Workshop: Learning to Solder

Learning how to solder electronics properly offers numerous advantages, starting with the ability to create and repair electronic devices. Proper soldering skills enable you to join electronic components securely, ensuring reliable connections that can withstand the rigors of everyday use. This skill is essential for anyone interested in DIY electronics projects, as it allows you to build custom circuits, repair broken gadgets, and even modify existing devices to better suit your needs. By mastering soldering, you gain the confidence to tackle a wide range of electronic tasks, from simple repairs to complex builds.

Another significant advantage of learning to solder properly is the enhancement of your technical and problem-solving skills. Soldering requires precision, attention to detail, and a steady hand, all of which contribute to improved fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Additionally, the process of diagnosing and fixing electronic issues sharpens your analytical thinking and troubleshooting abilities. These skills are not only valuable in the realm of electronics but are also transferable to other areas of life and work, making you a more versatile and capable individual.

Lastly, proper soldering techniques can lead to cost savings and sustainability. By being able to repair your own electronic devices, you can extend their lifespan and reduce the need for replacements, which is both economically and environmentally beneficial. This skill also opens up opportunities for creative reuse and recycling of electronic components, contributing to a more sustainable approach to technology. Moreover, the satisfaction of fixing something yourself and the knowledge that you are reducing electronic waste can be incredibly rewarding, fostering a sense of accomplishment and responsibility towards the environment.

PARC Amateur Radio Basic License Course

The Peterborough Amateur Radio Club is hosting a virtual Basic License Course that Starts October 21st 2024 @ 7PM

Cost is $60

The Course will be conducted Virtually via Google Meet. Any outside participants that wish to take the course with PARC are welcomed to do so, and in person or remote exams are available after the completion of the course, and included in the cost. The $60 fee also includes a free membership to PARC for the remainder of the Calendar Year.

Recommended Study Material Can Be Purchased Here, it is recommended that you purchase the book for later reference, but a loaned copy of this material (for peterborough area participants) can be arranged if you do not want to use the book after the completion of the course.

This course is focused on what you need to learn to pass the exam only, and a workshop will be hosted in Peterborough at a later date for New Hams. 

Contact education@ve3pbo.ca for more information. 

Monthly Club Meetings

All meetings are hybrid meeting of combined in-person and Google Meet. The meeting location is at Otonabee Valley Public School’s Library, 580 River Rd S, Peterborough, ON K9J 1E7. Take south doors from parking lot and walk straight to Library.

Peterborough Amateur Radio Club meetings are “usually” held on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 pm. All amateurs including anyone interested in becoming an Amateur radio operator are welcomed to attend PARC meetings.

Meetings are not held for the months of July and August.

For the details of the next PARC meeting please visit the Events Page.

2024 PARC Annual Corn Roast

The 2024 Corn roast was a great success at our new location at the Riverview Park and Zoo. Thank you to all who came out, and those who brought food. Special Thanks go to Barry VE3BLM for the use of his BBQ, Jordan VE3AVA for cooking, and arranging the new venue last minute, Clay VE3YCL for Cooking and the use of a burner for the corn, Martin VA3OMW for the pot and picking up the corn. If you have any more photos from the event please contact VE3YCL.

VE3TJR Upgrades and Linking Completed

Thanks to a lot of hard work by the Tech Team. VE3TJR which is located near Buckhorn, on Deer Bay is now Linked to the network full time via Allstar.

The Yaesu DR-1X Repeater running at 15 watts, has been replaced by a commercial Motorola MTR2000 running at 40 Watts. This should greatly increase coverage of the cottage area, including handheld use on buckhorn lake.

The duplexer has been sucessfully finetuned to decrease loss.

A cell phone modem, and MikroTik Router have been installed to link the repeater via Allstar for now until the completion of the HamNET Project. The equipment has been successfully moved into a 2 post rack, that was donated last year in preparation for the installation of equipment from the Selwyn Fire Department.

Getting TJR to this point has been a multi month project. With donations of Equipment, and funds from members, the new repeater was purchased with funds from the spring donation program. We thank all members for their contributions. We would also like to thank Selwyn, and Selwyn FD for the continued use of this site for emergency communications.

Internet Outage at VE3PBO (RESOLVED)

May 9th 2025 09:00 New modem has been installed, everything is back to normal.

May 8th 2024 13:30 Everything is currently working thanks to internet being supplied over the 5.9GHz link from VE3KPG. Nexicom has to schedule technician for tomorrow to replace the modem.

May 8th 2024 12:00 The modem at the VE3PBO shack is dead the network is still linked. Tech Committee is currently contacting Nexicom to get the modem replaced.

Fox Hunt May 5th 2024

Successful Fox Hunt Today Scores are:

VE3EMA and VE3YCL (winners) 9.4KM

VE3OBO 11KM

VE3HCP, VA3FZZ and VE3BSR 11.4KM

VE3BLM 16.5KM

VE3IQZ 17.1KM

VE3TCG 18.4KM

VA3IX 22KM

VA3DWH 22.7KM

Thank you VA3NW and VE3IEL for being the fox, VE3YCL and VE3EMA will be the fox at the next Fox Hunt May 26th.

Scheduled Outage for Maintenance of VE3TJR

As we have a high amount of power loss on the output of VE3TJR we will be doing scheduled maintenance tomorrow (April 19th) to investigate.

TJR will go offline sometime after 11 AM. This will include checking the cavities with a spectrum analyzer and several other things, it may be down for a few hours.

Update:

Maintenance is completed VE3TJR is back up and running as normal.

Allstar Node Number Change to 611411

As the node numbers we were using did not belong to PARC, March 30th 2024 around midnight VE3PBO will change from node number 28703 to node number 611411. If you are connecting via allstar please update your settings we will endeavor to reconnect all nodes that are connected before we make the switch. 

As such expect some shenanigans with the repeater network around midnight.