Same old… same old…

For reason I can’t explain it seems harder this year to get used to the change in weather…  Granted last year I was riding the Electric Vespa till the 28th of December and this year its safely tarped up in my back yard…  But this year I am having “issues” getting into this “Winter” thing…

My daughter tells me its the advancing years….  I have been on blood thinners for a while now so I don’t think its that as there has been no changes to the meds since last winter but I am finding it colder than usual and according to the Weather Network its not “THAT” cold…  Perhaps its time to add a prefix to my callsign like  V31/VA3QV (Belize) or something like that…  John HK3C is always bragging about the WX at his QTH so perhaps ….

I’ve lived here all my life (Ottawa) so it would be hard to pull up after all these years and leave ….  but on a day like today with a damp cold (temps around -7c) it would not be as hard….  I guess this is something that Liz and myself have to talk about in the future….

Anyway… back to radio stuff….

Trisha and I attended the December meeting of the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club last nite.  It was a social meeting with a Electronic/Amateur Radio Trivia contest as the entertainment.  Every time you were the first to buzz in with the correct answer you were awarded a $2.00 gift card from Tim Hortons…

At the end of the 50 questions the top three card recipients got a prize ….  I ended up with $6.00 worth of “Timmies Gift cards” meaning that I managed to get 3 questions right.  Actually I had the right answer a couple more times but was not fast enough to buzz in with the answer….  Once again my daughter explains the lack of speed with the age thing…

But we did have fun…

Still hoping for a Sunny afternoon with the temps above 0 deg C so VA3PCJ and myself can get out to the park for the Shoot Out between the KX3 and the FT 817.  Would be nice to get it done before the warranty expires on the KX3 but the way we are both going so far…  this might not happen till the spring….  If I’m finding it cold now I am wondering how I will manage in about a month from now with the FYBO and the Winter Field Day

But for now…. Especially those of you who are still “Wage Slaves”….  two more days till the weekend…

73bob

Wednesdays’s stuff on the go

Good Morning…

Just checked my Logbook of The World account and find that my QSOs for December 2nd and December 3rd were processed overnight and that I have one new QSL for a 15m contact made on November 18th.  Don’t know when he/she uploaded to LoTW but my December 3rd QSOs were uploaded early on December 4th so perhaps the system is speeding up.

The EQSL account is showing 4 new contacts.  Three were from the November Sweeps and the 4th from a earlier contact over the summer.  All 4 contacts were from the same person so I guess he finally got around to uploading his logs….  It will be interesting to see when they show up (if they show up) on LoTW as a QSL

As far as todays local amateur stuff goes…  The Ottawa Amateur Radio Club will be meeting tonight at City Hall at 7pm.  There is no guest speaker tonight so after the club business has been taken care of we split into teams and have a amateur radio based Trivia Game with token prizes for every correct answer.

Last year my daughter Trisha and myself participated and we won enough Timmies Gift Cards to cover my coffee fix for the rest of the month…  If you are in the downtown core tonight….  Drop in for a visit… Guests are always welcome.

Today will be a fairly busy day before the meeting.  As the weather is warming up to above 0 deg C I am planning to meet Ottawa’s newest (as far as I can tell) KX3 owner and we are going to do a side by side comparison of his new baby and my old friend.

KX3 vs FT817.

I am guessing that our transmit on SSB will be very close and I am expecting his filtering in the RCV section to be quite a bit superior to my FT817.  But then in reality you have new technology up against a 12 year old radio.  Yes my FT 817 went into production 12 years ago now.  The last upgrade was the FT817 ND but mine (like me) is a golden oldie…  I am looking forward to test driving another KX3 (and its warm enough to drool) as I keep on looking for excuses not to buy one…

It looks like its going to be a fun filled day…  Temps will be  just warm enough not to freeze me…. and I even to go out for supper with my daughter before the OARC Meeting…

73bob

Busy time on the Club Scene here in the Ottawa Area

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. “Lest we forget…”

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Coming up starting tonight the local clubs will be busy….

