My name is Randy Sommerfeld, and I've been a licensed amateur radio operator since 2001. I passed the Industry Canada 'basic' qualification exam with a score of 86%, which gives me honours standing. Because of this standing, I am authorized by Industry Canada to operate on all amateur bands, including all HF bands. I was formerly operating under the callsign VA7VCD while residing in British Columbia. I intend to take my 'advanced' qualification exam sometime in the near future.

I am a registered member of Radio Amateurs of Canada, the American Radio Relay League, and the 3905 Century Club.

Currently, my station is a modest setup in a basement suite that I'm renting. Because of this, my UHF/VHF operations have been limited to a series of magmount and j-pole antennas located approximately one meter above ground level. HF operations are performed by way of a 67-foot long Windom antenna about five meters above ground level.

I monitor most Edmonton repeaters, but am most likely to be reached on VE6RES, 147.120mhz (+600khz input, 126.5hz CTCSS tone.) I also operate IRLP node number 1089 (operating as VA6WY on 145.010mhz.) The node is currently also on a magmount antenna and has a limited range, but I do monitor it. I check in to the BC Public Service Net on 3.729mhz at 1:30z and the Alberta Public Service Net on 3.700mhz at 1:00z irregularly.

I have broken this web site into numerous sections depending on your interest. Below, I've included some more basic information about my station, including location and antenna setup.

• Equipment - A complete equipment inventory along with descriptions and how the equipment is used.
• J-Poles - Step by step procedures that I followed to construct my own set of effective j-pole antennas with modest materials.
• TinyTrak - My adventures with the TinyTrak series of APRS beacon devices.

Image courtesy of Tkyle. Licensed under the GPLv2.

My QTH is Edmonton, Alberta, a large city with a metropolitan population of approximately one million people. Edmonton is the capital city of the province of Alberta, set right in the heart of Canada's prairie region. Since the land is completely flat for many, many miles around, VHF and UHF radio waves get great propagation in all directions.

I currently maintain two APRS stations: VA6RRX, my base station, which can send and receive APRS text messages at all times, and VA6RRX-1, my mobile station which is only active while I am walking or hiking on the ground.