Final Report VB3EMS Week Special Event
May 19 to May 25, 2024
The Special Event using the callsign VB3EMS for Emergency Medical Services Week closed down at 8:00 p.m. local time on Saturday May 25, 2024. The Club stations were available from 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 19, and similar hours on Saturday May 25th, and each evening of the weekdays from 5:000.p.m. until interest waned each evening.
The following LARC members were instrumental in being able to put one thousand and fifty eight (1058!!!) contacts in the final log:
Ruth VE3RBO, Luke VA3ZLS, Alison VE3ZAH, Bogdan VE3YOB, Maureen VE3MWL, Doug VE3IDT, Brain VA3ATB, Greg VA3CBN, Archie VE3PTV, VE3KGK, with additional help from VE3FDV John Sr., and VA3MSV John Jr., who kindly had his website up and running daily so we could monitor our progress in real time. A big 'thank you' to all.
A special thank you to Bogdan VE3YOB who volunteered to open the Club station each weekday evening from 5:00 p'm.m local time until whenever the need tapered off each evening, so our volunteers could use the Club radios and antennas to make some contacts. He also did the scheduling for those evenings
Also, a special 'thank you' to Doug VE3IDT who did a lot of the overall scheduling for the event and who melded all the logs together and also posted all contacts to the eQSL site.
And a special thank you to Mike VE3ACW for being there as a volunteer logger, sometimes operator, and general helper when needed.
I am responsible for the oversight of the event, but I am well aware that nothing would happen without the help of those of you who volunteered to operate and help out. I am happy to report that the event garnered a lot of thanks and comments thanking us for remembering our First Responders and the appreciation for what we did was genuine. We can all rest assured that the efforts we put in were very much appreciated, which means our time spent was well worth it. That also means it is an event we should consider continuing annually.
Band conditions were not the best, and whether your choice of band slot/time produced a few, or many, contacts, each one helped to give us a very respectable total at the end of that week. Again, thank you all for stepping up and making the event a resounding success.
For those of you who could not, or did not, volunteer for whatever reason, think about giving it a shot next year. Talk to some of those who did volunteer and see how much fun they had. Special events are fun since you become the hunted station rather than being the one doing the hunting. Try it! It can be quite addictive!
My thanks to the Club Executive for having two radio locations and the antennas to match, that allowed two operators to be on the air simultaneously, if the situation required that, and to Station Manager Paul for helping to clear up a 'glitch' with the 40m beam antenna rotator and also supplying the key to the location for the week. We are lucky to have such a fine set up as the one that exists at the 427 Wing. It is available for such events as this, so let's use it to its maximum capacity. The equipment needs its 'exercise' to keep it working at 100 percent.
Think of the upcoming VE3FIRE Event and also Winter Field Day! Canada Day Contest! Let's use the stations that are available to us! In closing, thank you all again for helping to make VB3EMS 2024 a great success. I have already received several direct QSL card requests! Also several from eQSL stations we worked.
73,
David VE3KGK
Special Event Coordinator.
Special Event Announcement:
This Special Event will run from Sunday May 19 to Saturday May 25, 2024, and is a LARC Club event.
On Sunday May 19th and on Saturday May 25th, the Club stations will be available for use from 9:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.
During the intervening weekdays, the Club Stations will be open from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. for those Club members who want to avail themselves of an opportunity to do some HF operating, but who, for whatever reason, cannot operate from their homes.
So far, I have very few volunteers for this event, and I am hoping within the next few days some members will step up to make this Club Special Event a success. Please contact Doug, VE3IDT (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) so he can put your name, band and mode choices on a roster. The roster will be published before the event starts. Please plan ahead!
Unlike the VB3COPS event, for this event any mode can be used.
Bob, using N4E, will have a group of students on from Gainesville Florida, in this event also.
QSL cards will be available (send to the US address of VE3KGK on QRZ.com) and at the end of the event, the logs will be sent to Doug, VE3IDT (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) as ADI files. He will fold them into one master log and submit the log to eQSL.
This is a similar event to the VB3COPS where we publicly thank all First Responders for the wonderful job they do for all of us.
Please help by volunteering to operate for a few hours during the week if you have a station that you can use from your home.
David VE3KGK
Special Event Coodinator.
