The Communicator March - April 2025

Lots happening...

You will find some great articles in this issue, along with our regular columnists.

Now read in over 165 countries, this issue brings you 115+ pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and around the globe. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.

Download the January - February Communicator in 
LARGE or SMALL format, or read it on-line like a magazine

Previous Communicator issues:

Search for past Communicator issues

We are working on providing you with a comprehensive searchable index,
but in the meantime a searchable topic index is HERE.  

As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome. 

The deadline for the next edition is April 15th.

If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at communicator@ve7sar.net

73,

John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor

The Table of Contents for the March - April 2025 Communicator issue:

• The Rest of the Story - Alfred Lewis Vail 4
• Bob King G3ASE: World War II RSS Monitor 8
• World Amateur Radio Day 10
• News You Can’t Lose - BandOpticon 12
• Page13—News You Can Lose 13
• Radio Ramblings: Passive Radar Update, BladeRF SDR, $5 Yagi 14
• The Wobbulator 25
• Rubber Coating Removal 28
• Dealing With Leaking Dry Cells 29
• An affordable and easy PCB vise solution for electronics hobbyists 30
• The ‘7300’ User Group - The spectrum scope and waterfall 31
• Remote control and operation 34
• Do you own an Alinco DR/135/235/435T or TYT9000? 37
• The Background Noise on the HF Amateur Bands 38
• BCQP 2025 — Initial Thoughts 44
• From the ATV Journal - An Impressive, Low Cost LNA 46
• Pi Pico Makes SSTV Reception a Snap 49
• ISED Releases New Canadian Basic Amateur Radio Question Bank 50
• Forget the Coax, Use Cat 6 52
• Ohm’s Law: Look what you can do with it 53
• Stranded: An Unlikely Friendship 55
• A satellite primer 58
• A DMR Primer 59
• Those Darn Wall-Wart Power Supplies! 60
• Operation Manna @ 80: Honouring the legacy through amateur radio 63
• Ham Radio Gizmos Platform  Launches Documentary Series 66
• Ham Radio Outside the Box: An Off-Center Fed Sleeve Dipole 67
• Are You a Rag Chewer or a “59 73” Operator? 70
• 2 Meters: Another Slacker DXpedition 71
• KB6NU: How do we encourage more experimentation in amateur radio? 74
• What CAD software do you use? 75
• SARC on 24 GHz! 76
• The Solar Max: Is a second peak coming? 77
• Foundations of Amateur Radio 78
• No-ham Recipes: Toad-in-the-hole 81
• Back to Basics: Understanding Ohm's Law 82
• Profiles of SARC members 88
• Index of Past Profiles of SARC members 90
• Winter Field Day 95
• A Review of Distracted Driving Regulations in BC 109
• QRT: The Crucial Role of Amateur Radio 110