KWARC Meeting Dates
| 2024 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|
KWARC holds regular meetings September to June on the first Tuesday of each month. The following well rounded programs have been confirmed for the upcoming season. Be sure to pass the word and bring a friend.
Doors open at 7pm at St John Ambulance Station, 250 Gage Avenue, Kitchener, ON, N2M 2C8
We attempt to meet simultaneously in person and on Zoom.
| 2025 | |
|---|---|
| 2025-01-07 | Show and Tell? |
| 2024 | |
| 2024-12-03 | AGM and dinner at Edelweiss Tavern, 600 Doon Village Road, Kitchener, at the corner with Homer Watson Blvd |
| 2024-11-05 | Tim is planning a meeting focused on emergency communications and public service. Details to follow. |
| 2024-10-18 2024-10-19 | Scouts Canada Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) - Everton Scout Camp, (140 Evert St, Guelph/Eramosa). Set up on Fri (18th), operate on Sat (19th) with a continuous circulation of scout groups. |
| 2024-10-01 | Unfortunately, due to delays in renovations, our tour of the Hammond Radio Museum has been postponed. DO NOT DRIVE TO GUELPH FOR THE OCTOBER MEETING. Instead it will be held at our usual St. John Ambulance location on Gage Street in Kitchener. We will have an audience participation session where people describe their antenna systems (HF and VHF). Share with us what you have, how well it works, and what you wish you could improve. Looking forward to learning from each other. |
| 2024-09-03 | Meshtastic Networking presentation by Bohdan Turkynevych UR5YBM |
| 2024-08-06 | The annual summer BBQ / picnic at Waterloo Park, site #20, so it would be easiest to the use west entrance off of Westmount Road North. See City of Waterloo map of the park. We have a great spot with a hospitality area that has a full kitchen (fridge, freezer, stove, counter) so bringing cold or warm dishes are possible. It will be a POTLUCK family event. Start time is 6:00pm. Cold beverages will be provided. To help us plan a great event, please sign up here in this spreadsheet. Looking forward to it, we had a great time last year! |
| 2024-07-20 | Antenna Building Workshop (note this is a Saturday!) from 8am until about 2pm, Breithaupt Park Pavilion, Kitchener (near the corner of Union and Margaret) on. We will have materials such as wire, insulators, coax, paracord dacron rope, coax connectors, toroids, etc. which you can buy on a per-foot or per-item basis. We will help you measure and cut your antenna, and help you solder and put on connectors. If you are interested in making your own dipole, vertical, End Fed Half Wave, Off Centre Fed dipole, or whatever, please post your interest on the #general Slack channel, responding to Vic's post of June 19th. This will provide a rough idea who is coming and what you want to build. More details about cost will be provided when known. Please save the date! |
| 2024-06-22 | ARRL Field Day - June 22 and 23, 2024 - Plan on joining us for a great event! Set up on Saturday morning, with operation beginning at 2:00pm and running until 2:00pm Sunday. Location is 1057 Foerster Road, Maryhill. (Google maps thinks it is Forester Rd.) Looking for station captains, operators, set up help. Come see Field Day in action, perhaps operate the GOTA or another station, and enjoy a great barbecue! |
| 2024-06-04 | Ben VE3ST will be our guide for a tour of the Baden Hill repeater site. Snyders Road between Petersburg and Baden. Attendees will be asked to park at the bottom of the hill near the security gate. We will use one of our 4x4 trucks to shuttle people from the parking lot. Please plan to arrive before 7:00 pm. Our plans are to be there on the day of the tour starting about 6.30 p.m. till approx. 8.30. Members can bring guests if they wish but due to safety concerns children are discouraged from attending. In case of poor weather, our meeting will take place at the St. John Ambulance Education Centre on Gage St at our usual time |
| 2024-05-07 | RAC update with Barry Brosseau VE3SLD, Regional Director Ontario South |
| 2024-04-02 | Weather Balloon & LoRa Ground Stations - Mike VE3WNP |
| 2024-03-05 | Discussion on logging and QSL strategies |
| 2024-02-06 | Presentation on contesting and presentation of contester's awards. Vic VE3YT to coordinate |
| 2024-01-02 | Combined "show and tell" and "mini swapshop". Have an interesting piece of gear to show or demonstrate? Bring it along! Have a piece of gear that you would be willing to sell to another club member? Bring it along! |
| 2023 | |
| 2023-12-06 |
(Yes, Wed, not Tue!) AGM and xmas dinner
- Eidelweiss Tavern. Dinner at 5:30pm,
with the meeting starting at approximately 7:00pm.
