P
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New tone squelch requirement.
See announcement section below—
Join our Mini Net every evening at 6:45 PM local time! Listen to an old net!
Visitors are always welcome to check in and enjoy traditional Ottawa Valley hospitality.
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Silent Key: Gil is Gone! See Announcements below
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
OF THE
CHAMPLAIN REGIONAL REPEATER ASSOCIATIONSaturday 29 May 2010 9:30am
Our Annual General Membership meeting was held this year at the Rocky Nountain House restaurant in Renfrew.
This was not an election year. The second vice president, Dave, VE3LBO, is unable to continue due to having moved away. Ron Sinclair volunteered to fill his shoes.
It has been a good year for VE3STP. The introduction of the 114.8 Hz. CTCSS tone requirement a year ago on the repeater input has eliminated the bothersome QRM we were receiving from distant stations on the same frequency.
We are still in need of a couple more Net Controllers. Larry is serving double duty as Friday and Sunday night controller. If you can take a night or fill in as a spare when needed, please get in touch with Ed or any of the other Net Controllers. Steve will continue as Web Master for this web site until a volunteer is found.
The repeater is in excellent performance. The new repeater has been tried and pulledfor functional changes. It should be up shortly.
If you are not sure of your membership status, you can find it on the web site. Click on “Check Your Membership Status” and enter Username <VE3STP> and Password <hamradio>. Be sure to use upper case for username and lower for the password.
Your executive is working hard to keep the association viable and to ensure that VE3STP maintains its reputation as a reliable source of ham radio communication throughout the Ottawa valley. We truly need your support.
Thanks — The Executive Committee
Echolink has been removed from VE3STP.
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The Champlain Regional Repeater Association occasionally provides space in this box for neighbouring area clubs to make announcements of general interest to the local ham community. |
A recent breakfast 16 April 2008 - Rocky Mountain House Restaurant, Renfrew
Ed VA3ED, Doug KB2FID, Steve VE3KEG, Gil VE3BHA, Dave VE3LBO, Wayne VE3JSQ, Bill VE3TUC, Randy VA3RKS, Mike VA3TJP, John VE3DDN, and Ben VA3BES. Photo by Shirley-Anne.
Silent Key
With great sadness, we announce the loss of one of our patriarchs. Gil VE3BHA, founding member of our association, past president many times over, (see PastPresList.html ) and Thursday night net controller for the last many years passed away Friday August 26 2011. Eldon Gilchrist was born in 1928. See obituary Gil saved the day many times by hustling up to the repeater site from his cottage/home on nearby Ferguson Lake. He will be remembered along with the early great names - Doug Pepper, Arn Petch, "Doc" Ringrose, and too many others to list. See his repeater history at http://ve3stp.org/history A regular attendee at the relatively recent Wednesday morning breakfast he has been missed for about a year while labouring under the affliction that took him, a type of cardiac failure. His unwavering politeness yet sharp wit and giving personality will be remembered.
Our condolences to his "ham wife" Laurie (who's brother was a ham too), son Syd VE3FML and daughter Cathy.
Gil, reserve a place for us and say HI to the Great Ham for us! . . . - . -
VE3STP supports the ARES Renfrew East meeting 20051126
Youngest
mininet controller. On Friday 26 December 2003
the mininet
was run by Nathan MacIsaac VA3NCM, age 13, only several weeks
after
being assigned his certificate and call sign. Congratulations,
Nathan!
Membership dues are payable in January. Yours would be appreciated if you have not already mailed your cheque. The annual fee is a modest $25.00, $40.00 for family (two or more hams). Additional donations will be gratefully received and well used to improve the serviceability of the repeater. Check your membership status
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On November 29, 1968 a group of radio amateurs in the National Capital area, interested in VHF operation, met to discuss the possibility of erecting a regional repeater to service the towns and highways west of Ottawa. At the time, no coverage existed in this rural area other than the limited access provided by VE2CRA in Ottawa. The repeater is presently located on Kennelley's Mountain, part of the Mount St. Patrick range of the Madawaska Highlands at an elevation of 1450 feet. The intent was to provide reliable coverage to an area encompassing Ottawa, Smith's Falls, Perth, Kaladar, Madoc, Arnprior, Renfrew, Deep River, Pembroke, Petawawa, Barry's Bay and Bancroft for mobile operators |
It was also intended for use by fixed stations with beam antennas in such areas as Kingston, Belleville, Peterborough and Haliburton. We have a regular check-in from Hawkesbury and Ogdensburg. Several names for the group were discussed and The Champlain Regional Repeater Association was chosen as the coverage area was the territory covered by Samuel de Champlain in his explorations. VE3STP went into
service on May 3,
1969 and has operated more or less continuously ever since.
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The Champlain Regional Repeater Association is not a "club" as such and limits activities to the following.
The Champlain Regional Repeater
Association is
incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under the laws
of
the Province of Ontario.
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This was the motley crew for breakfast at the PJ Restaurant in Arnprior 9 Aprl 2003. Pictured are Rod VA3ZBB; Jim VA3EA; Betty VE3ZBB; John VE3DDN (STP Licensee); Art VA3LEY (CRRA Vice President); Ross VE3BTN; MarilynVE3BBO; Dave VE3ZBZ (CRRA Net Manager); Don VE3QLQ; Gil VE3BHA (CRRA Past President); Chuck VE3FEJ; Steve VE3KEG (CRRA President, tech director & web master); Clint VA3CLI; Bill VE3TUC (Then CRRA Secretary); Wally VE3GE; towering above Wally - Guy VE3WGL; and the photographer who runs faster than light - Ed VA3ED (CRRA Vice President). Click the image for a slightly larger and clearer version.