Tonight… The 3730/VE3ORF group meets tonight with a Supper Meeting starting at 1730 hours and the business part of the meeting starting at about 1900 hrs at Rockwells Family Restaurant in the Merivale South area of Ottawa.  (close to the Darwin Arena) I attended last months meeting and had a great time and as I was offered a ride there I’ll be going there again tonight

Also Tonight…  The West Carleton Amateur Radio Club meets tonight in the meeting room at Sobeys in Kanata (Terry Fox dr/Eagleson Road)  This would be in the general area of Scotia Bank Place (where they used to play NHL Hockey in Ottawa)  The meeting starts at 1930 hours and for more info check out their website…

On Wednesday November 14…  The Ottawa Valley QRP Society will be having their monthly Supper meeting at Donnas Restaurant (ChurchillAve  North of Richmond Road and south of Scott) starting around 1700 hrs with the members showing up depending on Ottawa’s Rush hour situation.  Limited info on their website…

Also on Wednesday November 14th…  The Ottawa Amateur Radio Club will be having their monthly meeting at the Ottawa City Hall (111 Laurier St W) at 1930 hours.  The smart people show up just around 1900 to get a good seat (a bit earlier depending on the guest speaker for the evening)

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On Thursday Novermber 15th…  The Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club will be having their montly meeting at the Canada Museum of Science and Technology located on Lancaster Road just east of St Laurent blvd.  Meeting start at 1930 and once again its usually a good idea to get there a bit early…

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According to their website  (the recently restructured)   Manotick Amateur Radio Group (MARG) will be holding their montly meeting on November 21st at 2000hrs.   I am guessing they will be proving more information (location and guest speaker) before the meeting date. They used to meet at the Manotick branch of the Ottawa Public Library and I am not sure if that has changed…

So as you can see…  you do have options…  CU at at least at one of the meetings and maybe more…

73bob

Upcoming Contests

If you remember a few posts back I started to mention the CQ Contest when talking about how busy October was starting to look..  Well at the OARC  (Ottawa Amateur Radio Club)  Meeting  (last nite)  the topic of upcoming contests was also mentioned so….

I thought I would give you a short blurb on the big contests that will be happening in the next little while….  Follow the links for more infomation…

For some Contests are the only reason for radio and for others (like me) its a chance to raise my country count if I am lucky…

CQWW SSB Contest: 0000Z October 27 through 2359Z October 28 2012

ARRL November Sweepstakes  CW)- November 3rd- 5th

ARRL November Sweepstakes SSB – November 17th-19th

CQWW CW Contest: 0000Z November 24 through 2359Z November 25 2012

Now if you are new to contesting OR you just want a fresh opinion on how you should want to be doing things I recommend you head over to Peter West’s blog (ve3hg.wordpress.com) where as I write this … he has just finished part 2 of what will be a 7 part article on Contesting.  Here is the link to part 1 and you can follow from there…  Peter is an accomplished contester who has done “fairly well” in the contesting scene…  I’d suggest reading his articles and then see what improvements you can make to your contesting plans…

On the other hand I am not a contester….  I do enjoy giving out contacts in the contests and I do enjoy working new countries/states,  and in a contest I expect to get a few “new ones” in the log…  In addition to make things a bit more interesting I try and set a few simple goals for myself…

Normally they are:

Have Fun….

Try and operate for at least 50% of the contest

In a North American based contest I should be able to work at least 25 of the US States and most of the Provinces

In a world wide based contest I should be able to work at least 4 continents

In a world wide based contest I should be able to work at least 30 DXCC entities and hopefully a couple of new ones as well

In whatever contest and whatever catagory I participate in,  my score should be in the top 50% at the end of the day

In the RAC Canada contests I should be able to work all the Provinces and Territorities (done it before but the North is rough)

If at the end of the day I can attain the above goals I will be happy with myself and my station.  Remember no beams here…  No amps either…  100w and a vertical is the best I can come up with… 

At the end of contest I know that I will not be in the top 10 (best I ever did was top 10 in QRP SSB 2003 Canada Winter Contest) but I know that I will of had fun and really thats all that matters.