The Eidelweiss tavern is located at 600 Doon Village Road, Kitchener
Elections at the Annual General Meeting In advance of the Annual General Meeting, please submit your nominations for the Board of Directors to Rick VE3ZUP using email or telephone . Nominees must be members in good standing as of the meeting time. Self-nominations are welcome. If required, there will be write-in balloting to elect the Board members. Proxy balloting is available. Should a member require a proxy representative at the meeting, please contact Rick VE3ZUP for details. |
| 2023-11-07 | Bob VA3ZZS will give us a virtual tour of his off-grid shack, and talk about the upgrades he has been making this summer! |
| 2023-10-03 | FT8 / HF operation / Elecraft K4 demo with Mark VE3QAM, SSB and/or CW. |
| 2023-09-05 | Portable operations demonstration - stations to be set up in parking lot |
| 2023-08-01 | BBQ to kick off the next year - Waterloo Park - details TBC |
| 2023-07-04 | Have a month off! |
| 2023-06-06 | No meeting, but enjoy Hamfest on June 4th and Field Day on June 24-25, at Freds Green House and Nurseries, 1065 Foerster Rd, Breslau, ON N0B 1M0 - see the link for details |
| 2023-05-02 | Ask an Elmer Pt 2, moderated by Mark VE3QAM. This was amazingly popular last time, and it was really obvious we had plenty more questions and plenty more wisdom to share! |
| 2023-04-04 | Short talks - IRLP? SKCC, Raspberry Pis, etc? |
| 2023-03-07 | Amy VA3OTZ will tell us about using Digital modes on the VHF and UHF bands |
| 2023-02-07 | At this meeting, we'll discuss and see a demonstration of the amazing little instrument, the NanoVNA! Demo / HOWTO / etc with Garnet VE3KVE and Patrick VA3PAF |
| 2023-01-03 | Ask an Elmer: Setting up a station, working on an antenna, thinking about trying the digital modes or other questions? Bring them along, and let's have a good discussion. Vic VE3YT will act as our moderator. |
| 2022 | |
| 2022-12-06 | KWARC Annual Meeting and Holiday celebration. Eidelweiss Tavern in Kitchener. Celebration starts in a private room at 5:30pm. Members are invited to bring a significant other if they so choose, and will order off the menu. AGM 7:30pm: Reports from board members, Awarding Amateur of the Year, Voting to accept the proposed bylaws, Voting to elect a new board of directors |
| 2022-11-01 | Swap Table - bring items that you want to offer for free to other Amateurs in the Club, and Panel: Overview of KWARC Bylaw Revisions |
| 2022-10-04 | Aryan Kalia: a member of UW Orbital, a CubeSat team that entered a design for a ham radio repeater into the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge |
| 2022-09-06 | We hope to be able to return to in-person meetings at SJA for the next KWARC club year. We also hope to continue streaming the meetings on Zoom for those who would prefer to attend virtually. Atilla Matis, OM1AM, is one of the former heads of the space communication division. He will talk about Ham Satellites, Cubesats |
| 2022-08-02 | KWARC Centennial BBQ - Breithaupt Park |
| 2022-07-05 | Using Reverse Beacons - Pete N4ZR |
| 2022-06-07 | Final prep for ARRL Field Day? Summer plans? |
| 2022-05-03 | Adrian VE7NZ: Allstar and the Canada Hub |
| 2022-05-01 | KWARC will once again be primary communications provider for the Waterloo Marathon |
| 2022-04-05 |
Instruction for the role of Amateurs at the
Waterloo Marathon. Contest Club Ontario overview and my life in contesting by John Sluymer VE3EJ. |
| 2022-03-01 |
Michael VE3TKI will be talking to the club about Smith
Charts. Smith charts are a graphical tool to analyze
complicated transmission line problems, such as how to match a
transmission line with a load at one end to a generator at the
other (a source) Also call for volunteers for the Waterloo Marathon |
| 2022-02-01 | Mark VE3QAM will give us an Introduction to Digital Mobile Radio |
| 2022-01-04 | Virtual Show and Tell. Gord VE3EOS, Vic VE3YT, Roger VE3RKS, Doug VE3XDB, will talk about their ham holiday projects, gadgets, gizmos, thingies, and you can join them if you have anything to show 'n' tell about! |
| 2021 | |
| 2021-12-07 | AGM: Catch up with Club details/plans: Treasury, Ham Fest, Field Day, Centenary, Club logo, merch, holding in-person / hybrid meetings etc. |
