Author: vicepresident

Present: Terry VA6TMA, Renze VE6DC, Gary VE6CV, Willie (AFFRRCS), Scott VA6JSR, Penny VA6PJK, Steve VE6SCL, Larry VE6WL, Jim VE6JMB, David VE6DRL, David VA6SYS, Wayne VE6WEK, Cory VE6CYT, Blair VE6AGH, Barry VE6BGR.

Meeting called to order – Motion by Dave VA6DRL and seconded by Steve.

Reading of the Minutes – Outstanding items:

• Corey and Barry getting others familiar with repeater.
• Noise issues still occurring.
• Selling excess items. Blair moved we sell excess equipment. Scott seconded.

Treasurer Report – Presented by Barry:

• Outstanding item – GST on repeater and antenna parts.
• expenditures included charge controllers, misc. items, and land payment.

CAM repeater project update – presented by Cory: “It’s broken!”

• Replaced battery on Thursday as it died overnight so back @ 50 watts.
• Charge controller replaced as well. Went with smaller battery and should be good for 5-6 days. Cost approx. $200 for commercial battery.
• Spring Tower work – guide wires need spraying, replace rusty clamps with brass connectors, clean up grass and straighten fencing around guide points.
• Noise on Repeater – on VHF antenna, not on tower. Expensive fix down the road. Jan. 10 and 29 logged excessive noise. Plan to continue to monitor it until it has to be fixed.
• Cost to replace antenna – $2,000, replace feed line – $3,000, tower guide – $1,500. Feed line is 175 feet long and costs approx. $68/ft for cheap line.

Old Business:

• Emergency Communications – Penny reported she had received no response from County of Lethbridge communities for use of our services. Gary shared that the AB First Responders system is so robust that they don’t want to use our services. Steve suggested a contact list among our own members. Barry says we’ve been down that route so there was no agreement to initiate a contact list.
• IRL Repeater – have a spare repeater for Taber area so left with Taber members to consider. Could be linked with other repeaters. Willy Williams donated a Motorola 2000 Repeater to us but not running yet.

 New Business:

• March 22 is the AGM and all executive board will be changing. Roles and responsibilities for all members to consider serving in are:
  • President
  • Vice-President
  • Treasurer
  • Secretary
  • Special Events Director
  • Knowledge/Training Director
  • Operations Director
• Currently Barry is holding 3 positions by himself and encourages all members to consider volunteering to serve in these executive positions.
• Spring Flea Market Ideas – Send pictures to Peter of equipment to sell there. Need 3 Tables in Calgary. Last Flea Market was in LSCO and approx. 70 people came to it. Need to advertise on AORL. Barry proposes April 26 for Flea Market at Norbridge Sr. Centre. Discussion ensued re: providing a meal or BBQ at the market.
• Inventory – reviewed list on computer. Items are currently in Barry’s basement, all in working condition. Barry suggested we keep one of each system and sell the rest. Steve moved we sell all extra equipment and Terry seconded. Steve had donated an amplifier to the club. Thank you Steve. Apparently the equipment list is not on our Website and Barry will ensure it is put on there. Jim Gunther’s equipment is also still for sale.
• Delayed Item – Field Day Picnic Event at Fort McLeod campground. Some discussion ensued re: Family BBQ idea.

Steve made a motion to close the meeting at 11 am – all in favour.

 

Rest of time was spent with Guest Speaker: Willy Williams on AFFRRCS AB 1 st Responders Network. Initially their radio system launched April 1, 2016, with 338 towers.

Currently their system can hold 65,000 talk groups on it. Willy passed around several hand held radios from Motorola and other companies. Very impressive equipment and network system.

Thank you Willie.

 

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Present: Barry VE6BGR, Cory VE6CYT, Steve VE6SCL, Larry VE6WL, Wayne VE6WEK, Blair VE6AGH, Terry VA6TMA. David VA6SYS, David VE6DRL, Walter VE6XWG, Kalvin VE6KRO, Scott VA6JSR, Mike VA6PLC, Geoff VE6LSX, Tyler VA6TI

Meeting called to order – Motion by Tyler and seconded by Cory.