73bob

Wednesday evening is the OARC Meeting

If you’re  in Ottawa this evening with nothing to do….

The Ottawa Amateur Radio Club is meeting at City Hall tonight …  The meeting starts officially at 1930 local but everyone shows up closer to 1900 to get a good seating location and chat with fellow amateurs…

From the OARC Website ( www.oarc.net) :

Next Meeting: The next regular meeting will be October 10 in the Col. By room of Ottawa City Hall at 7:30pm.Our speaker will be Martin Gillen, VA3SIE. He will speak on the subject of SOTA and FYBO contests/events

As hinted at (above) Martin is a very active QRP Portable Operator.  He is very active in SOTA (Summits of the Air).  We have operated together on two CISA DXPeditions as well as on several FYBO (Freeze your B***s off) and Winter Field Day events.  Recently we activated Mt Morrisette in a SOTA Activation in mid June this year  and  we also were up on Mt Ste Marie in early September.

As you can see he also is not too bad with a Video Camera either…

If you are able to attend meeting I believe it will be time well spent…

Very good chance that you will also see Trisha and I there…

73bob

It was a VERY busy weekend- (Part 1 Britannia Park)

But a fun one…

So here we go….

Saturday morning Michel VE3EMB picked me up at 0730 and we headed over to Kristy’s Restaurant  on Richmond Road in Ottawa for a pregame meal.  Not that I am getting into Restaurant Reviews but the food was great, the prices were average for Brekkie in Ottawa and the staff was fantasticly Friendly. 

After Brekkie we headed over to Britannia Park and set up for the Ottawa Amateur Radios Club Portable Station Demonstration which was running from 9am (setup) to noon…

There was lots of Portable Stations (amateur radio stations that can be carried in one trip to your operating position) and lots of Transportable stations (more equipment, heavier equipment therefore more trips from the parking lot to the operating positions) to drool over…  I was in RadioGeek heaven…

Before we go any further thanks to Michel VE3EMB for taking pictures and allowing me to share them with you.  His real camera does a much better job than my phone camera so unless specified all pictures shown here are credited to VE3EMB

Above- My FT 817 with the W3EDP antenna operating from a picnic table

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Above – VA3BIT Bike Mobile.

Arthur uses an IC 703 and a 10-80 screwdriver antenna on his mountain bike

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Above- Barry on the left and Dave on the right

Barry I am sorry but I can’t remember your call…

Dave and Barry paired up on this one.  Dave had designed a new multi band portable antenna and they were testing it our using Barry’s newly arrived KX3.  From what I was told both radio and antenna performed quite well…  And if you notice the what I guess to be a 32 ah battery operating the KX3 they brought enough power to operate for about 6 months…

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Now those were the stations that I had pictures for….  In addition I saw….

Michel VE3EMB (he forgot to take a picture of himself) using a Flex 1500 from the hatchback of his mobile using a mobile magmount multiband antenna…

Mike VE3FFK using his Elecraft K1 along with a doublet antenna.  Mike carried his complete station over from his place on his mountain bike…

Greg VE3YTZ using his FT 897 and 6m-40m vertical antenna-  This one was Transportable and took more than one trip but…  Its nice to be QRO from the field

Bryan VE3QN using his FT 857- NUE PSK MODEM and a Buddistick to operate portable PSK 31 from the picnic table.

Clare VE3NPC was there with his handheld Satellite Antenna looking for the “Birds”

Norm VE3LC was there with a 40m rockmite style rig operating with a portable vertical antenna

Now this year I was fairly busy talking about (explaining) the qualities of the W3EDP antenna as it did draw many comments so between that and making contacts I might of missed some peoples stations…  I meant no offence if I did and please don’t take any… but back to the contacts made by VA3QV/p/qrp

As you can immagine with everyone one in the park calling CQ the bands were a bit crowded… After trying to work 20m and 40m with no success….  It was just too noisy… so I decided to try 80 meters and managed to work 3 stations in short order

VE3YK — Ken– In Dwight Ontario (165 miles)

