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