The
"PREZ SEZ"
by Paul Cassel ve3sy@kwarc.org

The 1999 beginners class is off to a good start with 8 students in attendance. It is very encouraging to see two young men in attendance one age 10 and the other age 13. Both are very eager and have other family members who are also hams. Stay tuned for some new callsign in March some time.

While on the Sanderson Hour the other night (3762.5 kHz) discussing the activities of our club I had several hams from around the country break in asking what we are doing to maintain interest. Most where amazed that we are able to raise 60-70 members each month. I contributed this to an excellent line-up of speakers (thanks to Ben VA3BNY) which we try to have lined up prior to the start of the September season. Also I indicated that we strive, albeit sometimes not successfully, to keep our business portion of the meeting to a minimum by delegating most of the business requirements to the Executive committee meetings. As a point of interest, the KWARC membership sits at about 165 members.

I hope I am correct in my assumptions. Your feedback is very important on what you want to see at our meetings. Suggestions for topics are always welcome by Ben or myself.

INDUSTRY CANADA Database Update
It appears that Industry Canada and RAC are working towards updating the Database to include more information that just the amateurs mailing address. There is a major effort currently underway at merging records from many areas however about 29% of the amateurs in Canada are missing some portion of data.

In order to complete this matching process and ensure that the data base will accurately reflect Amateur qualifications, Industry Canada will soon be requesting information from Amateurs. This will be done as a mail out to these Amateurs whose records could not be electronically matched. Industry Canada will be requesting the confirmation of vital information, such as date of birth and telephone number. In respect of individuals' privacy, it is important to point out that this type of personal information is strictly for facilitating the matching process. It will be treated as confidential and will not be made available when the new data base is released on the Internet.

When completed this new information will be made available to Amateurs via the RAC Internet Call Sign Data Base web page. The availability of a public data base for Amateurs that accurately reflects callsign and certificate qualification information is of significant value to the amateur radio community. Therefore Industry Canada and RAC ask those Amateurs who receive a letter to respond quickly and positively to this request for matching information in order to facilitate the process.

See you all at the meeting Monday night.

73 de Paul Cassel VE3SY,
president@kwarc.org