Well, Y2K has come and gone with only minor glitches. Thanks to all the many folks who voluntarily gave up time on New Year's Eve to provide stand-by services to community, civil and military organizations in the event of problems.

75th Anniversary of the IARU

As April 18, 2000, nears, the IARU is about to embark on a significant milestone in amateur radio history by celebrating 75 years of operations. At the same time founding member REF-Union, will be celebrating 75 years as a national organization. Similarly IARU Region I will be celebrating their 50th anniversary, May 2000.

Canada was one of the founding nations of IARU having been present at both the 1924 planning meeting and the 1925 founding congress. It therefore gives me great pleasure to extend greetings to all Society Members on behalf of the RAC Board, Executive and members on this auspicious occasion. May all have many more years of success and opportunity to represent amateur radio in the future.

Effective 1 April, 2000 Radio Amateurs of Canada in cooperation with Industry Canada and Information Gateway Services (IGS) have instituted a new service for Canadian radio amateurs with the inauguration of a Canadian Amateur Radio Call Signs Available List, in both official languages, on the RAC web site.

The Call Signs Available List shows all the call signs available for each prefix authorized for regular call sign issue. The list is updated automatically each business day. When a call sign is issued, simultaneously it is deleted from the Call Signs Available List and transferred to the Canadian Amateur Radio Call Sign Data Base.

The Canadian Amateur Radio Call Signs Available List and the Canadian Amateur Radio Call Sign Data Base are official Industry Canada data bases. RAC cannot make changes to either data base; RAC only displays the information on the RAC web site.

Comments on the Call Signs Available List should be directed to the webmaster, Doug Frame, VE3JDF, at: [email protected].

Queries on a particular call sign should be directed to the Industry Canada Amateur Radio Service Centre at:

Phone: 1-888-780-3333 (toll free) Fax:(613) 991-5575 E-mail: [email protected]

Mail: Industry Canada Amateur Radio Service Centre P.O. Box 9654 Postal Station "T" Ottawa, ON K1G 6K9

Industry Canada seeks comments on policies for the band 2285- 2483.5 MHz

Industry Canada has recently released a proposed policy governing spectum utilization in a band which overlaps the amateur 2300-2450 MHz band If approved, the policy will make provision for ore users of this part of the spectrum. At the present time, Canadian amateurs have only a secondary allocation between 2300 and 2450 MHz, and may not cause interference to primary users.

The proposed policy does not mention our current request for a primary allocation around 2400 MHz, nor does it propose any changes which would take into account our concerns.

The Industry Canada document is available in pdf format from the IC Strategis web site.

VC7BLN has been assigned for the period of March 16 to April 16, 2000 inclusively to commemorate the launch of a Y2K Balloon Event to happen sometimes in the near future. The contact person for this event is Mr. Rick Martin, VE7CUP.

As other sites update their content they often change the location of specific pages and files. Please advise of any broken links you may find and I shall fix them as soon as possible.

Please have a look around and leave some feedback or sign the guestbook before you leave. I hope you enjoy your visit and come back again. 73

Please read the DISCLAIMER before exploring these pages. Thank You.

Linking and Bookmarking

I have discovered that some people bookmark/link the main page rather than the opening page. Please bookmark/link at the opening page as anything major will be posted on that page and you will also miss seeing any "seasonal" additions which are added to the opening page.

Those wishing to add a link to The Yak Shack may do so. Please let me know if you do so I can have a look at your page and provide a link in return.

The following graphic may be used as a button if you wish. Please download it to your site rather than link to the file here.

Radio Information circulars RIC-7 - Basic Qualification Question Bank for Amateur Radio Operator Certificate Examinations, and RIC-8 - Advanced Qualification Question Bank for Amateur Radio Operator Certificate Examinations are now available for downloading from the Industry Canada Strategis web site. (The files are quite large; the basic question bank may require up to 260 pages to print !!) Industry Canada proposes to implement the new exams as of July 1, 2000, but has released the question banks now to give course developers and examiners a chance to gain familiarity with them. Circulars RIC-3 updates Operating Information to reflect the changes to be introduced with the new authorization process on April 1, 2000, and RIC-9 spells out in detail the policies governing amateur radio call signs and special callsigns and prefixes.

Copies of the new documents in pdf format can be downloaded from the IC strategis web site.

Digital operators with PACTOR capability and an interest in helping to handle National Traffic System messages are needed across Canada, but particularly in the Atlantic provinces. Messages can be picked up from the VE3BDM WinLink system in Brockville, ON on 80, 40 or 20 M and relayed onto various local HF or VHF traffic nets for delivery. For more information, please contact George - VE3BDM by e-mail at [email protected].

The Radio Amateurs of Canada activates an Official Observer Program which corresponds closely to that of the former Canadian Radio Relay League.

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