F  E  E  D  -  P  O  I  N  T

Seasonal cold has finally arrived. I have been watching our big pond for a week or more. There has been a tug of war between freezing and thawing. Our small pond was frozen over on November 14th with fairly thick ice. The more we travel on our land and on other high land, the more tree damage we see from the 16" of heavy wet snow on Oct. 25. Broken fir tops, uprooted trees, and large broken limbs on trees caught with their leaves still on.

The weather forecasts have not been very accurate lately. KA1HOP said he had sent some fellows to set up an antenna on a tower on the one day two weeks ago when we were supposed to have sun. They had to put the antenna up in falling snow. Of course, that should make it work better! The batteries on the two club repeaters were getting lower and lower in voltage. In the the last week and a half we have had more sun than we had in the last month.

On Sunday November 6th several of the club members headed for Riviere-Du-Loup. It was foggy, rainy, and near freezing. Two meter contact was made most of the way between vehicles. The Hotel Levesque was decked out with beautifully decorated Christmas trees. The food was appreciatively devoured by the eleven people in our group. (See the photos at www.sjvara.org)

We held a short meeting at the table during dessert sampling. We plan to hold our December meeting at the usual place, UMFK, on December 13th, with a gift exchange. $5.00 limit on the gifts.

After the meal we took a driving tour of the bay and then went to the mall. There is a large mall with wonderful shops and stores. I thought if I want to go mall shopping, a trip to that mall would be much shorter than a trip to Bangor.

On our way home, most of us had the same thought. We were lucky not have had snow or to have had icy roads, the temperature being what it was. We all agreed to make the harvest meeting in early October next year. I also heard the suggestion that the club meet on the ferry from Rivere-Du-Loup across the St. Lawrence next summer. There would be a chance to see whales and perhaps do some radio work from the ferry. It sounds like fun.

The ARRL renewal forms that were given to me have been sent in. If any one else wants to renew through the club to benefit the club, it can be done anytime.

The National Weather Service has announced another Sky Warn Recognition Day to be held from 19:00 Friday, December 2, until 19:00 Saturday, December 3. KB1ELT says they plan to have several antennas up at the Caribou Office, and a linked logging system so each operator can see what the others are doing. About 70 NWS will be participating. The stations are divided into categories according to predominate weather conditions. The object is to contact as many NWS stations as possible, and to earn enough points in as many categories as possible. Each station receives a certificate for the number of categories for which they have qualified.

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League. It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During the day SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.

Reading the November QST gives one a real appreciation for the tremendous effort the Amateur Radio Community put into the emergencies following Katrina. We often read about hams operating during floods, blizzards, tornados, and hurricanes, but the Katrina emergency was on a huge scale. The entire staff of the ARRL Headquarters and more than 1,000 hams helped. ARRL President Haynie testified before the House Government Reform Committee on Sept. 15th, 2005. His testimony about what hams were doing to help included these comments. "As has been proven consistently and repeatedly in the past, when communications systems fail due to a wide-area or localized natural disaster, Amateur Radio works, right away, all the time"."The local 911 Operators could not handle calls from relatives calling from outside the affected area, so they passed those "Health and welfare" inquiries to amateur radio operators..." He concluded his account of the amateur help to the Red Cross and many other organizations and government departments with this: "The United States absolutely can rely on the Amateur Radio Service. Amateur Radio provides immediate high-quality communications that work every time, when all else fails."