OUR CLUB

Who and why:

Our goal is to have fun with Amateur radio in the St. John’s metro region. We are informal to a fault and our membership likes it that way.

Some history:

In 1993, 35 hams met at the King George V hall on Duckworth Street, St.  John’s to discus the formation of a new local club. The club would be independent and get as close as it could to the pure fun of being hams: talking gear, playing with gear and starting up some involvement in the community with public service and emergency communications. Around that time, there was a serious fire on Harvey Road in St. John’s. The local Canadian Red Cross tried to provide basic assistance to 100 evacuees, but it had to use runners to and from their headquarters, as the charity had no communications. After the fire experience, Red Cross wanted some hams to help them in St. John’s like hams do across North America.

And then, The Red Cross:

The Red Cross asked us if we would be willing to provide emergency communications. They would provide us with a place to meet, install a radio shack and even throw in some coffee. After furiously debating this for about 20 seconds,  AVRAC said YES!

Saying “yes” more than fulfilled any desire we had to get into public service communications.  AVRAC has participated in numerous exercises with the Red Cross and many callouts for fires, public runs and walks etc.  Some of our hams are very active in the Red Cross and have international emergency experience. Every year, at the Royal St. John’s Regatta we do communications for the Red Cross lost and found for missing children. This is a huge annual event and involves our members in extensive contact with and service to the public.

Evolution:

With our experience and reputation, we have expanded our horizons in emergency communications.  The City of St. John’s has written us into its emergency plan and we have Amateur VHF and UHF as well as commercial VHF  capabilities at the City’s Emergency Operations Center (VO1EOC) located in the central fire station. We were also instrumental in the formation of the first active ARES group in the province.

And Then…

September 11, 2001

AVRAC has been heavily involved with the Red Cross in planning for disasters, big and small. But none of us ever really thought the “big one” would happen in our life time. It did, September 11, 2001. The skies were instantly closed to aircraft and pilots were ordered to land immediately.

In St John’s, we received 5000 stranded souls within a few hours , and they were here for up to 6 days, not the 48 hours that many locations in North America copped with stranded passengers. Newfoundland is an island, so our passengers were only slowly cleared to mainland airports.  50 Shelters were established with 400 Red Cross volunteers in action. AVRAC members provided hours and days to the emergency at the Emergency Operations Center, the St. John’s International Airport and in the ERV. We kept the Red Cross commercial communications gear up and running for the event and lent our expertise to the rapid passage of health and welfare-logistical traffic. It was rewarding to see our communications planning pay off.

Gear :

Over the years, we have set up our shack at the Red Cross building (VO1CRC) and have logged quite a few HF QSO’s with our new StepIR three element beam. We are in the process of re-tooling our new radio shack at Major’s path. The Canadian Red Cross has relocated to a nice high location… A former Coast Guard radio transmitter site! Ham heaven.   We have full HF, VHF, UHF and commercial VHF capabilities, along with an Echolink node and packet.

The Emergency Response Vehicle ( VO1ERV ). The primary role of the ERV is cae and feeding of displaced persons. However, it is unique in that it is also a communications center and a rolling radio shack. A big generator, cooking facilities, first aid, cell, VHF-HF-UHF-commercial VHF-fax- packet and a computer make this one serious machine. Our people were instrumental in the design and fitting out of this most important asset of the Red Cross. Our people were also instrumental in obtaining and establishing a commercial VHF radio system for short and medium range communications by Red Cross volunteers.

We have 3 fixed repeaters in the Metro St. John’s region and a trailer mounted mobile repeater. Indeed VO1RCR was the first repeater in St. John’s to have full emergency power. VO1RCR sits atop a tall building, and covers the St. John’s valley.  VO1TZ is named in honor of our late friend Rob Butt, SK. It sits atop a tall tower on Kenmount Hill and also has backup power. On the same tower lives VO1UHF, our UHF repeater. VO1RNC is our mobile VHF repeater.

Like most other clubs, we have many projects ongoing, including revamping our packet and Echolink installations, digital radio experiments, and equipment acquisitions.

All Hams are encouraged to use away at our repeaters and to drop by one of our meetings!