December 10th, 2025

We have exciting news about SMART26.
The event has a new coordinator with Colleen Orr VE1CEO taking on this important task.
We also have a new webmaster for the website with Robert Mannette VE1CA taking this on.

Here is the new link which will be used going forward.   www.smartevent.ca

November 28th, 2025

Work continues on the new amateur radio communications trailer being built by  the club here in Amherst.
When finished the trailer will be used to promote the hobby, train operators, attend community events and be prepared for emergency communications if needed. We hope to have the trailer ready for debut at SMART26.
We may even have a class how how we came up with the idea, funding and building of the trailer.

For all the information, writeup and photos, CLICK HERE

CQ DMR Enthusiasts…

 It is with great pleasure that I announce the turn up of The Dartmouth Amateur Radio Clubs' new UHF DMR repeater, VE1DRR.  For now, we are operating at 25W on a lower tower position with a 3 element UHF YAGI that was once used for the 9600 packet link to VE1PKT.  We expect the Halifax boardwalk is now awash in DMR, which we hope will be enjoyed by our cruising guests next season.

Over the next few months, we will be working on power plant and remote VPN and system upgrades, and will slowly bring the power up as we receive signal reports from the field.

The device is linked to the Brandmeister network, and information on our connectivity can be found here:  https://brandmeister.network/?page=device&id=302441

Special thanks to the Brandmeister Canada team, especially VE9SC whom had to deal with my litany of questions, and Bob VE1BFX for helping me get this beastie installed at the VE1DAR site.

Signal reports are highly appreciated and can be sent to ve1drr@radio-waves.net

73's de Keith - VE1JKB 

Members of the WestCumb ARC hosted the 200th edition of Exercise Handshake on July 29, 2025 at the county office in Upper Nappan.

Jim Hannon VE1AFH and Jim Langille VE1JBL who participated in the first Handshake back in 2008 were in attendance along with other local operators Mike Masters VE1ZB, Mike Johnson VE1MWJ and Kevin Burke VE1KEV. We had three special guests for the event with Craig Seaboyer VE1DSS,  Al Cyples VE1CYP and Colleen Nesseth from Shubenacadie Radio Communications Centre (SRCC).

The Dartmouth Amateur Radio Club is pleased to announce that we have secured permission for Radio Amateurs to operate from the islands under the stewardship of The Mahone Island Conservation Association (MICA), many of which are listed in IOTA group NA-081.

MICA requires that all persons using their properties adhere to their island use guidelines which can be found here: https://mahoneislands.ns.ca/about-us/mica-stewardship/.  These properties are to be considered as LEAVE NO TRACE locations. We would respectfully add that Radio Amateurs visiting the islands or logging a MICA IOTA QSO help support MICA's work by becoming a member of MICA and helping preserve these wonderful resources for generations to come.

As these islands are available for public use, Radio Amateurs should be prepared to share the space with the public and should treat public interaction opportunities as an educational experience for all.  Share what we do!  Bring you club sign or banner!

The Islands have regular permanent oversight by local volunteers known as Island Champs, and we have been asked to provide MICA with a MINIMUM of 72 hours notice in advance of any operation from the MICA Islands. Notice should be sent by email to info@mahoneislands.ns.ca.  Please ensure your notice email contains the following information:

Name of island, and approx. location of operation on that island.

Date and time of expected arrival and departure from the island.

Contact name, number and email address of the Radio Amateur leading visit to MICA island.

And lastly, please note that activities on MICA properties are entered into entirely at your own risk.  

If you have any questions, or are interested in joining me in planning a visit to one of the MICA islands, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

73's de Keith - VE1JKB

ve1jkb@radio-waves.net

The Maritime QRS Roundtable is a weekly sked on 80m for CW at around 10 wpm. We chat for an hour on Wednesdays starting at 20:30 Atlantic Time. While we often meet at 3.566 MHz, sometimes we arrange another, more convenient, frequency. Join in by sending your call in any break in the conversation or just listen in to practice on-air copying.

Rather than using CW net Q-codes, we coordinate using the simple Discord chat app, which is available on all digital platforms. We encourage beginners of any speed to join on Discord: we’ll find a QSO that’s right for your speed! For access to the Discord server, email Jim VE1KM at ve1km@jcampbell.ca or Bruce VE9QR at ve9qrp@gmail.com using the subject ‘QRS Roundtable’. 