VA3OGR– Grant– In Athens Ontario (55 miles)

VA3ZW– Jim — In Utterson Ontario (180 miles)

So with the furthest contact at 180 miles from a QRP Station in Ottawa to a 100w station in Utterson it was a great day.  80m in the daytime is not known for distance so i was pleased…

I also got to chat with Graham VE3GTC who I would also see later in the day at Chilicon who showed me his hombrewed multiband vertical.  This one is designed for roadside work as it uses the body of the car for the ground but is much taller than the traditional mobile antenna.  You can’t drive around with this one but….  It would work great for opertations when you want to get on the air quickly or trees (or lack thereof) don’t allow wire antennas…

And just to mention the Portable/transportable thing again… my complete station fits in the Red Backpack you see in the above picture…  Radio, Battery, Wire Antenna, Logbook, Water, Food and tri-band handheld and as you will find out when you read my posting on Sundays (look for part 3 later today)  activites I can carry it up a trail as well…

After saying our goodbyes Michel and I packed up our stations and pointed south to meet up with the Ottawa Valley QRP Society in Kemptville for the Chilicon event…

But thats in the next blog posting…

73bob

Its going to be a busy two days….

In just under 10 hours from now Michel VE3EMB will be picking me up and we will be heading out to Britannia Park in Ottawa for the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club  Portable Station Demonstration….  We will (along with lots of others) setting up a Portable Station and showing everyone who wanders by… the joy of Amateur Radio…. Ghod I hope the bands are open….

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Then when the Portable station event finishes around noon we will be jumping on the highway and heading south to Kemptville Provincal Park (Rideau River Park actually) and joining up with our friends in the Ottawa Valley QRP society as this is their annual camping/radio weekend….  Once again there will be lots of radios and antennas to be seen…

Look for lots of the new Elecraft KX3s to be in both locations and also lots of the tried and true… Yaesu Ft 817s as well… 

If you like portable operations…. Saturday will be your day…

Sunday will be something new for me…  That just goes to prove what a great hobby Amateur Radio is…  When I can (after 23 years as an Amateur) try an aspect of the hobby for the first time…

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Early (way too early) on Sunday morning a group of local operators will be leaving Ottawa and heading North up to Mt Ste Marie Quebec and then from there head up to the summit of the ski hill to operate in the ARRL VHF Contest (microwave bands)…

We will be operating a 10 ghz station and a 24 ghz Microwave station from 1800 feet agl.  This is something new to me and I am curious to say the least…  We will also have a 2m ssb station (for Pilot work)on the air as well so if you are able….  try listening for us on 144.260 as we try and coordinate the Microwave stations…

Now I also think a couple of us are planning to bring a QRP HF station and the Top of Mt Ste Marie is also a SOTA summit so if the contacts are slim in the Microwave contest you might hear a couple of people CQing SOTA.

If you happen to hear us on whatever band … The SOTA number is : SOTA VE2-OU-001

As I have never tried this before to be honest I don’t know what to expect… Don’t know how its going to work out but I do know whatever bands we make contact on we are expecting to have fun…

I don’t really think there will be much posted here on the weekends activities till Monday morning but then are you ever going to have a lot of stuff tossed your way in a short period of time…

Hope to see some of you in one of the 3 locations and I also hope your weekend will be as much fun as mine should be…

73bob

Busy (upcoming) weekend in Ottawa

First of all thanks to that Europoean DX Contest of the weekend just past…  Every time I was bored this weekend I was able to head down in the shack and work DX on 10-15-20 and 40m.

Make a few contacts and then come back a couple of hours later and make a few more contacts.  Although according to the Atlas I have not worked all of Europe yet in the approximately 30 contacts I made over the weekend in Europe I got no new ones…  All I was doing was hearing a CQ and answering it…  If the log said he was a dupe then don’t answer…  Was not looking for anything…  Just giving out the contacts for those who were contesting…

So that was the weekend past….

The weekend future (September 15th-16th) is starting to fill up pretty quickly in Ottawa with 3 events happening so far…  The big event would be the Ottawa Valley QRP Societys “Chilicon”  This is a laid back camping event with QRP Portable Operations thrown in for good measure.