Treasurer Report – presented by Barry:

• 2024 financial summary:
  • Insurance continues to be the highest annual expense.
  • Land use payment is next.
  • Financial statement is ready for the audit committee.
  • Bulk of the 2024 expenses are related to the repeater upgrade.

CAM repeater project update – presented by Barry:

• Phase 1 – Grounding was upgraded as equipment grounds were floating. Everything has been grounded except the repeater rack. This will be added to the repeater ‘to-do’ list.
• Phase 2 – PV array was replaced with two 460W panels. Thanks to Ron VE6PAP for sourcing these at a good price. Thanks to Dave VE6DRL for fabricating the PV panel frames.
• Phase 3 – Addition of an additional battery bank. Thanks to Scott for donating the batteries and to Barry for fabricating the battery box.
• Phase 4 – Completion of DC upgrade and environmental work. The new Yaesu repeater requires an AC primary source so a 500W inverter was added to power the repeater. The repeater will fail over to the DC supply when the AC is not available but the power output is reduced to 20W. The Yaesu outputs approximately 42W after the duplexers (cans). A UHF Yagi antenna was installed and connected to the repeater’s ‘B’ receiver input for repeater control.
• Phase 5 – to be completed in the next few weeks. The solar charge controller connected to the battery bank that powers the repeater malfunctioned. The environmental battery bank and the equipment battery bank have been temporarily connected and are being charged by a single panel and charge controller. A new charge controller has been purchased and will replace the failed one. A wiring change will be performed that utilizes the ‘low voltage disconnect’ function of the charge controllers. Currently the equipment is wired directly to the batteries. The issue with this is that the batteries can be drawn flat which puts the batteries at risk of freezing and sulfating. Drawing batteries down this low also reduces the overall number of charge cycles. The low voltage disconnect will disconnect the equipment when the battery voltage is below 11.5V and will reconnect at 12.2V.
• Next steps – Barry discussed adding a repeater controller. The Yaesu performs many of the functions that a repeater controller would, and available repeater controllers are expensive, so a dedicated repeater controller will not be purchased at this time. A monitoring system would be useful, however, to monitor battery voltages, temperatures etc. Barry et al. will look for options to get a lower cost monitoring system in place (microcontroller, PI, Arduino, etc.).
• Project financials – The repeater project, once complete, is estimated to be $400 over the $3,000 budgeted.
  • Wayne made a motion that the $400 is acceptable given the unknowns when the estimate was made. Dave seconded the motion. All in favour.
• Attendees thanked those that were part of the repeater project with a round of applause. Many thanks on behalf of the club to Barry, Cory, Dave and others for the many hours they spent designing, installing and configuring the recent repeater upgrades.

Additional items that were discussed:

• Barry and Cory mentioned the importance of having others familiar with the current repeater design in the event that Barry and Cory are not available if/when the repeater needs troubleshooting. The repeater knowledge needs to be shared with a wider group. Barry asked for people to consider joining the repeater committee at the next AGM.
• The repeater still has a noise issue on windy days. Cory and Barry feel it is up-tower. The current plan is to accept the noise as it only occurs a few days a year. In the meantime, some work may be done on improving the grounding of the tower and guy cables. The club may need to hire a qualified tower climber some time in the future to climb the tower and inspect/replace bad connectors, coax, etc.
• Barry asked attendees about selling off some SAARC equipment that is not used. It is currently being stored in Barry’s basement. The club will keep one of each type of radio, antenna etc.
  • A motion to sell the excess equipment was made by Blair and seconded by Scott.
• Wayne (coordinator of the CAM net) is looking to add individuals to the casual net controller list. Renze has been operating in this capacity and will be stepping in to take the spot left open by the retirement of Bruce (VE6ATY). A huge thank you to Bruce for his many years as a competent, friendly, and reliable net controller.

Dave made the motion to close the meeting – all in favour.