March 10th, 2025

On Saturday morning March 8th, 2025 two members of the WestCumb ARC in Amherst NS were interviewed by Ron Bickle VE1BIC at CFTA Community radio 107.9 about the club, upcoming events and amateur radio in general. Below is the interview thanks to Ron Bickle.

  WARC AT CFTA AMHERST - MAR 08 2025.mp3 

Posted January 4th, 2025

The Maritime Fusion Net finished its fifth year of operation in the "CQ Maritimes Room 60207" on December 25th, 2024 with 32 check-ins including 16 Nova Scotia, 11 New Brunswick, 3 Prince Edward Island and two from outside the area.

Contacts were down again this year.  Average net total was 31 check-ins, down from a high of 42 check-ins  in 2021.

Year   - NS - NB - PE - OS  -  TOTALS

2020 - 838 - 698 - 117 - 33 -  1755
2021 - 913 - 969 - 128 - 157 - 2167
2022 - 861 - 818 - 98 - 162 - 1939
2023 - 780 - 645 - 92 - 131 - 1648
2024 - 748 - 637 - 84 - 135 - 1604

I would like to thank everyone who checked into the net over the year and thank the other NCOs: Mike VE9MTV, Robert VE1CT and Rob VE1CA for taking time out of their day to host the net throughout the year.

Hope to hear many of you "On the Air" in 2025

Happy New Year from the Maritime Amateur.

Jim VE1JBL

Greetings all, 

I recently found out that there is a Canadian Winlink Wednesday. As we have many Atlantic Hams taking part in Winlink Wednesday stateside and also Exercise Handshake here is another opportunity to activate your Winlink station.
I contacted the two NCO's and this is the reply I received from Bill VA6RQ

Hi Jim,

There is no website for Winlink Wednesday Canada.(WWC) You just have to send me an email and I will add you to the list. 

Thanks for sending me a note. You have been added to my list.

I send out a message to all members every Tuesday, normally with a question to be answered. As well, Rosemarie VA3RIE also sends out a message, normally with some historical data for the day. When you respond on Wednesday you can send one message to both of us or individual messages to each of us. Your call.

The only thing we ask is that you do not request a message receipt and do not use reply all, this just uses up resources.

For additional information, I am the Western NCS and Rosemarie is the Eastern NCS. 

You can use a form/template, which we encourage, or if the sender uses an IMS/ICS 213R you can reply on that.

If you would prefer to use no form/template that works to.

The idea behind WWC is to keep you using Winlink and practising your skills using forms/templates.

IF YOU DON'T USE IT, YOU LOSE IT.

73,

Bill VA6RQ

For immediate release. 

Contact: Craig Seaboyer VE1DSS 136 Ohio Lake Road, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2K8 President NSARA (902)452-3275 cseaboye@hotmail.com 

Nova Scotia Amateur Radio Association (NSARA) elects a new executive committee at our latest AGM. On Saturday October 19, 2024, in Greenwood, NS, the NSARA held their AGM after the Greenwood ARC annual amateur radio flea market. 

The following positions were voted in by the members of the NSARA. 

President - Craig Seaboyer VE1DSS (cseaboye@hotmail.com)
Vice-president - Tom Cohoon VE1TA (ve1ta@yahoo.ca)
Secretary - Eric Smith VE1JW (ve1jw2010@gmail.com)
Treasurer - Evan Mosher VA1ECM (evanmosherelec@gmail.com) 

Anyone wishing further information, please contact the president, Craig VE1DSS or visit our website at nsara.ca. The NSARA has been promoting amateur radio in Nova Scotia since 1957. 

Picture L to R: Tom Cohoon VE1TA, Craig Seaboyer VE1DSS, Shirley Cohoon VE1JFG

May 10th, 2024

With the Doaktown VE1XI repeater being the final one updated, all IRG repeaters in the province of New Brunswick are now tone-enabled.  Users are required to program a sub-audible tone with their transmission to activate a repeater.  For more information, see our Revamp page.

All  IRG VHF repeaters use a CTCSS (or PL tone) of 151.4 Hz, while IRG UHF repeaters use 141.3 Hz.  You can check the complete updated repeater listing by clicking on the “Revamp” tab at the top of any page. 

