Anyone working on restoring vintage rigs? I have been doing a few over the past couple years and they are not that difficult to get working for the most part. The most recent is a Yaesu FT-101ZD mklll that I picked up on kwarc. It was untested, quite dirty and fortunately low priced. The face wasn't scratched up but the case needed painting. The knob inserts which originally are silver, were bronze from nicotine stains and the rest of the rig was grimy under dust and dirt. It cleaned up quite well and I repainted the cabinet with Rustoleum Winter Grey. I steel wooled the cabinet to remove the rust and glaze but I left the pebble texture in the original finish. The new top coat still shows the texture. Inside, I cleaned all the switches, pots, band switch wafers, relay contacts and all the harness connectors with deoxit. I had to net the trimmer for the display counter so it reads accurately. I have been using it for a few weeks now and it works great! It is great fun to use a piece of gear that you have brought back to life from the junk pile. Here is a before shot
73 Don ve3ids

We had a great day at the race. Perfect weather & no bears this year

Ham volunteers (hope I don't miss anyone):

Tim VE3RTE & Greg VE3NXB ran net control at Wiarton arena.

In the field: Bobby VE3PAV, Doug VE3WRF, Frank VA3GUF, Fred VA3STG, Phil VE3QVC, Tom VA3TVA, Zane VA3ZRD & yours truly VE3WI.

Frank & Tom overcame an early repeater problem & kept us communicating. My attempt to reach the portable repeater from Hope Bay with a 4 el. yagi up about 20' did not work, but fortunately Fred's crossband repeater in his vehicle worked great again.

Lots of fun watching someone doing touch-and-goes on Hope Bay with a cute little amphibian (ICON 5 I think. Best 500k$ he ever spent!).

See you all again on 8 Aug 2020!

73
Dave, VE3WI

A significant number of licensed Canadian amateur radio operators do not support their national amateur radio society: Radio Amateurs of Canada Typically support is by membership, but may also include volunteering time to perform the various functions required to run a large, non-profit organization. It has been demonstrated repeatedly, that a small percentage of people are doing most of the work in modern volunteer organizations.

Some thoughts concerning volunteerism
-Volunteerism is down in many sectors including service clubs, meal delivery programs, church groups, volunteer firefighters radio clubs, etc. etc.
-The population is aging and our current volunteers are retiring; Younger folks have so many distractions and things they can do today. We now live in a world with 200 plus TV channels! The spirit of volunteerism seems to be decreasing in the western world.
-There is some evidence that people who donate their cash to charities also tend to participate in groups, associations and organizations. Is this a characteristic or trait?
-People volunteer for causes they believe in. What do people believe in now? Is our culture too self-absorbed, individualistic and focused on our own personal agendas and pleasure?
-Economics. Are young to middle aged people less able to volunteer and contribute because they are spending more of their time working?

RAC Membership
If you haven't, please consider joining RAC. I joined out of respect to the many RAC volunteers who have devoted their personal time and continue to toil to keep amateur radio viable in Canada. We cannot take our currently allocated radio frequency bands for granted. There are groups who for profit, want to apply technologies which will consume or interfere with the radio frequency bands we enjoy. Canadian amateur radio needs a strong, united voice to survive into the future. Apathy and lack of awareness may significantly decrease the rights and privileges we enjoy as radio amateurs today. The least we can do is support our national amateur radio society. It would be even better if more of us contributed by volunteering our personal time towards our wonderful radio hobby and serving RAC

Todd, VE7BPO

Good Evening,
I actively chase grid squares toward the various VUCC awards with one of them being Six Meters. I would like to know if anybody onboard can work Six Meters OR knows somebody in grid EN95 that can? FT8 is the most likely mode with band conditions as poor as they are. I can be reached at k8six at comcast dot net for direct communication.
Appreciate any help and 73 de Al, K8SIX