Quarter Century Amateur Radio Club

A competitor to StarLink wants to acquire the 70cm and 33cm amateur radio bands for their use world-wide. Their intended use is satellite service to cellular devices.

Ham Radio Users Clash With Starlink Rival AST SpaceMobile Over Spectrum Use

This is just the latest case of commercial interests making a play for spectrum that is allocated to the Amateur Radio Service. As amateur radio operators we need to use the spectrum allocated to us and vigorously defend our allocations.

Our friends at the Northern Alberta Radio Club are hosting a tailgate flea market on Saturday, August 23. The flea market starts at 10:00. Sellers should show up at 9:30 to get set up. Free hot dogs will be available around noon. This event will be held at the VE6HM repeater site here.

Thanks to Lyle, VE6EMF, and Terry, VE6EM, the VE6OG WSPR beacon has been relocated to its’ new home on Lyle’s property.

Power is provided by a 12V lead-acid battery which is kept topped up by a solar panel and a charge controller.

There’s the WSPR hardware in it’s enclosure.

And there are the fellows who made it happen. Many thanks to Lyle for his kind donation of space at his QTH and to Terry for his assistance in the relocation effort!

Our friends at NARC are hosting a field day event. Field Days are always great fun in the great outdoors and everyone is welcome to attend!

More information on this event and all that it entails can be found here:

NARC Field Day activities

We hope you can make it!

It’s time for hams to get their portable radio stations ready for action on Field Day. Any band, any mode, any power source, any antenna. The objective is to get out there, go portable, get on the air and show off our hobby to folks that are not hams (not yet, anyway)!

This year Field Day will be on the weekend of June 28 and 29.

See RAC‘s page about Field Day 2025 here:

Also see the ARRL‘s Field Day 2025 page here:

ARRL’s Field Day page

We hope to hear you on the air from the field!

The ARES Edmonton 2m net is held on the first Thursday of each month.

It commences at 2030h on the VE6HM repeater and moves to the VE6QCR repeater approximately 15 minutes later.

Please join us and check in!

In recent years commercial entities have expressed interested in the 33cm band. They seek to have it reallocated and to monetize it. While 33cm does not enjoy the level of interest and activity that 2m and 70cm do a quick scan of RepeaterBook will show that there are many 33cm repeaters operating in the US and Canada. Here in Alberta there are five repeaters operating in the 33cm band.

The ARRL has recently renewed their efforts in defending the 33cm band as detailed in this article:

ARRL Renews Defense of the 902-928 MHz Amateur Radio Band

Commercial pressure on spectrum allocated to the Amateur Radio Service has existed for some years now and will only ever increase. Hams in France were successful in fighting off parties interested in reallocating their 2m VHF band for aviation use several years ago.

As individual amateur radio operators what can we each do to defend our spectrum?

• Make use of the spectrum that is allocated to us (use it or lose it!)
• Support the organizations that are mounting defenses of our spectrum on our behalf
• Encourage new hams into the hobby

In Canada the organization that defends spectrum allocated to the Amateur Radio Service is RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada). They have a Defense of Amateur Fund which you can read about here:

RAC Defense of Amateur Radio Fund

Defending our amateur radio spectrum is work. It takes time, effort, money and legal resources. And the need for this defense will only ever increase.

The International Amateur Radio Union is the worldwide federation of national amateur radio organizations. The IARU provides a forum for common matters of concern to amateur radio operators worldwide and collectively represents these matters to the International Telecommunications Union.

The membership of the IARU is comprised of more than 160 member societies in as many countries and separate territories. In Canada that society is the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC).

The IARU was founded in 1925 and celebrated their 100th anniversary in February of this year so we thought this a good time to mention them. Tim Ellam, VE6SH, currently serves as the president of the IARU.

See the IARU website here for more info on them and their activities on our behalf.