The Amateur Radio Club of the Thetis Island Community known as ARCTIC was born of the desire to support amateur radio communications within the community. There are 20 known ham operators on the island, 7 of whom all took the course together and received their certification in 2011. It was from this group of new radio operators that this club was formed to foster the building of skills in the community. Many of these new radio operators took an interest in radio communications in support of emergency planning and preparedness on Thetis.In the case of an emergency – like earthquakes, wildfire, extreme storm conditions – the Ham radio operators may be called into service to assist in on-island and off-island communications.
It is intended that ARCTIC will hold a radio communications net on a regular basis in order to practice radio communications skills. These practice sessions will help ensure that equipment is in an operational condition and island wide communication limitations are understood by all the stations.
The stations may also choose to go on the air during severe weather situations, island power outage or telephone system failures in order to support communications amongst islanders and services as required.
In the event of a major emergency the Community Centre, Forbes Hall, would become the meeting place for information and communications through the Emergency Social Services. It is hoped that a Ham radio operator would be operating from there to communicate to other agencies to provide support and emergency services to the island. Radio operators across the island would ideally make contact with the Ess designated station to coordinate communications between Local Emergency Response Neighbourhoods and the ESS center. More information about ESS, LERN and personal preparedness can be found elsewhere on this site.
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Licensed Ham Operators on Thetis
LAST NAME HANDLE Call SIGN PHONE # GROUP & LERN Accipiter Petra VA7AKU 246-2096 ESS - LM Brown Ian VE7DIY 246-9629 LPP Caldbeck Jeannine VE7JZZ 246-3876 TIVFD - MV Darling Doug VE0MUS 246-2557 FRA Ferguson Michael VEOMFL 246-9990 LM Ferguson Doreen KLOPZ 246-9990 LM Forbes Mary VA7MFY 246-2276 ESS - NFD French Tim VE7HNL 416-0373 TIVFD - MFD Hess Matt VA7HES 246-9445 TIVFD - QF Hess Claire VA7CHH 246-9445 ESS - QF Luckham Alexander VA7ALL 246-4802 Ladysmith Luckham Peter VA7DVR 246-4802 TIVFD - NFD Luckham Simone VE7SLW 246-4802 ESS - NFD Luckham Tegan VA7TGN 246-4802 TIVFD - NFD Rees Audree VE7ODN 246-9575 CB Rees Pete VE7DCR 246-9575 CB Saul Les VE7GBT 246-4253 UFP Shelford Veronica VE7VMS 246-1509 TIVFD/AUX - QF Vance Easton VE7KSM 246-2312 LES Wanney Gerhard VE7WEY 246-1586 TIVFD - PLA
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HAMSPEAKThe Q code is a standardized collection of three-letter message encodings, also known as a brevity code, all of which start with the letter "Q", initially developed for commercial radiotelegraph communication, and later adopted by other radio services, especially amateur radio.
73 = Best regards
88 = Love and kisses
QTH = Home
clear and monitoring = finished your communication with the other party but continuing to listen on this frequency
clear and QRT = finished your communication with the other party and not listening (terminated)
CQ CQ CQ callsign = someone listening for stations to call
QRI = How is the tone of my transmission?
QRL = Are you busy?
QRV = Are you ready?
QRZ = Who is calling me?
QSA = What is the strength of my signals (or those of ... )?
QSO = Can you communicate with ... direct or by relay?
QSP = Will you relay a message to ...?
QSY = Shall I change to transmission on another frequency?
QTH = What is your position in latitude and longitude (or according to any other indication)?
QTR = What is the correct time?
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INTERNET LINKS
- Ham speak, a complete List : http://www.ac6v.com/jargon.htm
- Radio Amateurs of Canada : http://www.rac.ca/
- Ham License Plate link:
http://www.icbc.com/registration-licensing/specialty-plates/ham-radio
Please note that this is not just a "vanity plate" option. Having a call sign license plate means you can be identified as a possible communication point should a general emergency arise while you are out in the car.
- Cowichan Valley Amateur Radio Society : http://www.cvars.com/
- The Island Trunk System : http://www.islandtrunksystem.org/node/1
- Capital Region Emergency Radio Coordinators Committee at www.crercc.com
- QRZ.COM : http://www.qrz.com/
- EHAM.NET : http://www.eham.net/
- BC AMATEUR RADIO COORDINATION COUNCIL : http://www.bcarcc.org/
Wouxun KG-UVD1P Downloads : - USB driver : http://www.wouxun.com/down_01.asp?SortID=10&SortPath=0,10,
- Programming software download : http://www.wouxun.com/DownView.asp?ID=162&SortID=12
- User manual download : http://www.wouxun.com/DownView.asp?ID=168&SortID=18
- Third party programming software (free download) : http://www.kc8unj.com/kguv.html
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ARCTIC NET SCRIPTThis script is intended for use during net exercise Sundays at 19:00hrs on 147.500 mhz simplex (i.e. channel SIM75 on your pre-programmed ARCTIC Wouxun radios.)
ARCTIC 12/20/2011
Amateur Radio Club of the Thetis Island Community Weekly Net Script- Set up prior to the 19:00hr start. Have the check in sheet available to record station information.
