is pleased to announce
The Seven Thirty Covid-19
family of nets.
An important message from
Bill Leal VE3ES

Below is the QSL for our current special event call, VC3STYSAFE.
A separate card for the previous special event call that we used for 30 days, VC3STAYHOM, is in the works

The Seven Thirty, Saturday, May 30th
80m SSB net tonight @ 7:30 p.m. on 3735 (+/-) khz.

Set your Rolex GMT Master II watch for 7:30 p.m. this evening.  We gather for one of the biggest events of The Seven Thirty, our "social distancing, NOT social isolation" family of nets with the 2nd running of the 80m SSB Net on or about 3735 khz, plus or minus QRM and QRN.

The Seven Thirty family of nets has had a great run, now currently using the Industry Canada authorized call sign of VC3STYSAFE.  Tonight will be our 94th net of the series and we are expecting quite the run this evening on the 80m band.  Please join tonight's Net Controller, Jerry VE3EXT situated in LaSalle, just south west of Windsor.  We will have additional relay stations listening and it should be quite the evening.

The Seven Thirty has now run over 90 nets from HF to 33cm using FM, SSB, NXDN, FDMA, TDMA and CW modes of operation and we are closing in on 3,000 contacts from 200 or so individual stations throughout south west Ontario, northern Ohio, south east Michigan, Virginia and even the metropolis of Phelpston, Ontario!  Hope you can join us for the 80m SSB Net of The Seven Thirty family of nets tonight @ 7:30 p.m.

73, Bill VE3ES

Background:

Bill Leal VE3ES  writes:

There are  some ham radio activities underway here in the south-west corner of the province.
 In response to the fears of social isolation expressed by many area ham radio ops
here in Windsor, Rick VE3PV and myself Bill VE3ES
started agitating for increased activity on various repeaters and HF bands locally.

Special event call VC3STAYHOM was issued for the period April 10th to May 10th and used extensively here in Windsor
for a series of nets that we've been running since the end of March and which are ongoing.

To date we are nearing 2,000 check ins on various repeater nets using
FM, NXDN, C4FM and DMR repeaters on the 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm and 33cm bands
and on various nets run on 80m SSB and 10m both SSB and FM.
We've had 70 nets with a couple hundred stations from throughout the Windsor to Chatham to Sarnia region
and across the border with many W8s in Michigan and Ohio regularly checking in.
 Pre-pandemic there were only 3 regular FM repeater nets in the Windsor area
with most barely getting a handful of check ins and now we're holding a dozen or more nets with three hundred check ins each week.

All of the clubs in Windsor, Leamington and Chatham have been working together
by shuffling around the start times of existing nets, creating new nets
and resurrecting old nets that haven't been active in years under the banner of "The Seven Thirty"
which is the evening starting time for most of these efforts..
We now have nets on the air every day of the week and some days with multiple nets both morning and evening
and often two nets at the same time.

 We have seen dozens of ham radio ops return to the hobby after in many cases years of inactivity,
have heard of many operators buying new radios from Radioworld
and the used market and have given the area FM and digital repeaters a major working out.
 One of the clubs whose repeaters were more or less inactive found that there were major problems with their repeaters and antennas.
 In the last month that club purchased and took delivery of two new Yaesu DR-2X FM/C4FM repeaters
and on Saturday a work crew put up new Sinclair 2-bay and 4-bay antennas
for their  VHF repeaters and an 8-bay Sinclair antenna for a UHF DMR repeater.
Another club replaced a FM repeater with a new FM/NXDN machine, established a new 33cm FM repeater
and did major work on the linked system that brought together several of their repeaters.
 Many of the participants with these nets are active first responders including three Emergency Managers
for the towns of Leamington and Kingsville and the Emergency Manager for Essex County.

The Industry Canada Amateur Radio Service Center in the Sault has worked with us in quickly
authorizing new call signs to a couple of  guys who had let their calls lapse
many years ago, long before the calls were permanently issued and authorized special event calls in Ontario,
Quebec, New Brunswick and British Columbia.

Industry Canada has now authorized us to use a new special event call, VC3STYSAFE
for the period May 12th to June 12th and we are now gearing up for a run on the
COVID-19 RADIOCOMMUNICATION EVENT in early June.
 Further details can be found on the OH2STAYHOME QRZ.com page.

As the province is now taking the first steps to reopen itself it is now time to stay safe people!

Thank you ONTARS for helping spread the word.
73,
Bill Leal VE3ES / VC3STYSAFE / ex.VC3STAYHOM

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