 

 

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Basic Qualification Course (see below for the Advanced course)

Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification.

Course information:

The course will again be conducted with the assistance of the Annapolis Valley Amateur Radio Club (AVARC) of Nova Scotia.

This course prepares students for the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Basic Qualification Level Operator Certificate exam to operate on allocated Amateur Radio frequencies.

It is open to everyone across Canada and even abroad. Classes will be recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.

Schedule and Cost:

Date: The Basic course will be held on Thursdays and Sundays commencing on Thursday, January 30 and ending on Sunday, April 6.

Time: Classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6 pm to 9 pm (1800 – 2100)  Eastern Time and Sunday afternoons 1 pm to 4 pm (1300 – 1600) Eastern Time. There may also be a handful of additional classes if necessary.

Cost: The registration fee for the course is $50 plus GST/HST. The cost of the Basic Study Guide is extra and an order link will be provided upon completion of payment.

Registration: click here to register

Please click here to access the registration page.

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Advanced Qualification Course for RAC Maple Leaf Operator Members: Please register now!

Note: The Winter 2025 RAC Advanced Qualification course will be starting on January 19.

Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio Course so that individuals can upgrade their qualifications.

With your Advanced Certificate, you can run higher power, operate a remotely-controlled station, obtain operating privileges when travelling overseas, set up repeaters, be the trustee for club stations and even become an Accredited Examiner (AE) if you have the Morse code qualification.

Schedule and Cost:

The course will be 10 sessions in length and each session will be two hours long.

In order to offer maximum flexibility, we will be running two Advanced courses so students will be able to choose one of the following two options:

Courses are offered on Sunday afternoons or Monday evenings and are two hours in duration.

Sunday afternoons:

Sunday afternoons at 1 pm Eastern Time (10 am PT / 2:30 NT) starting on Sunday, January 19 and ending on Sunday, March 23

Or: 

Monday evenings:

Monday evenings from 8:30 pm Eastern Time (5:30 pm PT / 10 pm NT) starting on Monday, January 20 and ending on Monday, March 24

Registration now underway:

The RAC Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio course is being offered at no charge to RAC Maple Leaf Operator Members – both current and future. You can easily become a RAC Maple Leaf Operator Member to be able to take part in this course.

Please contact the course instructor Dave Goodwin, VE3KG, at regulatory@rac.ca for information on how to register for the Advanced course.

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Other Amateur Radio Courses:

Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.

https://www.rac.ca/amateur-radio-courses/

 

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Ham radio got some attention last week in ZDNet:

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Present: Terry VA6TMA, Wayne VE6WEK, Blair VE6AGH, Larry VE6WL, Alan VA6AJM, Penny VA6PJK, Steve VE6SCL, Ron VE6PAP, Barry VE6BGR, Renze VE6DC, Scott VA6JSR, Darnley VA6DVG, David VE6DRL, Kalvin, VE6KRO, Mike VA6PLC, David VA6IRE, Gordon VE6VAL, Peter VA6ARI

Meeting called to order by Ron at 10:05 am, seconded by Terry, all in favour.

 

Reading of the minutes of October 26 by Peter, no corrections or omissions.

• motion to accept minutes as read by David, seconded by Steven, all in favour.

 

Treasurer’s Report by Barry.

• major expenditures this month: Solar panels, Mounting and installation, Yaesu repeater, Temp. controllers, fuse blocks, 1000w 12/110v inverter.
• items still required: Battery blankets, Radio heater, Mounting fusing wire, Battery boxes and insulation, Repeater controller.
• total budget was $3,000 and anticipated cost is $2,847.97.
• a replacement solar controller provided by Mike.
• old solar panels are sold.

 

Repeater Committee Report by Barry

• CAM work being planned for Nov. 23 weekend, weather permitting.
• Scott has donated two large 200 ah batteries.
• David, VE6DRL suggested using coolers for the battery boxes because they are insulated.
• Blair thinks that we are getting tower noise, esp. when it’s windy. We will check all the guy wire ground points.
• coax is spliced in the middle and has a jumper at the top to the antenna. In the future look at replacing coax and jumper.
• Gordon asked about insurance and mentioned an education clause the Medicine Hat club added to their insurance.