| 2021-11-02 | Guest speaker / presenter Bob Heil K9EID will present "The Science of Audio" - Yes, THE Bob Heil! |
| 2021-10-05 | Vic VE3YT presenting / chairing a Contesting Panel. Harry, Kirk and Dave Lahn are the panelists. Patrick VA3PAF presiding over any other business. |
| 2021-09-07 | Peter VA3PTB: Bylaw Committee Progress Report. Mark VE3QAM: "A History of Amateur Radio" |
| 2021-08-03 | Virtual Shack Tours: Ted VE3TRQ's very digital shack, Mark VE3QAM's high-end shack / lab, Roger VE3RKS's previously-mobile shack, John VA3IJK's delightful shed-shack, Patrick VE3PMM's super-portable shack. |
| 2021-07-06 | Field Day Discussion, Contesting Update from Vic VE3YT, Education Update from Roger VE3RKS, Centenary Planning from Rick VE3ZUP, General Discussion |
| 2021-06-01 | Education Update (Roger VE3RKS), Field Day Update (Rick VE3ZUP), Contesting Update (Vic VE3YT), DX Report (Dan VA3IDD), KWARC Centenary (Rick VE3ZUP), Summer Radio Projects Round Table (Harry VE3HZ) |
| 2021-05-04 | AGM, incl financial update |
| 2021-04-06 | Brian VE3UU from the Diefenbunker Museum: Canada's Underground (Ham) Radio Station... Literally! Why would the government bury a Ham station 25 feet underground? Find out during this talk by Brian Jeffrey, VE3UU/VE3CWM, and Lead Volunteer at the Diefenbunker, Canada's Cold War Museum. |
| 2021-03-23 | Basic Qualification Course: We are again teaching a basic qualification course, starting on March 23, 2021. |
| 2021-03-02 | We'll hear from Onno VK6FLAB, an Australian amateur who creates a weekly podcast called Foundations of Amateur Radio. Each episode is less than five minutes long, and explores one of the many facets of our hobby. In his presentation, Onno will talk about trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone to learn and do something new in the wide world of radio. |
| 2021-02-02 | YouTuber Adam, K6ARK, will speak about portable operation, SOTA operation, and lightweight antennas |
| 2021-01-05 | Panel discussion about antennas led by Vic, VE3YT |
| 2020 | |
| 2020-12-01 | Christmas Gathering with Virtual Treats |
| 2020-11-03 |
Brandon VA3BPZ - A Tour of a Solar-Powered Shack Also: Amateur of the Year, Bylaw Reformation Committee Update, Contesting Group Update |
| 2020-10-06 | An Intro to IRLP from Nick VA3NNW |
| 2020-09-01 | Postponed AGM: Call to Order, Establish Quorum, Comments and Introductions, Approval of Agenda, Consider Previous AGM Minutes, Financial Report, Directors' Reports, Committees' Reports, Open Session, Election of Officers, Adjournment. |
| 2020-08-04 | AGM notice, Repeaters, Upcoming Presentations, Contesting Update, Education Update, St. John Ambulance Donation, Bylaws, Member Announcements |
| 2020-07-07 | An open discussion about everybody's Field Day Experiences |
| 2020-06-02 | Contesting update from Vic VE3YT, and Field Day planning (June 27th-28th!) |
| 2020-05-05 | AGM is postponed. Field day discussion, and general chat. |
| 2020-04-07 |
COVID-19 lockdown.
NO MEETING AT 250 GAGE. "Health-Can and WHO-endorsed social distancing. KWARC-endorsed distance socialising". We will also be discussing how + when to run the AGM. |
| 2020-03-03 |
A talk on the history of radio: "Will the Real Father of Radio Please Stand Up?" by Vic DiCiccio VE3YT We will be calling for volunteers for the Waterloo Marathon. |
| 2020-02-04 |
"Samuel Morse and the History of Radio" by Vic DiCiccio VE3YT We will be calling for Volunteers for the Waterloo Marathon. |
| 2020-01-07 | Our Annual Show and Tell Night. Bring your treasures, projects, or curiosities. |
| 2019 | |
| 2019-12-03 |
Jon, VA3JFZ, will speak on experiences with the MicroBitX, and
his first year as a Ham. This is also our Awards Night and Christmas Gathering. |
| 2019-11-05 |
A panel discussion on all things CW. Nominations for Amateur of the Year will also take place at this club meeting. |
| 2019-10-01 | Roger, VE3RKS, will present "Mud PI, (or actually Arduino in Muddy Rally Roads)" |
| 2019-09-03 | Ryan Maeck, Emergency Management Advisor, Region of Waterloo, will be our presenter. Ryan will update us on the Region's emergency management structure, the Emergency Social Services responses, and role of Amateur Radio in the emergency management system. |