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People will start arriving at Rideau River Provincal Park (south of Ottawa in Kemptville Ontario)  on Friday afternoon and will run all weekend.  This is a very unstructured event…  Show up when you want….  Leave when you want….  Operate how you want…. with evening gatherings by a campfire to lie (brag) about your setup and contacts made…

It can also be a lot of fun…

In case of rotten weather there is a large covered area when you can sit and operate or cook etc sheltered from the rain…  Covered roof but no sides…  This is the last weekend the park is open for the season so it won’t be too busy…

Walk around the park and listen for the sounds of CW and the radio ops will be easy to find…

On Saturday am the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club will be sponsoring a Portable Radio Demo Event at Britannia Park in Ottawa’s west end.

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There will be all sorts of goodies to be seen….

Stations of all kinds …   QRO, QRP, Portable and Transportable…. CW, SSB and Digital….  This will start at 10am and will go till about noon….

The area we operate from for this one is lacking foul weather shelter but another area of the park has a large covered shelter.  I’m not sure what the plans are for bad wx.  Limited talk in and info on the morning might be found on repeater VE2CRA (146.940  -   ctcss 100.0)

Heres what last years event looked like… Courtesy VA3CME… And place CLOSE ATTENTION at the 3:05 mark of the video for a great looking Portable station and an excellent experienced operator….

What a few of us wimps (those who don’t tent camp, LIKE MYSELF)  do is spend Friday night in Ottawa and then head to Britannia on Saturday am then head south to Kemptville for Chilicon and spend Saturday afternoon & evening there and return to Ottawa on Saturday night….  It make for a busy day but a fun day…

This might be a good time for a few definations of the terms I have used so far today…

QRP- refers to the power level used by the transmitter  Less than 5w

QRO- refers to the power level used the the transmitter.  Normally 100w or more

Portable station is a complete field station that you carry to the field in one trip

This is my portable station.  As you can see everything fits into the backpack and is easy to carry and setup…

Transportable station is a complete field stations that you carry from the parking lot to the field in more than 1 trip or with several people helping you

Above is a picture of my “Transportable Station”  FT897- LDG Autotuner- W3EDP Antenna and the heavier than heck Marine Battery.  The weight of the battery alone makes this a Transportable Station.

Below is the same station being used by Connie NR4CB when she dropped in to visit the VE3ORF/3730 group when they set up at Iroquois Ontario just after field day.

Now on Sunday Sept 15 I have heard that some of the heartier ones are doing a SOTA activation of Mt. Ste Marie QC (FN25) that will (might) include some of the microwave bands…  I am still working on getting a bit more info on this… I’ll let you know once I get more info…

Enjoy your week

73bob

This Saturday is the OARC Hamfest

September 8, 2012   

Sponsored by the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club inc.

Date: Saturday, September 8, 2012      

Place: Carp Agricultural Fairgrounds,    

3832 Carp Road (at Falldown Lane),       Ottawa (Carp), Ontario.

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From Ottawa, take Highway 417 West to Carp Road exit,  then 11 km North to the fairgrounds.  Hamfest is located in the arena, so follow the signs on the site.

Time: Indoor Vendor setup: 7:30 am – 9 am

Tailgaters Open: 8 am;

Public: 9 am – Noon.       Admission: Public: $6;

We will have a qualified licence examiner on site, so you can get your  ham radio licence or upgrade at the hamfest!   