 

Old Business

• Penny reported that the emergency communications. Are ongoing.
• Gary suggested we make a tribute to past and present old-timer ham operators who were instrumental in the early days of the club. Also ongoing
• Future meetings: APRS, Alberta First Responder System.

 

New Business

• Barry provided a list of radio equipment for sale which will be emailed to the members. Contact him if you’re interested in anything.
• Blair discussed an honorarium for the Rowe family. Blair moved that the executive come up with something like a plaque or certificate and a gift certificate.
• Renze noted that people are using the ham frequencies. Cory has an active file with ISED and RAC.

 

Move to close the meeting by David at 11:12 am

 

No meeting on Dec 21. Instead join us at the Coaldale Inn for the Christmas brunch to be held at 10:30 am.

 

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Present: Ron VE6PAP, Tom VE6TRM, Steve VE6SCL, Cory VE6COR, Gary VE6CV, Tyler VA6TI, Kalvin, VE6KRO, Larry VE6WL, Jim VE6JMB, David VE6DRL, David VA6IRE, Cory VE6CYT, Barry VE6BGR, David VA6SYS, Dave VE6ETY, Spencer VE6SXR, Mike VA6PLC, Stan VE6SYS, Kevin VE6KVV, Penny VA6PJK, Josiah [no call], Austin VE6QBD, Peter VA6ARI

Call to Order by Tyler at 10:01 am, seconded by Ron, all in favour

Reading the Minutes of September 21 by Peter, no corrections.

• motion to accept minutes as read by Stan, seconded by Gary, all in favour.

Treasurer’s Report by Barry.

• some club assets were sold and the proceeds donated back to the club: $125 for VE6ARG’s antenna and $100 for a roll of RG8X.

Repeater Committee Report by Barry/Cory VE6CYT

• David DRL, and Ron purchased two industrial solar panels at cost. David built exceptionally sturdy frames and they installed them. The two panels overloaded the charge controller so had to disconnect one panel.
• A coax jumper failed due to poor crimps that needed to be replaced. Barry will build some new jumpers.
• Yaesu repeater is on order. May arrive in February.
• Arcom controller was not purchased and Barry and Cory are looking at other options.
• Cory VE6COR asked about RPi controllers.
• Environmental control system will have a separate solar panel and battery with distribution fuses. Will install battery boxes with battery blankets controlled by temperature probes in the battery boxes and in the radio.
• Plan is to mount a panel on the wall in the shack with an electrical side and an environmental side. Will rebuild the positive side of the DC system and add fuses for all distribution.
• Mike recommends adding DC to DC regulator as extra safety.
• Barry updated suspicions on the noise source due to weak signals breaking the squelch.
• Bird deterrent will also be installed on the solar panel frames.
• Old solar panels are for sale for $50. Contact Barry.

Old Business

• Renze has booked the Coaldale Inn for the Christmas brunch to be held December 21, at 10:30 am.
• Penny has contacted a number of municipalities and got zero response. Gary recommended other agencies like Red Cross.
• Future meetings: APRS, Alberta First Responder System.

New Business

• Gary suggested we make a tribute to past and present old-timer ham operators who were instrumental in the early days of the club.

Motion to close the meeting by Steven.

Next meeting is November 16.

 

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Present: Larry VE6WL, Penny VA6PJK, Cory VE6CYT, Milt VE6MLD, Kevin VE6KVV, Stan VE6SYS, David VE6DRL, Jim VE6JMB, Scott VA6JSR, Renze VE6DC, Ron VE6PAP, Alan VA6AJM, David VA6SYS, Barry VE6BGR, Peter VA6ARI

Call to Order by: Barry, seconded by David VE6DRL, all in favour.

Peter read the Minutes of May 25. No omissions or corrections. Motion to accept minutes as read by: Renze, Seconded by Stan, all in favour.

