 The Codiac Amateur Radio Group (CARG), in cooperation with the Codiac RCMP, conducted its yearly Pumpkin Patrol, which covers the municipalities of Moncton, Dieppe, and Riverview.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision as to if the Pumpkin Patrol would go ahead this year was not taken until the last minute. This had a minor impact on the number of volunteers and patrol vehicles this year again. A total of 17 volunteers took part in the event in 10 vehicles which were organized in accordance with the 6 Codiac RCMP zones. CARG Pumpkin Patrol volunteers provided 70 volunteer hours and covered a total of 676 kms. We are happy to report that it was a very quiet night for our patrollers. CARG looks forward to next year’s Pumpkin Patrol, which also provides our members with valuable hands-on training experience in providing public safety communications. This experience greatly increases our organization’s ability to provide reliable emergency communications during disasters. Taking part were Mike, VE9MTV, Mathieu and Maria, VE9MDB, Oscar, VE9OSK, Gilles, VE9NW, Marcia, VE9MMG, Mike, VE9MK, Gerald and Connie, VE9GDE, Gerry, VE9GER, Chris and Owen, VE9CS, Dave, VE9QED, Lou, VE9LMN, Larry, VE9ASB, and Jack, VE1AIR. The Pumpkin Patrol was organized by JP, VE9BK the CARG Emergency Coordinator who also manned the Pumpkin Patrol Net.  Calling all station, this is VE9BK Net Control Station for the Codiac Amateur Radio Group (CARG) Simulated Emergency Test (SET). So began our annual SET Exercise at 7am on Saturday the 30th of October.
The goal was to exercise CARG mobile capability. This was accomplished by deploying mobile stations to various locations and to establish communications with the Net Control Station (NCS). As a result, the 7 mobile units were sent to 14 different locations in the Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview, and Salisbury area. All mobile units were able to establishment communications with the NCS. In order to make things more interesting, we simulated the loss of the repeater being used and all mobiles units were directed to go to a simplex frequency. Surprisingly, all mobile units were able to establish communications with NCS using simplex. One unit was at the Salisbury Town Hall which is in a low lying area and was weak but readable. During the exercise, the NCS and the mobile units practiced message handling. To accomplish this task, the NCS was manned by two operators. One dedicated to the SET NCS Net on the 880 repeater, while the other operator handled the transmission and receipt of messages on a simplex frequency. Some 10 messages were accurately sent and received during the exercise. This was designed to simulate the need to send/receive messages even while deployed in a mobile unit. It also allowed participants to test their ability to quickly change frequency on their mobile rig and having the required message forms and log sheets. The exercise was scheduled to end at 10am, but by 9am all exercise objectives had been met and the decision was made to end the exercise. Since the exercise was mobile, participants were reminder to keep safety in mind at all times. As well, existing COVID regulations were adhered to. Tactical calls were used during the exercise and proper message handling and voice procedures were enforced by NCS. Taking part in the exercise were Oscar, VE9OSK, Gilles, VE9NW, Michel, VE9JFL, Dave, VE9QED, Keith, VE9ELA, Dave, VE9PTT, and Mike, VE9MTV. The NCS was manned by JP, VE9BK, and Ross, VE9GCS. CARG is always looking for volunteers. If interested, contact JP, VE9BK. The meeting minutes for the September 18, 2021 Annual General meeting are now available on the website.
You can find them here.  The September 18th MAARC Annual General Meeting will be at the clubhouse (279 Halifax St.), outside between the buildings if the weather is nice or inside if it is raining. If it is inside, we will move the tables outside to make more room. Everybody bring a mask as social distancing will be hard to achieve inside. The reason we must meet in person is because we will be voting and people have a right to secrecy when they vote and we can't do that on Zoom. We will try to broadcast the meeting on Zoom for those who can't make it in person to see the meeting.
If you wish to participate in voting you must attend in person. Thank you for understanding. Attendance was up and the tables were full of high quality items. After a hiatus in 2020, the MAARC Flea Market returned this past weekend with a large number of vendors and visitors alike. There were a lot of deals going down and great conversations to be had as members and guests who got to catch up in person. Thanks to our sponsors MacFarlanes Electronics, MFJ and RadioWorld for door prizes and assistance. Thanks to all those MAARC members who helped organize and setup the event. And special thanks all other volunteers and the Riverview Lions Club for allowing us to host this event. See you in 2022! A few photos below.