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The
Executive
Committee |
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LICENSEE (Volunteer)
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PAST PRESIDENT Steve Paynter VE3KEG |
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I guess the Sun's been shining on this web site because the pictures have faded.
Although VE3STP is an open repeater, we urge regular users to contribute financially to our continued operation. Dues are $25.00 single and $40.00 family annually and are payable at the beginning of the calendar year. Members receive the right to raise motions, have voting rights on motions and the election of officers, the right to run for office and our perpetual gratitude.
Dues or other enquiries may be sent to:
The Champlain Regional Repeater Association
146 Victoria St.,
Arnprior ON K7S 1T8
Cheques may be made to "CRRA".
For general information email The Secretary
For technical information or to make technical suggestions, email the technical director VE3AAC
The AGM is held in May or June of each year. Every odd numbered year nominations for the election of officers are received.
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VE3STP repeater has been obtained through a JEPP grant and the Township
of Greater Madawaska. Ownership of the repeater remains with the
township, and it is provided to us with the understanding that our ARES
organization would assist the township with communications, if called
upon, in the event of an emergency incident. The
repeater is a Motorola XPR8300 MOTOTRBO tranceiver, with an outboard
matching 100 Watt RF amplifier.The repeater is powered by 115v AC, with
a no-break 12 volt battery backup system to fall back on in event of an
AC power failure. The amplifier is powered by its own Astron power
supply, with battery backup. The battery could carry the repeater for 2
or 3 days, with controlled use. It is equipped with a modern external,
commercial, GaAsFet receiving preamp which provides, along with the
repeater's already sensitive receiver, an amazing degree of low noise
extended range reception.
The 100 watt amplifier provides us with coverage we have not enjoyed since the days of the original 90 Watt tube-type repeater. The original 1972 Sinclair F150-4E duplexer (2 Tx and 2 Rx resonator cans) has been overhauled and re-installed, to give us a low 2 dB of insertion loss to the eight dipole vertically polarized co-linear array antenna. The antenna is mounted on a 68 ft self supporting Delhi tower whose base is embedded in a six foot cube of concrete. It is said that the antenna tends to favour the Ottawa-Carleton area but it has excellent general coverage. Backup: The old and backup setup at VE3STP uses the Harris Alpha 2000 series two meter repeater.
Antenna:
is an eight dipole vertically polarized co-linear array antenna. The
antenna is mounted on a 68 ft self supporting Delhi tower whose base is
embedded in a six foot cube of concrete. Location of repeater. It's sensitivity at 146.46 Mhz. is better than 0.50 micro volt for full quieting (20 db) with 0.3 µvolt for a 12 db SINAD.
 The
receiver is protected from the powerful transmitter signal by the
duplexer whose role is to connect both receiver and transmitter to the
antenna while isolating the receiver from the transmitter. This
is achieved with an array of cavity resonators. The setup also offers
some protection from cross and inter modulation products arising from
strong signals from a commercial VHF radio communications tower not far
away.The gain in this antenna gives us an effective radiated power of
several hundred watts.There is also a GE Mastr exec II which could be pressed into service quickly if required. |
Power
Supply: The Motorola system runs directly from 115v AC, with a no-break battery
backup of 2 - 12volt AGM lead-acid batteries, float charged by the
repeater's own power supplies. Hydro
failure is signaled by a change in the courtesy beep, from the normal
single tone beep, to a 2 tone beep, signifying "save the batteries,
keep your transmissions short".
The previous equipment, including the HARRIS backup repeater, and the packet repeater is powered from a Texpro 13.5V 45A power supply which is backed up by a bank of 100 ampere hour liquid Edison Nickel-Iron batteries. The
site is served by a lengthy private primary hydro line (7200 volt) and
is the only customer on the secondary 240/120 volt three wire service
connection to the shack.
Control: The repeater is controlled by a NHRC-4 repeater controller. It provides the identifier and various timing functions such as the tail length, identifier and talk out timer. The timers and other repeater functions may be set up or controlled remotely through the use of DTMF tones. In the event of abuse, the repeater may be shut down remotely by a control operator. Time out: There is an over talk timer that temporarily shuts down the repeater if an extended talker goes on and on. Time out is signaled by a double beep.
These
remote functions will soon be transferred to a separate multi channel
telemetry and control system operating in another band.
Safety and Grounding: The tower grounding system is enormous and effective and has weathered nature's assaults. The Shack: The equipment is stored in a rugged vandal resistant building with intrusion signaling over the repeater and a local loud horn. A buried power service cable and antenna cable completes the facility. |
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Meet Your Net Controllers...... |
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18:45 ET |
Net Controllers |
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Monday: |
Wayne Greenough VE3JSQ |
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Tuesday: |
Mike Parris VA3TJP |
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Wednesday: |
Richard Bourcier VA3BIX |
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Thursday: |
Jim Rivett VA3JER |
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Friday: |
Larry VE3KLJ |
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Saturday: |
Ed Holmes VA3ED when avail |
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Sunday: |
Larry Monuk VE3KLJ |
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Backups: Doug
KB2FID, Rob VA3AGN, Richard VA3BIX, Brian VE3BRT, Murray VE3IFP, Steve
VE3KEG,
Tom VE3TJG
Preamble and Check in Sheet in .pdf .doc .html
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Check out the new ham radio swapnet at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hamswapnet/ managed by our Lewis VE3KKO
Some Neighbouring Repeaters in the Valley community