Treasurer’s Report provided by Barry.

• expenses over the summer were for food at Field Day, and material for grounding at CAM.
• $500 donation to the club to be used to modernize CAM, specifically a controller for making announcements.

Repeater Committee Report by Barry/Cory

• Work done at CAM: installed new ground rod, new ground bus bar, grounded and bonded everything. Went through all solar panel connections. Replaced the repeater with the spare.
• Barry has the primary repeater on his bench and was able to reproduce the noise issue but has not identified the source. Not reparable as Kenwood no longer makes this repeater.
• We are still experiencing some issues with the secondary repeater cutting out.
• Barry and Cory removed the primary ROT repeater which is the same one as the secondary CAM.
• solar panels are at or past file expectancy.

Solutions were discussed:

• Yeasu has the DR2X repeater on sale for $700 ($2500 regular). 50 w VHF and UHF. C4FM digital.
• temp specs not quite as good as the Kenwood so will need to regulate the temps in the shack.
• replace the two roof panels with a single 400 w or two 200 w to run the main batteries.
• replace the side panel to charge a separate battery to run the environmental controls.
• Total cost estimate is around $2,000.

Ron made a motion to set a budget of $3,000 to do all the work. Seconded by David VE6DRL. All in favour.

• Ron, David VE6DRL, and Scott will look at getting the panels and will report back. David will do the installation. Target for completion: Nov. 15.
• Barry and Cory will order the Yaesu DR2X repeater and control unit.
• Install separate battery supplies.

 

Old Business

1) Basic Classes: Barry was not able to find a volunteer coordinator. Barry thinks we don’t need to do classes since there is so much available online.

2) Update on discussions with the city on Emergency Communications.

• New city emergency admin is Eric Foster who met with Barry and Larry. He is in favor of getting the hams involved, but the city dispatch manager says SAARC is not required.
• Barry wrote and said that the club would remain ready to assist.
• Since the city isn’t interested, everyone is in favor of opening discussion with surrounding municipalities. We’ll start with the County of Lethbridge. Penny will do some research.

 

New Business

1. Renze is looking for a location for a Christmas brunch to be held the third Saturday in December.
2. Future meetings: APRS, Alberta First Responder System.

Move to close the meeting by: David VE6DRL

Next meeting is October 19. Blair AGH will talk about learning CW.

 

 

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https://www.rac.ca/rac-basic-and-advanced-courses-fall-2024/

For immediate release: August 30, 2024

Basic Qualification Course (see below for Advanced)

The Fall 2024 RAC Basic Qualification course will be starting on September 15. Registration is now underway.

Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification.Course information:

The course will again be conducted with the assistance of the Annapolis Valley Amateur Radio Club (AVARC) of Nova Scotia.

This course prepares students for the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Basic Qualification Level Operator Certificate exam to operate on allocated Amateur Radio frequencies.

It is open to everyone across Canada and even abroad. Classes will be recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.

Schedule and Cost:

Date: The course will be held on Thursdays and Sundays commencing on Sunday, September 15 and end in late November.

Time: Classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6 pm to 9 pm (1800 – 2100)  Eastern Time and Sunday afternoons 1 pm to 4 pm (1300 – 1600) Eastern Time. There may also be a handful of additional classes if necessary.

Cost: The registration fee for the course is $50 plus GST/HST. The cost of the Basic Study Guide is extra and an order link will be provided upon completion of payment.

Read more… 

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Advanced Qualification Course: starts September 22/23

The Fall 2024 RAC Advanced Qualification course is starting soon! Registration is now underway.

Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Advanced Qualification Amateur Radio Course so that individuals can upgrade their qualifications.

With your Advanced Certificate, you can run higher power, operate a remotely-controlled station, obtain operating privileges when travelling overseas, set up repeaters, be the trustee for club stations and even become an Accredited Examiner (AE) if you have the Morse code qualification.

