A New Association

ECOA is pleased to welcome a new national association to the fold, the Canadian Amateur Radio Emergency Network.

This is a huge step in emergency communications, and a much needed development, that will help unify all the independent Emcomm Groups across Canada with common training standards and a standardized basic emcomm training course.

It's been a long time coming and we're very please to welcome it.  ECOA looks forward to working closely with them as part of this new federation.

2015 Island QSO Party

The rule for this years W/VE Island QSO Party have now been published, and they are available HERE.  There are some changes so please read them carefully.

This event takes place on Saturday, August 29th.  Pick out your island and start planning the activation.

Island and Lighthouse activations are excellent ways of practicing your emcomm deployment skills.

ECOA is very pleased to announce that George Williams, VE3SIQ, has been appointed the new EC for Lennox-Addington County, effective 27 May, 2015.

George has been a long time member of ECOA, and is an ex-RAC DEC. and EC.  We look forward to a large expansion of Emcomm in Lennox-Addington County under his watch.

ECOA would like to take this opportunity and thank Dave, VE3DZE, the previous EC for Lennox-Addington County who have just completed his two year term and is moving on to a more senior position in the organization.

Field Day 2015

The ARRL Field Day is coming up at the end of this month and it's time we all dusted off our go-boxes and got ready for the best radio weekend of the year.  This year Field Day will be held on the 27th & 28th June.

Field Day is about emergency preparedness, not contesting.  This is a golden opportunity to get out of the shack, set up at another location such as your local county EOC, and get on the air.  

Most Emcomm groups use quickly deployable portable antennas while others might erect more elaborate portable towers and dipoles.  Some groups use battery power, others use generators, and still other clubs use mains power, and keeping with the spirit of deploying the set up is done using tents and screen shelters.

Field Day is an important training exercise for Emcomm, perhaps the most important one of the year besides Winter Field Day held each January.

If your Emcomm group does not get out and practice deploying to the field on a regular basis, you're not much better than a radio social club........and perhaps you need to reconsider your commitment to Emcomm as a whole.

We at ECOA hope to work you on Field Day weekend, give a listen for our association station, VE3OEC, operating from the highlands of Haliburton.

Simulated Emergency Test 2014

ECOA is pleased to announce that it will be hosting its annual SET on Sunday, October 19th.

This SET is an Ontario-wide exercise in emergency communications, administered by ECOA.

Timings for this event will be 1030 Local to 1530 Local Eastern Time Zone.

For further information please contact your local ECOA EC or Section Manager.  

Congratulations!!

Russ, VE3FI

Our congratulations go out to Russ, VE3FI, who is the new president of ECOA, effective Saturday, 26th July, 2014. 

Russ has a long and great background in emergency communications and we look forward to ECOA moving ahead in the next few months under his leadership.

Our thanks go out to Bill, VE3CLQ, our immediate past president for his hard work on behalf of the organization over the last two years.

Canada finally has 60m access

On Wednesday 22nd January, the Canadian regulator, Industry Canada (IC) released a decision to allow amateur radio operators to use the 5332 kHz, 5348 kHz, 5358.5 kHz, 5373 kHz and 5405 kHz frequencies on a no-interference, no-protection basis, 2.8 kHz bandwidth, same modes as U.S., 100W PEP maximum power.

These are the same channels, modes and criteria as those available to US operators on 5 MHz and are as the result of an official IC consultation held earlier in Summer 2012.

Prior to this, Canadian amateurs have had access to these frequencies since 2012, provided they applied to IC for a special interim 5 MHz/60m developmental licence, utilising a VX9 series callsign.

The Industry Canada 5 MHz Decision document can be found at
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf10623.html