- Do a test broadcast to make sure your radio is working. Call on the net frequency and ask anyone monitoring for a radio check.
- Call for an ARCTIC club member who is willing to be a relay station for the night.
- Note the call sign of the relay station below. At exactly 19:00 pm start the script:
“Good evening. This is (your name and call sign), net control for ARCTIC, the Amateur Radio Club of the Thetis Island Community.- Pause, allow emergency or priority traffic, then proceed
“Is there any emergency or priority traffic?”
“This net may be broken at any time for any emergency or priority traffic.- Announce now if you are planning to run an exercise after the check ins. i.e. “For those wishing to particpate in tonights exercise please stay on frequency after the check ins”
“For information regarding this net go to www.thetisisland.net/hams or send an e-mail to hams at thetisisland dot net.
“This net normally meets Sundays at 19:00PM using simplex on 147.500 megahertz. “
“The purpose of this net is to support and train new Ham Radio operators and for emergency communications. We invite all to participate in this net to announce Amateur radio events, activities, resources and training in support of Thetis Island and the general community. This is a directed net and all traffic should be coordinated by Net Control.”
“Please note that (announce call sign of relay operator) has agreed to act as relay for tonight.”
“All stations are asked to check in with their call sign phonetically followed by their handle and location.”- Pause, welcome guests, write down their call sign, name and location.
“Are there any visitors or guests? Please check in now.”
“Prior to commencing with general check ins I am going to break for any emergency or priority traffic, is there any emergency or priority traffic, please come now.”- Pause for any responses.
“Hearing none, I am going to proceed with check-ins for the ARCTIC net, check in will be in alphabetic order of call sign suffix”.- Take a list and acknowledge those you have heard. Write down a signal report and a request for traffic if they have indicated they have traffic.
“Please respond with your call sign, name and location, when I call your suffix”.
“When net control repsonds to your call sign, give a signal report and indicate if you have any Traffic. Traffic will be handled after check ins and prior to any exercise.”
“Any Stations whose call sign suffix begins with A-J please come now.”
“Any Stations whose call sign suffix begins with K-R please come now.”- Add to your list and acknowledge those you have heard. Write down a signal report and a request for traffic if they have indicated they have traffic.
“Any Stations whose call sign suffix begins with S-Z please come now.”- Add to your list and acknowledge those you have heard. Write down a signal report and a request for traffic if they have indicated they have traffic.
“Are there are any missed stations that wish to check in” (Pause for responses)- Call stations sequentially from list recorded earlier and ask them to transmit their message. Once stations having traffic have finished:
“Are there any further Visitors or guests that would like to check in” (Pause for responses)
“Those stations that have traffic, I will call you now one at at time; please stand by for me to call you.”
“Are there any finally late or missed check ins for the ARCTIC net.”- Acknowledge as before.
“Are there any questions or other announcements for the good of the net before we proceed with tonights exercise or close down the net.”- If you have announced an exercise conduct it now.
- Once you have finished the net:
“Thank you for participating in the ARCTIC net.”- At this point informal discussion is encouraged.
“This session is now closed. This is (your name and call sign), Net Control for the Amateur Radio Club of the Thetis Island Community, thank you for participating in tonights net, we will be here next week at 1900hrs.”
“Please stay on frequency for general unmanaged discussion if you wish, the frequency is now open to all users.”
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Some common radio frequencies used in the Cowichan valley and points northGeneral use Ham Frequencies
(Ch # and Name as pre-programmed in the ARCTIC Wouxun radios)
# Name RX Freq TX Freq 1 CHEM 146.68 146.08 2 SIM65 146.5 146.5 3 SIM75 147.5 147.5 4 SALT 147.32 147.92 5 NAN543 145.43 144.83 6 SALTVI 146.66 146.06 7 COURT 146.62 146.02 8 ECT 145.47 144.87 9 MTDOUG 145.29 144.69 10 PARK 147.08 147.68
Weather Channels
# Name RX FREQ only 21 WX1 162.55 22 WX2 162.4 23 WX3 162.48 24 WX4 162.43 25 WX5 162.45 26 WX6 162.5 27 WX7 162.53
Marine Channels
Name RX FREQ only CH 6 156.3 CH 9 156.45 CH 22 157.1 CH 66 156.33 CH 68 156.43 CH16 156.8 CH 83 157.18
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Map Showing HAMs on Thetis Island as at December 27, 2011
The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is formally known as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet. The NATO Alphabet assigns code words to each letter of the alphabet. These are often used in Amateur Radio and SSB Cb Radio. Ham Radio and Sideband CB Radio operators often use these code words to accurately convey messages in weak signal conditions.
| A = Alpha B = Bravo C = Charlie D = Delta E = Echo F = Foxtrot G = Golf H = Hotel I = India J = Juliet K = Kilo L = Lima M = Mike |
N = November O = Oscar P = Papa Q = Quebec R = Romeo S = Sierra T = Tango U = Uniform V = Victor W = Whiskey X = X-ray Y = Yankee Z = Zulu |
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