Note: You need to be a RAC Maple Leaf Operator Member to register for this course. If you are not already a RAC Maple Leaf Operator Member, you can upgrade easily. A registration form will be provided but you will need to be a Maple Leaf Operator Member to be able to see it and to register. Please stay tuned for more information.

Course information:

The course will be 10 sessions in length and each session will be two hours long.

In order to offer maximum flexibility, we will be running two Advanced courses so students will be able to choose one of the following two options:

Courses are offered on Sunday afternoons or Monday evenings and two hours in duration.

Sunday afternoons:

Sunday afternoons at 1 pm Eastern Time (10 am PT / 2:30 NT) starting on Sunday, September 22 and ending on Sunday, December 15

Monday evenings:

Monday evenings from 8:30 pm Eastern Time (5:30 pm PT / 10 pm NT) starting on Monday, September 23 and ending on Monday, December 16

Note: There will be no classes on these dates:

• Sunday, October 13 and Monday, October 14 due to Thanksgiving.
• Sunday, October 27 and Monday, October 28 due to the CQ WW SSB Contest.
• Sunday, November 24 and Monday, November 25 due to the CQ WW CW Contest.

Read more… 

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Present: Barry VE6BGR, Peter VA6ARI, Larry VE6WL, Stan VE6SYS, Tyler VA6TI, David VE6DRL, Cory VE6CYT, Wayne VE6WEK, Mike VA6PLC, David VA6SYS

Call to Order by: Tyler at 10:09 am. Seconded: Larry. All in favour.

Reading of the Minutes of Apr. 20 by Peter

– one correction as noted: Barry is in contact with Jamie at the city re EmComm, not Tyler.

Motion to accept minutes as read by: Wayne. Seconded by: Cory. All in favour

Treasurer’s Report by Barry

– Tyler asked about putting the money in an investment account. Barry said that this account is a business account so no interest, no fees.

Repeater Committee Report by Cory

• will head out in July when it gets warmer and the noise starts up again. He wants to replace the solar panels before winter and also increase the solar power output in order to power battery blankets in winter. Barry also wants to add some climate controls in the form of a light bulb in the winter and circulation fans in the summer to regulate the  temperature better.
• Mike will get a quote on new panels.
• Cory will provide measurements.
• David has grounding plane if needed.
• Cory asked if he should turn on tone out: 110.9? Everyone agreed that he should.
• David VA6SYS has some repeater equipment available as well.

Old Business

1. Basic Classes: Huge thanks to Roy VE6AWT for compiling the question bank. No coordinator yet.
2. Month 3 of Bruce’s VE6ATY link of Echolink to CAM repeater. We will continue with this arrangement until further notice..
3. Barry updated on EmComm with the city? Larry and Barry met with Jamie at LSCO. New director at city has not been appointed yet. Barry and Jamie will get ball rolling between city departments and SAARC. Barry asked Larry to provide an assessment of the training available through Auxiliary Communications Services (was ARES). Cory suggested the club get a license for a mobile repeater.

New Business

1. Field Day Report by Renze/Gary and volunteer requirements? Cory reported: Google form is up.

Move to close the meeting by: Stan at 11:03 am

 

Short Discord Presentation by Tyler VA6TI

Oscilloscope Presentation by Barry VE6BGR

No meeting in June due to Field Day.

 

 

 

 

 

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The ISED amateur basic license question bank consists of 1,000 questions grouped into eight categories. Roy VE6AWT has broken the basic license question bank into the eight sections and has created Word Doc files of all the questions in each section.

The basic exam consists of 100 questions based on the following outline (click on the links to download the Word Doc files to your computer):

• 001 Regulations and Policies…25 Questions
• 002 Operating and Procedures…9 Questions
• 003 Station Assembly, Practice and Safety…21 Questions
• 004 Circuit Components…6  Questions
• 005 Basic Electronics and Theory …13 Questions
• 006 Feedlines and Antenna Systems…13 Questions
• 007 Radio Wave Propagation…8 Questions
• 008 Interference and Suppression…5 Questions

 

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