Please note the above event is subject to any changes in Provincial Public Health regulations and may be delayed or cancelled as required. Check back often for updates.
 A great time was had by all at the MAARC 85th Anniversary Dinner at Swiss Chalet.
Next month will be the 85th anniversary of MAARC. To celebrate, MAARC will be obtaining a special event call sign, VE9M85A for Moncton 85 Anniversary. This call will be active for 30 days, starting on August 1-30, 2021. The executives invite all members to come to the clubhouse and activate the call. We will be having QSL cards made up as the VE9M80A call was popular so I suppose this one will be too.
We will check with Swiss Chalet and St. Hubert about having a group of between 20 and 30 members for a sit down. Not sure if those numbers will be allowed by August but we will ask. Further info on the sit down meal will be forthcoming. Thanks and 73, Ross The ARRL Field Days Event was conducted over a 24 hour period starting at 3pm local on Saturday, June 26 and running until 3pm Sunday, June 27. The MAARC Club had set a goal of 500 contacts/exchanges which we felt was something that was obtainable. Of course, the bands have to co-operate for this to happen. The following operators helped to ensure success in that the final contact/exchange count was 535 : Nic, VE9NIC, Gilles, VE9NW, Oscar, VE9OSK, JP #1, VE9BK, JP #2, VE9ADV, Frank, VE9FD, Kenny, VO1KJM, Marcel, VE9ML and Ross, VE9GCS. While the majority of the contacts were on 20 meters, there were contacts made on 40 meters and there was a decent amount made on 15 meters, both SSB and CW. Several MAARC members stopped by to support including Keith, VE9ELA, Larry, VE9ASB, Misha, VE9GIS and Jamie, VE9GOM. Also stopping by was Tom, VE9TJR and his wife Pauline, VE3PMY. They recently moved back to New Brunswick and will be settling in the Moncton area. Tom advised he will soon be joining MAARC and was impressed with the members and the clubhouse. Thanks to all for making FD 2021 a success and next year we will be shooting for 600 contacts. Special thanks to Marcel, VE9ML for setting up the logging for Field Days. Thanks to VO1KJM for the photos! This months Ham Shack photos come from Yvon, VE1VON. Thanks for putting all this great content together about your shack.  
The addition of a Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System (CTCSS) code(s) has recently been implemented in a number of local repeaters. CTCSS uses a sub-audible tone transmitted on the signal of the transmitter trying to access the repeater.
So why would we want to do this? CTCSS is used by repeater systems to prevent noise or interference from causing the repeater to squawk obnoxiously and by receivers as an extra measure of squelch. In other words, CTCSS codes will reduce noise and interference, as well as allowing for weaker signals to be heard on these repeaters. As well, the use of CTCSS tones is almost universally used to access amateur radio repeaters. Here is the list of repeaters that now require a CTCSS code:
The VE9TCF/R Fundy repeater (145.170) will be changed to these CTCSS codes as soon as Cam VE9CAM and Jeff VE9JJS can go to the repeater site in Fundy National Park. Now is the time to update your VHF/UHF memories by adding the CTCSS code. According to Cam, VE9CAM, CTCS codes do make a big difference! Jamie and Dave again climbed and were able to get the Yagi backup on the tower. While Gilles and Ross were inside the clubhouse busy with the Zoom Meeting, work continued outside. MAARC Mascot Lola was in charge of protecting the toolbox and no tools “walked away”. The antennas will all be fine business for Field Day but Jamie advised that it appears some water got into the coax of the Yagi so a new feedline will have to go up so up the tower goes Jamie one more time. Thanks to all who came out this morning, Jamie and Dave for climbing. Oscar, Gordie, Gilles, Larry, Marcel, Cam, Jim and Ross for being the ground crew.
The IRG as our NB rep Vote results were supposed to be revealed at the IRG General Meeting in April 2020 in Doaktown, NB. The meeting was cancelled due to Covid-19 and the IRG has not had a members meeting since. I had sent the results to the executive but did not hear from them. I have recently posted it on the IRG website: ve9irg.net If you would like to read the comments please e-mail me at: ve9mtv@yahoo.com and I will send them to you. There are 6 pages of comments and no names mentioned in the comments so you don’t know who said what. Thank you to all Amateur Radio Operators who cared enough to vote. Your opinions were very much appreciated. 73 de VE9MTV 
Thanks to Mike, VE9MTV for organizing this for our members.
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