SARC 80 meter net to be on 3.740 mhz lsb on Saturday night @ 1930hr = 7:30 pm
This should open us up to cottage country and past members that live outside and up north of the city
Any input please go to the FORUM or e-mail me at [email protected]
SARC 80 meter net to be on 3.740 mhz lsb on Saturday night @ 1930hr = 7:30 pm
This should open us up to cottage country and past members that live outside and up north of the city
Any input please go to the FORUM or e-mail me at [email protected]
VE3NR Bert
Hosted by VE3VXY Ralph
Call used VE3WE 28.730mhz usb
1030hr -1056hr
This letter Written by Joe Cusimano VE3OV is Posted by Ralph Muecke Ve3vxy
I have been reading all the comments going back and forth regards the establishment of the Emergency Communications Ontario Association (ECOA) and the reaction by of the RAC Ontario Section Manager. I’m rather saddened that we are still debating the issues that I had to deal with in 2002 when the Ontario Section Manager and her emergency service managers fired me from my Ontario EMO EOC / RAC Liaison position because I expressed some unhappiness with our progress within EMO. This was subsequently followed by my being fired from my Toronto District Emergency Coordinator position. The Ontario EOC Manager, The City of Toronto EOC Manager and the entire Toronto ARES membership resented this unwarranted show of authority by RAC. Soon after this, the Section Manager and all her Section ARES Advisors jumped ship and resigned their RAC positions. They had no choice.
I learned some valuable lessons during that time. I have hoped that every Ontario Amateur Radio operator with an interest in providing a communications service during emergency times would have also learned something from my experience.
The main thing to understand is the client that we are working to serve. There are primarily only two clients. They are the manager of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) located in our province (Ontario EMO) and the Emergency Management Manager in your municipality. He controls who comes in and who stays out of the local EOC.
The reality is that those mangers will not be dictated to by any National organization with headquarters in Ottawa regardless of the existence of a provincial ARES section and its good intentions. They will welcome in an organization that is lead by someone they know and have confidence in. Someone who understands and supports the entire EOC operation, not only the Amateur Radio component. We have learned that today it is no longer sufficient to come in and only pass messages on your Ham Radio. It’s gone beyond that and I doubt that RAC’s interests go beyond solely serving the interests of Amateur Radio.
RAC has a national role to play in all of this. I suggest that RAC set a super strong and efficient national emergency station in Ottawa with all the latest digital modes and with powerful remote controlled HF radios covering the nation. Link together all the provincial EOC Amateur Radio centers on HF. That is THE emergency communications role of the national organization that is RAC.
The Ontario SM should be extremely pleased that the President of ECOA is also the Ontario SEC. What better way could there be to make sure that the two organizations work hand in hand. Instead the SM finds this difficult and calls it a conflict of interest situation. I can only say: Come up and get your head out of the sand and deal with the reality of our time. The Ontario SM should immediately reinstate Bob Gammon VA3RX as Ontario SEC and wish the new organization ECOA every success. There is NO conflict of interest. Success for ECOA will translate into success for RAC. After all, we are essentially the same people, we are all Amateur Radio Operators. Look to the great success of the emergency communications operation in British Columbia and some of the other provinces to prove that the ECOA approach is the only way to go here in Ontario. To fight it, is foolish and futile. If you agree, please speak up.
Joe Cusimano – VE3OV
EC – Toronto North York
Board of Directors Member - ECOA
CITIG Member
VE3SOY Rod
Hosted by VE3VXY Ralph
Call used VE3WE 28.730mhz
2000hr - 2020hr
VE3PA Bill
VE3NR Bert
Hosted by VE3VXY Ralph
Call used VE3WE 28.730mhz
1900hr - 1927hr
VE3SOY Rod
VA3CEQ Christian
VE3EVT Sid
VE3PA Bill
VE3WTR Edgar
VE3NR Bert
KD2AIC Dave
VE3BQR Garth
Hosted by VE3VXY Ralph
Call used VE3WE
147.060mhz VE3RPT Repeater system
1930hr - 1957hr
(Posted by request of Bob Chrysler, VE3IEL. For printing, please use the PDF version)
Ontario Section
Radio Amateurs of Canada, Inc.
