Wildrose Network News Archives from 2014

Dec.30.14 There is a firmware update for the Icom 5100A. Click the link for more information. Icom Firmware Update
Dec.17.14 Just a heads up as we head into the holiday season, the coffee gathering on Wednesday night at the Swiss Chalet will be the last one tonight for this year as the next 2 Wednesdays fall on the eve's of Christmas and New Year's. Will gather again every Wednesday in the new year starting January 7th. In the meantime the wildrose group and supporters wish you all a safe and happy holiday.
Dec.15.14 I would like to thank those that helped recently with Insurance and maintenance cost. Some of you used the PayPal button whcih is a convenient way of supporting the group. Atleast we now know the button works. Thanks again.
Nov.28.14 Everyone was bugging me about the burnt out bulb on the Christmas lights. Unfortunately in this day and age incandescent bulbs are hard to find. But I did find some new ones that look more like regular light bulbs but are actually LED's so I bought them and hung them on top of the page. Merry Christmas...
Nov.22.14 It's that time of year when most clubs have to pay for insurance for many of there repeater sites and we are no exception. The Wildrose Network maintains many repeater sites and insurance is a mandatory requirement for our 900 and DSTAR equipment site here in Calgary. Proof of coverage must be presented each year to be in compliance with our occupancy agreement. If you are interested in helping out with this expense, we suggest a $40.00 donation to assist with the cost. This is a voluntary donation. If any excesses are collected, they will be used to pay for the on-going monthly internet costs for VE6WRN. You can use the PayPal button above to make your donation. Alternatively you can contact Dale VE6CPK.
Oct.31.14 Check out a couple of wide angle images of RadioWorld Central. Look below on the right side of this page for a low res and high res wide angle image. These images are mostly showing the east side and south end of the store. Mostly of the Ham Radio section of course!! Image 2 shows some of the GPS section, west side. Images taken by Dale VE6CPK (using the new Iphone 6) with permission from Greg VE6EO.
Sep.09.14 Mike VE6AMC and Dale VE6CPK were at Hailstone Butte on Sunday to have a look at the repeater site. DStar has been down since July/2013 and 220 repeater has been a little erratic as well. Mike did the hard work and climb the mountain well Dale stayed at the vehicle and offered any assistant to Mike that he needed. All in all it looks like the site took a minor lightning hit and Mike was able to do the repairs and get things back up and running. DStar (C) is now back up and running so were hoping to hear someone from Southern Alberta check in. No gateway access at this time but the repeater is workable from Lethbridge to Calgary. Also if you remember the 220 had an issue when the weather got cold. Will monitor that as the season gets colder and hopefully it will not be an issue this time. The 220 is linked into the Partks repeater system. Roads in the area have improved but driving to the mountain site is still in question. On return we took a drive via the trunk road through Cataract Creek and although passable it is still a real mess. Culverts are being replace and many kilometers of roads that got washed out have been repaired but are in very rough shape at this time. So once again thanks to Mike VE6AMC for doing the hard work and getting the site back up and running.
Aug.25.14 The new exam generator can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/025.nsf/eng/h_00040.html There is also a link under OTHER LINKS on the tabs above. Thanks to Dennis VE6BGZ for this link.
Aug.22.14 Here is an article worth reading on the ICOM 51A from QST.
Aug.01.14 Icom 50th Anniversary Limited Edition. Check out these cool ID-51A's. What colour do you want? Click here. Also check out the DStar QSO Party!!!
Jul.28.14 The VE6WRT FM repeater is now back up and running on the west side of Calgary. Coverage is local but can be worked in most city locations with a good antenna. The time and temperatrure are annouced every 30 minutes. The future of this repeater is unclear at this time pending the out come of the DStar repeater located at Hailstone Butte. The repeater went down early last year and then the rain came washing out the roads in the area preventing access. We are still hoping to get to the site late summer and try to determine the situation. Watch here for details.
Jul.27.14 We had a great time at Radioworld Central on Saturday. Was nice to see some of the Hams I had not seen in years. Will be looking forward to visiting the store many times and hopefully see a few amateurs from time to time. I was told that Saturday opening was very successful.
Jul.23.14 Just a reminder that Radioworld Central and GPS Central will be opening there doors on Satrurday. They promise to have lots on display along with a free BBQ lunch.
Jul.19.14 The Banff repeater VE6BNF TX link has been down for a few weeks. The transmitter PA was not working and a new PA was ordered. Mike and Dale did the repair on Friday and now the Banff repeater is fully linked into the rest of the Park system. Enjoy!!!

