History [FR]A word of wisdom
We, as amateur radio operators, must ensure and continually persist to secure RF spectrum for future growth and developments. This to ensure an ongoing and interesting future of our hobby for the younger generations who are computer savvy, and have both the internet and cellular networks to play with, as compared to the days of the xtal sets, short-wave radios, and vinyl (78/45/33rpm disks) that most of us grew up with.
Claude VE2YI - President
VE2RMP first started out as VE2DN and was situated in Laurel, Quebec which is next door to Morin Heights, Québec. This area is well known for its ski hills. It didn’t cover very well and was off the air most of the time. In the early 70’s a group of hams VE2EXL Andre Dionne now VE2RZ, Paul VE2AXS now VE2PAA, Jules VE2DN and VE2BOA Neil Goldberg all got together and moved and installed the repeater in an old Canadian Marconi site. This site was situated north of St-Jerome on a road called Montée Ste-Therese. This site was on a bluff called Mount Parent. When the application for the call of the repeater was sent it was only logical to request VE2-Repeater-Mount-Parent.
The repeater at the beginning was a Motorola 80D Receiver and a Marconi DT43 transmitter. The filters used were homemade by Neil VE2BOA. Two antennas were necessary to give the separation needed between the transmitter and receiver. One year later the system was changed to a HJ28 60 watt repeater then the receiver was eventually changed to a solid state unit but keeping the same transmitter.
In the mid 70's Neil VE2BOA left Marconi Canada and the Repeater had to find a new home. Jean Michel VE2OE and Neil VE2BOA rented an airplane as both were pilots and spotted from the air the site where VE2RMP is today.
The site was built by quite a group, many of whom are watching us from above: VE2DVL Clement, VE2BTW Aime, VE2RZ Andre, VE2BXZ Marcel, VE2OE Jean Michel, VE2PAA Paul, VE2ZC Dan, VE2APL Gilles and VE2BOA Neil. If any calls have been missed we apologize.
The building was built with cement blocks and an "A" frame roof with shingles. The tower was a tubular Television tower which was approximately 50 feet high. The tower was guyed & anchored to the indigenous rock where the site is located.
The site is located at the 1200 ft above sea level and we initially used two antennas. At the top there was a four loop Sinclair 210-A4 for receiving and about 30 feet down was a two loop Sinclair 210-A2 for transmitting. This stayed as the equipment for approximately six years.
We then followed the new technology and threw out the tubes and went with a solid state GE Master II and two sets of Sinclair multi-coupler cavity filters. This is the basic VHF setup still today on VE2RMP 146.760 with a minus 600 KHz offset.
During the 1980's Pierre Cadieux VE2GKP and Neil Goldberg VE2BOA set up an UHF link between the CEGEP in St. Jerome and the repeater site. This provided an auto patch facility to the repeater. Just think you could make a phone call from your car. This remained in service for approximately Ten years but it was unfortunately removed in the late 1990's due to malicious operations by certain operators.
Since 2005 many changes have come about...
We've added and installed a UHF repeater, VA2RMP (at the same site) and have added an IRLP link in 2006 running via a remote station (courtesy of VE2YU) for radio/internet access.
In 2010 the VE2RMP Radio Group acquired a Motorola MSR2000 (100 Watt continuous duty VHF repeater) and took the old GE-Mastr II out of commission.
Activation of the new VE2RMP repeater was planned to coincide with a change of location to a new hi-site location (nearby in the Laurentians) where the equipment is in a much safer, protected and temperature controlled environment.
We hope to (later this year) during 2011, move the balance of the Group's equipment to the new location and have everything up and running there. Hopefully this may be completed before the fall.
Throughout the year the VE2RMP Radio Group hosts a few events such as our annual "Spring Cabane à Sucre" (Sugar Shack) which is usually held in late March, and during mid-summer, we have a "Corn Roast".
And then we have our annual "Christmas Supper" get-together as the year-end wrap-up.
During the summer of 2011 we "set-up and partake" in our first Field Day.
Come on in and take a look at our plans. We hope you'll come to help out, participate, negotiate, operate, and most of all – have a great "fun & learning experience" with friends and family.
Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm in this wonderful world of Ham Radio!