There is still more work upcoming, including correction of some audio drop-out issues, and a reconfiguration of the zones and hardware replacements.  Once all is complete, a new network diagram of the system will be published.

For more information about the IRG,  CLICK HERE

Posted March 14th, 2024

In order to support our continued growth, both in scale and global coverage, we are in the process of doing some cleanup and reorganization in the way the Programs, Locations, DX Entities, and Parks are stored in the database.
All Canadian parks now start with a prefix of "CA" instead of "VE" 

CLICK HERE for the full story.

Posted March 8th, 2024

Here is the list of stations I took a picture of today which includes a new gateway VE1WAR-10 hosted by Steve VE1OR at his home in Warren Nova Scotia just outside Amherst.

Posted December 15th, 2023

I’m the Atlantic coordinator for Brandmeister Canada, and we had a request for a new talk group for the Atlantic province’s.
We discussed it and approved the creation of talk group 30205. This new talk group is labelled as “ Atlantic Canada” and is now available for use!
73 VA1RF BRANDMEISTER.NETWORK 

Matthew Gillie VA1RF
va1rf@outlook.com

If anyone has any questions you can also contact Stephen Conard by email @ ve9sc@ve9sc.com I am the owner of the new TG30205 I made the request and Matthew and Beniot approved it.

So if anyone has any questions I am very open to answering them. We also are planning a weekly net on the TG in the future when we determine the best date and time slot. We now have a few and don't want to overlap.

Stephen VE9SC

For more information about Winlink  CLICK HERE

Changes to the RAC Field Organization Sections

As previously reported, on May 25 the Board of Directors of Radio Amateurs of Canada approved changes to the “RAC Field Organization” which will take effect on January 1, 2023. This will be most noticeable during Field Day.

Beginning in 2023 the Maritime Section (MAR) will be deleted from contest to be replaced by Nova Scotia (NS) and New Brunswick (NB).

Here are the new Canadian sections beginning in 2023

The end result will be 14 Sections:

• Alberta (AB)

• British Columbia (BC)

• Manitoba (MB)

• New Brunswick (NB)

• Newfoundland and Labrador (NL)

• Nova Scotia (NS)

• Ontario North (ONN)

• Ontario South (ONS)

• Golden Horseshoe (GH)

• Ontario East (ONE)

• Prince Edward Island (PE)

• Quebec (QC)

• Saskatchewan (SK)

• Territories (TER)

New Canadian Amateur Radio Frequencies

RBR-4 Update: July 2022

For immediate release:

On July 28, 2022, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) released an update to a very important document for Canadian Radio Amateurs: “RBR-4 – Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service”.

The document specifies what frequencies we may operate on and with what bandwidths.

There are two major new additions to our spectrum:

472 to 479 kHz, also known as 630 metres: on this new band, we are allowed to run a maximum of five watts EIRP, using emissions with a maximum bandwidth of 1 kHz.

5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz in the 60 metre band: this is a new worldwide allocation. Canadian Amateurs are allowed to run a maximum of 100 watts ERP, using emissions with a maximum bandwidth of 2.8 kHz.

The new 60 metre band is in addition to our existing fixed-frequency allocations at 5332, 5348, 5373 and 5405 kHz. The new 15 kHz-wide allocation overlaps our existing authority to use 5358.5 kHz. Canadian Amateurs are unique in having authority to use 100 watts ERP on the four spot frequencies and on the new 15 kHz worldwide segment. Amateurs in most countries are limited to 25 watts or less and may operate only in the new 15 kHz-wide segment.

Please note that Amateur Radio is a Secondary radio service on these bands. Amateurs may not cause harmful interference to Primary users and we may not claim protection from interference by Primary users.

There are other small changes in RBR-4 that bring Canadian Amateur Radio regulations in line with changes agreed at several previous World Radio Conferences (WRCs) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Radio Amateurs of Canada would like to thank former Regulatory Officer Richard Ferch, VE3KI, for his dedicated work over several years to bring these changes forward.

You can find the English version here:

https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf10650.html

You can find the French version (IPR-4) here:

https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/fra/sf10650.html

If you have any questions, please contact RAC Regulatory Affairs Officer Dave Goodwin, VE3KG, at regulatory@rac.ca

Dave Goodwin, VE3KG

Regulatory Affairs Officer

Radio Amateurs of Canada

regulatory@rac.ca