Office of the Section Manager
27 Red Mill Road, PO Box 208
Little Current, ON P0P 1K0
Email: [email protected]
(via e-mail)
25 July, 2011
OPEN LETTER TO ONTARIO ARES
DISTRICT AND EMERGENCY COORDINATORS
A number of changes have, and are about to take place in the Ontario Section that I would like to inform you of. You are aware that at the ARES Ontario meeting held at Toronto on 23 October, 2010 a steering group composed of DECs and other volunteers, chaired by the SEC, was authorized for the purpose of developing a proposal to incorporate ARES Ontario. The intent was to bring the proposal before a second ARES Ontario meeting to be held this past spring. As it turned out, a small number of ARES personnel, in association with the Canadian Forces and several NGOs, incorporated an entity named the Emergency Communications Ontario Association (ECOA). This was done without prior consultation with me or even some members of the steering group, which was never convened. ECOA then went on to apply for affiliation with RAC in order to gain access to the RAC insurance. This of course raised a number of questions by the RAC executive and the insurance company with respect to ECOA’s role and support of RAC policies and programs – a fundamental condition of affiliation.
Over the past several months a detailed series of talks took place between ECOA officials and the President, First Vice President (insurance and policy administration) and Vice President Field Services. While ECOA was advised that RAC fully supports all associations and groups that provide emergency communications services, the insurmountable issue was ECOA’s premise that it could assume part of the established RAC ARES organization within Ontario while also utilizing an organizational model that bypassed the elected Section Manager and the subordinate section structure. This would put RAC in the untenable position of having an external organization, functioning outside the Ontario Section management structure, using RAC titles and trademarks and possibly even representing itself as ARES Ontario.
Most difficult of all was the premise that the President of the ECOA and the Ontario SEC were one and the same person – a clear conflict of interest situation. Without the required unqualified statement of support for RAC’s policies and programs, and adherence to the Ontario Section management structure as specified in the RAC Administration Manual, I was left with no alternative and yesterday sadly I withdrew Mr Bob Gammon VA3RX’s appointment as SEC. Given the events which are about to take place (see below) I will retain SEC’s function in the near term.
During the negotiations with the ECOA it became apparent that the SEC had made a number of appointments that were not published on the official RAC website. This is not only contravenes established ARES policy but removes those appointees and their teams from the legal and liability protections that the policies are designed to provide. Put simply, we cannot receive the benefits provided by our national association if the leaders are not registered participants adhering to the policies designed to demonstrate that our activities are carried out within approved guidelines and authorized leadership. As mentioned above, RAC will support all external organizations providing emergency communication services but it can not have its appointed leadership accountable to more than one organization. I therefore must request that those EC’s and DEC’s indicate to me via return e-mail whether or not you wish to continue as am ARES Ontario appointee so that the ARES Ontario files can be corrected.
To assist you with your decision I would like you to consider the following initiatives either completed, now underway, or about to take place:
The negotiations with ECOA have consumed considerable energy and focus on the part of the RAC executive and myself, at the expense of developing the Ontario Field organization and the new ARES training system. It is now time to refocus our energies. I look forward to your email indicating your continued service in the Ontario ARE Service, and you can anticipate shortly the opportunity to contribute to the definition of our future once the commission is formally announced.
73,
Al
Allan Boyd
Allan C. Boyd, VE3AJB
Section Manager
Cc Vice President Field Services
Director, Ontario North and East Region
Director, Ontario South Region
VE3NR Bert
VE3BFU Jana
Hosted by VE3VXY Ralph
Call used VE3WE 28.730mhz
1030hr - 1044hr
VE3NR Bert
Hosted by VE3KCO Earl
Call used VE3WE 28.730mhz
1000hr - 1030hr
Check-ins:
Net control: VA3PID — Stewart
2m, FM: VE3RPT, 147.060 MHz+
Call used: VE3WE
1931—2000hr
Scarborough Amateur Radio Club would like to thank the Toronto FM Communications Society for the use of the VE3RPT repeater.