Brandon radio club boosting its signal

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This article was published 10/04/2023 (888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Amateur Radio Club continues to expand its reach throughout Westman and beyond, with these local hobbyists having recently installed a digital mobile radio repeater on top of Princess Towers.

According to member Darrell Bercier, who supervised the installation of this device late last year, the digital repeater provides a much clearer sound compared to the analog models the club has relied on in the past.

“And the other advantage is that it’s internet linked, so it can be connected to [digital] repeaters in Steinbach, Winnipeg, Dauphin and The Pas,” Bercier told the Sun last month.

“So I can link in, with a handheld radio or a mobile, to the repeater in town and talk to somebody in one of those cities.”

If used correctly, Bercier says that the digital repeater can even connect the club to fellow ham radio operators located outside of Canada, which opens up a channel of communication on an entirely different scale.

“So there could be anybody on there from Canada to Central America to Asia, whatever,” he said. “As long as they’re a licensed ham, they can communicate.”

Since its formation in 1948, the Brandon Amateur Radio Club’s main objective has always been to foster an active community for those who use the radio frequency spectrum for the non-commercial exchange of messages.

Bercier officially joined the group in 1982 and has been enjoying the ride ever since, especially since it keeps his mind occupied after he recently retired from a three-decade-plus career at Koch Fertilizer.

“It’s a great hobby because there’s always something new happening around the corner, and if you have a curious mind it always keeps you challenged,” he said. “You always learn something new.”

Outside of the communal benefits associated with the club, secretary-treasurer Bill Mayberry points out that these local hobbyists have also set up emergency communications infrastructure in Brandon, something that will come in handy if a natural disaster were to render all internet and cellphone-based devices inoperable.

“Just this past week, we re-installed our VHF repeater at city hall, and that is completely hooked up to their generating system,” Mayberry told the Sun over the Easter long weekend. “So if there is a power outage, it’s fired up and fully running and operational.”

Last summer, club president Jim Sloane mentioned that certain members of the group are also proficient in morse code, which provides an additional form of communication during a worst-case scenario.

“When there’s a ton of noise on the band, or band conditions are really weak, morse code can still get through,” Sloane told the Sun in July. “So it’s a very valid form of communication, especially in emergencies.”

However, the Brandon Amateur Radio Club is always on the lookout for new members, keenly aware that more modern forms of communication have captured the public’s attention.

For this reason, the group is in the middle of organizing its second “Manitoba Ham Fest,” an amateur radio convention that debuted last summer at Austin’s Manitoba Agricultural Museum.

Mayberry said that this inaugural event was a big success, with the festival attracting more than 120 attendees from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and even parts of the United States.

Outside of drawing in a larger group of hobbyists this time around, Mayberry said organizers are also hoping to place a bigger emphasis on presentations and workshops surrounding digital radio, since signal boosting that discipline is key to ensuring that the hobby lives on in younger generations.

“You either keep up or get swept under the rug,” he said.

The Brandon Amateur Radio Club’s second “Manitoba Ham Fest” is scheduled to take place Aug. 12 at Austin’s Manitoba Agricultural Museum.

Anyone interested in attending this event can visit the club’s official website (brandonarc.ca) for more information.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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