FeaturedWhat is Amateur Radio

Amateur Radio (ham radio) is a popular hobby and service that brings people, electronics and communication together. People use ham radio to talk across town, around the world, or even into space, all without the Internet or cell phones. It’s fun, social, educational, and can be a lifeline during times of need.

Fox Hunts

PARC Fox Hunts usually happen every two weeks on Sunday. Start location is the top of Armor Hill (Drive to the Peterborough Museum and Archives, and Drive to the parking lot at the top of the hill.

Fox Starts Transmitting at 13:00 on 146.580 reset your cars odometer lowest distance wins. Winner is the next fox.

Next Hunt is August 11th! Fox is Terry VA3IX.

PARC Amateur Radio Basic License Course

The Peterborough Amateur Radio Club is hosting a virtual Basic License Course that Starts July 22nd 2024 @ 7PM

Cost is $60

The Course will be conducted Virtually via Google Meet. Exams will be in person in Peterborough Only. Any outside participants that wish to take the course with PARC are welcomed to do so, but we will not be able to perform your exam, anyone who can make it to Peterborough to write their exam is included in the cost of the course. 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. 

Field Day 2024

Field Day this year was a great success! We have two new Amateurs who wrote their license, a 13 year old boy who was interested, and managed to get on the air and is on his way to getting his Amateur Radio License.

Thank you to Peterborough ARES/ACS, The City for Donating the use of Newhall Park, Harmen VE3EMA, John VE3VL, Dave VE3SD, Jordan VE3AVA, Nina VE3IRK, Andrew VA3AND, Phillis VE3PVB, Devon VE3DEV, Martin VA3OMW, Clay VE3YCL, Jon VE3XOE, John VA3NW, Chuck VA3NY, Peter VE3GYY, Wayne VE3WRL Rick VE3IQZ, Rick VE3RKY, Scott VE3TCG, Henry VA3ZRS, Terry VA3IX, Barry VE3BLM, Paul VE3AXT, Brian VE3NSI, and all the XYLs who helped with food.

Thank you to Every Club member who stopped by! Despite the poor weather we managed to operate for most of the 24 hours.

We have two new Hams:
Brian VA3BZT
Wayne VA3KVZ

We had a total of 11 operators, the score will be updated once Dave wakes up (he was there for the entire time).

We will continue to update the gallery as all the photo sources come in.

Morse Code Workshop

Contact Rick VE3RKY to join the sessions. First session is June 14th 2024 at 8PM via Google Meet.

Learning Morse Code Basics


The Morse code learning program will start with group sessions one day a week. The sessions will be Friday nights at 8pm for one hour.
Bob, VE3IEL will lead the group
We will be using the Koch method in these sessions.


Introduction to the Koch Method:


Morse code characters are sent at full speed from the beginning.
We will start with a reduced set of characters initially.
Gradual expansion of characters over time.

Character Selection:


Start with just seven characters (xyzjqhs).
These characters will be sent at full speed e.g., 15 words per minute, wpm, “words” (groups of 5 characters) will be sent at 5wpm

Learning Process:


Students will listen to the characters in 5-letter groups for 3 minutes.
The goal is to copy (write down or type) the characters accurately.
Once 90% accuracy is achieved, students can move to the next lesson.

Progression:


Each week, more characters will be added to each lesson.
Maintain the same overall speed (e.g., 5 wpm) while expanding the character set.

Daily Practice:


Students should practice daily for 45 minutes per session.
Scramble the characters to ensure varied practice.
Starting with the least often used characters provides more focused practice.

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.

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.