Web address: http://oarc.net/fleamarket/

 Talk-in on VE2CRA , 146.940 – Mhz 100hz CTCSS

If you need any further information please check the OARC Website…

73bob

BTW…. If you bring your XYL with you the Carp Farmers Market will keep her occupied while you check out the Hamfest…  Its at the other end of the Fair Grounds

A message from Ontario East RAC Section Manager (incoming)

Another gem in the email inbox from the newsgroups.  I guess I must of p!ssed someone off as I used to get these directly (or unoffically leaked) in the past…  Now I find them posted to newsgroups…

Anyway…  in case you don’t read the same newsgroups as I do…

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To Amateur Radio Clubs and Organizations in Eastern Ontario: Almonte ARC, Chapter 70 Quarter Century Wireless Association, Iroquois ARC, Kingston ARC, Manotic AR Group, Ottawa ARC, Ottawa Valley QRP Association, Ottawa Valley Mobile RC, Prescott-Russel ARC, Quinte ARC, St-Lawrence Valley ARC, West Carleton ARC, 3730 Group

If you, members of your executives or other active members will be in Ottawa for the Hamfest September 8 please stop by the RAC booth to meet Mike Hickey, the new Section Manager Ontario East, and Glenn MacDonell, Deputy Director North/East Ontario.  We are particularly interested in discussing the new reorganization of the Ontario Section of RAC that takes effect September 1 and how we can work together to strengthen amateur radio in the region.

The reorganization of RAC’s Ontario Section aims to provide better communication with and better representation of the interests of the overall Ontario amateur population.  Ontario contains 60% of the RAC membership.  Dividing the province into 4 new sections, one of which will be Ontario East (Section ONE), will bring RAC representatives closer to amateurs and clubs in the province.  This is being done to bring decision making around field operations closer to the membership.  One specific objective of the reorganization is to improve support for local clubs and we would like to discuss how we can make this happen.

The reorganization implements a significant change – broadening the responsibilities and functions of the regional organization.  In the past the focus of Section Managers has been the operation of the Field Service in their region – most prominently the Amateur Radio Emergency Service but also including the National Traffic System, Official Bulletin Service, Official Observer Service and the Regional Amateur Radio Alert network.

RAC has now decided to implement a Field Organization something that has not existed before in any national Canadian amateur radio organization. The Field Organization will undertake activities in four areas : provincial government liaison, public information, support to RAC affiliated clubs and technical coordination.  These will provide the basis for a new communications and accountability relationship between amateurs (speaking through their clubs) and the RAC Section Management team.

The scope of the four functions is not yet fully defined and the volunteers to support these activities remain to be found.  As we all know identifying objectives and creating structures designed to achieve them, while important, will not on their own deliver results.  We need to identify specific activities and the people that will help achieve them.  Better communications is key and we look forward to hearing the views of active amateurs in the region – they will help us refine the structure and identify the people required to support a growing and active amateur radio community.

As some of you already know, amateur radio clubs are able to have a table at the Ottawa Hamfest free of charge (individual vendors pay $15) so that they can describe their activities, sign up new members or get renewals and sell surplus equipment to raise money for their club.  Although the time is short, if you want to take advantage of this please contact the Ottawa Hamfest Manager, Ed Sich, VE3WGO.

If you know of other amateur radio clubs or organizations in you area that we have missed please let us know.  The email list we used did not exist before this email – just one example of what we need to do to build better communications!

Mike Hickey, VE3IPC, was named as Ontario East Section Manager on August 12, 2012.  He will be known to many of you from his previous roles as Emergency Coordinator and District Emergency Coordinator in the ARES Capital Seaway District. He will lead the delivery of RAC services in the Region.

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA, was named Deputy Director Ontario North/East on April 20 2012. Bill Unger, Director Ontario North/East, is our representative on the RAC Board of Directors that manages the organization.  Bill lives in Thunder Bay and consequently can only rarely visit clubs in our area. Glenn advises Bill on issues and concerns of amateurs in our part of the region, participates in RAC Board of Directors meetings and votes when Bill is absent.

We look forward to meeting you at the Hamfest and are open to meeting your executives or members at one of your your club meetings or events.

73

Mike Hickey   Glenn MacDonell
VE3IPC VE3XRA
Section Manager Ontario East Deputy Director Ontario North/East
Radio Amateurs of Canada Radio Amateurs of Canada
ve3ipc@aol.com

ve3xra@rac.ca

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For more info on RAC please go to  http://www.rac.ca

For more info on the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club Hamfest please go to:

http://www.oarc.net/fleamarket/

73bob