As you can see the ongoing cost to keep this all working does dig into our pockets from time to time. To make sure it keeps going your support is needed. Please click on the PayPal button on the Wildrose homepage or download our application form and fill it out.

We still have an issue with the Hailstone Butte repeater, the roads are slowly getting repaired but the road to the repeater site will not be repaired for some time yet. We are planning a hiking trip or maybe a mountain bike trip to the site sometime during the latter part of summer. If your interested in helping out please contact Dale VE6CPK. We have equipment to take to the site and also equipment to maybe bring back so extra bodies will help.
Jul.14.14 We have a new repeater up and running with some interesting features. Details will be made available at the Wednesday night coffee gathering. Hope to see you there.
Jul.12.14 It's now official. Radioworld Central will be opening there doors with a free Lunch BBQ on July 26th. For more details clcik here.
Jun.22.14 For those of you that have not heard, Radioworld Central is coming to Calgary. Location is #8 - 711 - 48th Ave SE just off of Blackfoot Trail. Expect the store to open towards the ladder part of July. Watch for more details as they get closer to opening day.
Jun.16.14 Well it was a long weekend with very little sleep but the gateway is now back up and running on the latest ICOM gateway and software updates. There is still some minor tuning to do but overall its appears to be working well. Note that there is no Freestar access. All nodes A,B,and C are all working (Note there is no DD node, it was remove to make way for the 900 Meg Rpt). On another note Mike VE6AMC and Pat VE6CPT worked on the 900 Meg repeater to clear up a problem we were having. There is a change so please check out the 900 Web Page for details.
Jun.07.14 We now have a PayPal Donate button on the Wildrose Home page. If you like to help us out with a donation please feel free to do so. It all helps and without your support some of the projects we have put together may come to an end. You can click on the PayPal Donate button above and just follow the prompt. Even a little helps. You can also become a member of our group by filling out the application form. Clcik here for that form.
May.27.14 Note that VE6RPT/VHF repeater has now been upgraded to the new Yaesu System Fusion Repeater (see System Fusion for more details). VE6RPT/UHF has also been upgraded to a new Quantar Motorola Repeater (see P25 for more details).
Apr.28.14 VE6WRO B module now located in Calgary is back up and operating on the ICOM G2/Dplus software. All data has been restored to previous settings. Coverage is local to the west side (see map). Gateway access is allowed for all Repeaters and Reflectors. We will not be installing FreeStar so any access to FreeStar Repeaters and XRF Reflectors will be limited. VE6WRN will be updated shortly to the same status. Watch here for details.
Apr.10.14 The gateway at VE6WRN is offline until further notice. We have had a computer failure.
Mar.19.14 Yaesu's System Fusion is coming to the Wildrose Network very soon. Stay tune for details.
Feb.18.14 Wildrose goes P25!

The Wildrose Network is pleased to announce that we have installed Alberta's first Amateur radio P-25 Repeater. This machine has replaced the VE6RPT UHF repeater and is now working on mixed mode (both analog and digital). We will be discussing this new repeater and new communications mode over coffee the next few weeks so more information will be available there.

Initial details on the repeater are below:

VE6RPT UHF 444.900 MHz + PL 218Hz Analog
444.900 MHz + $293 Astro Digital P-25

Hope to hear you on P-25!!
The Wildrose Amateur Radio P-25 project team.
Feb.09.14 Dennis VE6BGZ did some research on the new 60 meter band. Here are a few links that you may find of interest: Link1 Link2 Link3
Feb.02.14 New Icom DStar radio announce by Icom. Check it out here.
Jan.23.14 Industry Canada has announced that a number of specific frequencies within the 60 meter high frequency band have been approved for amateur radio use. This is now in effect. For more information check out the following link:
```
              http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf10623.html
```
Jan.17.14 There has been some new/updated files added to the Wildrose Support section. In particular the Icom 880H DStar radio (thanks to Dennis VE6BGZ for these files). Some of the other DStar radios have had some updates as well. If you have any files that we can all use please let me know, VE6CPK.