amateur Radio operators to those just thinking Amateur Radio might be an interesting hobby and want to get a little more info and see some of the radio equipment.

This date is also the date of the Radio Amateurs of Canada winter contest, a 24hr contest where you try to make as many contacts across Canada as possible. So during the Open House we will be on the radio trying to make contacts. So if your new to the hobby or hoping to get into it this would be a good chance for you to have some fun trying to make some contacts.

Hi All,

I hope everyone has had a good summer so far, its hard to believe that it is September already and the leaves are starting to change.

As you know September marks the start of club meetings again and the first meeting next Monday September 11th will also be the club AGM at the Colchester EMO BLDG on Pictou Rd in Bible Hill at 1900hrs see you then.

All club executive positions are open for election President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.

President – This position is open. I indicated at the June meeting that I would be stepping down, time for someone else to try to move the club forward.

Vice President – Scott McNutt reoffering

Secretary – Brett Nelson reoffering

Treasurer – Michael Harvey reoffering

The club membership was stable for last year, but we need to figure out a way to increase it. Many things were discussed in May and June, hopefully some of these things will come to pass.

73

Dave

For more info – https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-qualification-amateur-radio-course-fall-2023/

Good read https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/cimate-change-telecommunications-ham-radio-help-1.6884108

I wanted to advise everyone that thanks to John Langille VE1CWJ and Brett Nelson VE1NEL the Truro Amateur Radio Club now has a VHF Winlink Packet Gateway up and running at the club room as of December 13th.

The name of the Gateway Station is VE1AO-10

For those with packet stations this will give you the ability to send emails to the world over VHF through the Gateway using the Winlink Express email program. If you do not already have a Winlink email address you can go to Winlink.org download the program and sign up for an email address. Winlink Express can also be used as a regular email program directly over the internet for those who wish to use it that way.

For those in the Truro area with line of site communications, the gateway can be accessed locally on a frequency of 145.07mhz using Packet Winlink mode on the Winlink Express email program.

For those outside the Truro area that do not have line of site communications,  you can access the Gateway through the VE1TAL Node on the MARCAN Packet system.  

Winlink Express is slowly becoming the go to program for providing Amateur Radio operators the ability to send and receive emails over the air waves. With the use of a portable/mobile packet station and a laptop, whether as an exercise or in emergency situations, Amateur Radio operators in the Truro area will now have the ability to send emails over the air waves from remote locations.

The TARC invites everyone to try out the Gateway. Let us know your experience using Winlink and the Gateway, which are just additional tools for enjoying the vast hobby of Amateur Radio.

In the new year we will be putting on a discussion and demonstration following a club meeting, probably February or March. 

73

Dave 

-- 
Dave Hull
VE1HUL

Wow time flies, here we are at the end of September already.

Exercise Handshake is tonight September 28 @ 1900 hrs on a MAVCOM repeater near you. You can also check in on HF on 80M @ 3675mhz.

We still have permission to use the EMO Bldg on Pictou Rd as long as the Covid-19 protocols are followed (masks & distancing) so I will be over there to take part, all are welcome.…

73

Dave Hull

VE1HUL

This is a reminder that the September club is tomorrow night on September 13th at the EMO Bldg on Pictou Rd @ 1900hrs. This will include our AGM as well as the regular meeting. It is also a good time to rejoin/join the club.