The SARC Communicator: March-April 2026

Hello Radio Enthusiasts!

The latest issue of the SARC Communicator is officially live, and it’s one of our most diverse editions yet. Whether you are a history buff, a dedicated tinkerer, or a DX adventurer, there is something in here for you.

Inside this issue:

• Historical Deep Dives: From the electrical empire of Werner von Siemens to the high-stakes drama of the Alexanderson kidnapping, and a special event station commemoration of the Titanic disaster.
• Bench Projects: Learn how to make Homebrew PCBs with a 3D printer and copper tape, or peek at the elegant KD5ZZU Z-match tuner build.
• DX & Field Ops: Travel back to the 1994 Peter I Island DXpedition or get the latest on the North Fraser Club’s 925 MHz Balloon Project.
• Radio Secrets: Unlock the hidden "superpowers" of the Icom IC-7300, 7610 and 9700 and explore the "IPS Buffet" antenna mix-and-match review.

We also take a moment to look at the "Lighter Side" with tales of Field Day chickens and offer a dose of Rational Optimism regarding the vibrant future of our hobby.

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~ John VE7TI, Editor

Contents for this issue: 

• • Siemens built an electrical empire that still exists today           4
  • Trials & Errors: G.E. and the Alexanderson Kidnapping          8
  • Homebrew PCBs with a 3D Printer and Copper Tape             12
  • Amateur Radio’s Most Sacred Symbol of Discipline              13
  • Radio Ramblings: Chameleon Project - Digital Radio            16
  • KA3DRR: The Compass Lied. The Ionosphere Didn’t           26
  • String a horizontal loop                                                            30
  • Hidden features in the Icom IC-7300 transceiver:                   34
  • Activating LZ9X Bulgaria                                                       38
  • High Above the Noise: Charlie and the Field Day Chicken    42
  • The IPS Buffet Antenna: A Mix-and-Match Field Review     46
  • Add Digital Television to Your ARES Tool Kit                      48
  • Fun with Arduino and Semaphore Signaling                          52
  • The North Fraser Club: High‑Altitude Amateur
    Radio at 925 MHz                                                                   54
  • Club in Focus: The Orca DX and Contest Club                      56
  • ‘Probing’ Around Inside an Old Receiver                               60
  • From a ‘Rocket’ radio to an ‘almost’
    real one… and beyond                                                             62
  • When an app outlives its creator                                              64
  • A ‘Barn Find’ Radio                                                                 66
  • RAC Amateur of the Year Award 2025                                    68
  • Closure of the Weatherradio Service in Canada                      69
  • Outside the Box: KD5ZZU’s elegant build of a
    Z-match tuner                                                                          70
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of the Z-Match                      72
  • The ultimate rebuild of an ancient Yaesu FT-817                    73
  • Rational Optimism About the Future of Amateur Radio         76
  • Foundations of Amateur Radio: Transmitting
    into a dummy load… for a year… on purpose                         84
  • To Honour Titanic’s Legacy and the 
    Heroes of the Airwaves                                                            87
  • Twelve Safety Laws for Amateur Radio Operators                 90
  • Profiles of SARC members: Andy Carr VE7SNF                   94
  • BC QSO Party and ARRL DX Contest (CW)                          99
  • Friends Remembered: “Walt” Bond VE7WDB/VE6MW      101
  • SARC General Meeting minutes                                            105
  • Spotless!                                                                                  110
  • QRT: “Radio is the same as in 1920…”  Really?                   114
  • Ham Leftovers                                                                        117      

   

Festive Callsigns PH25XMAS and PH26HNY Return to the HF Bands

 

Celebrating 5 Years of Holiday Spirit on the Air

Now with an AI-Powered Award System!

As the Christmas season approaches, radio amateurs across the world can once again look forward to hearing the cheerful special callsigns PH25XMAS and PH26HNY on the HF bands. These stations will be active during the Christmas holidays and the first week of January 2026, sharing goodwill and season’s greetings over the airwaves.

This year marks the first lustrum (5th anniversary) of the festive XMAS and HNY event calls. To mark the occasion, the organizing team has developed an all-new automated award platform — a creative blend of amateur radio, Python programming, and artificial intelligence. It is called SAVS (Special Award Validation System).

The system will be operational, starting the 6^th of December 2025. Until then a page is showing a count-down timer to the first date of operation and first opportunity to check the award eligibility.

A Fully Automated Award System:  SAVS

Participants who have made QSOs with PH##XMAS and/or PH##HNY stations between 2021 and 2026 can check whether they qualify for a commemorative certificate.

The new award system at 👉 https://award.pa3efr.nl works like this:

• The platform automatically searches remote and local ADIF logs (PH21XMAS–PH26HNY).
• Operators whose callsigns appear three or more times in the logbooks across the past four years and this year are eligible for an award.
• After entering your callsign on the Entry Page, the system validates your QSOs, displays the results, and — if qualified — instantly generates a personalized PDF certificate for download.

Behind the scenes, a Python Flask server performs the validation, integrates with QRZ.com for data verification, and generates your award PDF with just one click.

Open Source and AI-Assisted

The entire system was created with the help of AI tools and is released as a fully open-source project on GitHub: https://github.com/PA3EFR/SAVS_XMAS_HNY

Every element — from log validation to PDF generation — runs autonomously, demonstrating how classic ham radio activity can harmoniously combine with modern coding and machine learning.

Join the Celebration

So this festive season, when you hear “CQ from PH25XMAS” or “CQ from PH26HNY”, don’t hesitate to call back!

You might not only exchange warm holiday greetings, but also earn yourself a special place in the logs — and a beautiful award to commemorate it.

📡 Brought to you by Radio Scouting Fellowship PA3EFR/J

The Communicator: November - December 2025

Welcome to the November-December 2025 edition of the SARC Communicator, your go-to guide for all things amateur radio in our vibrant RF neighborhood. This edition is a journey across the history, innovation, and fascinating activities of amateur radio.

As we transition from crisp fall days to the festive glow of holidays ahead, this issue looks at the enduring legacy of Émile Baudot, the pioneer of digital communication, and revisits the vital role of radio during the catastrophic 1917 Halifax Explosion. 

For satellite operators, discover how to seamlessly integrate SkyRoof with the Icom IC-9700 for LEO satellite operations, and check out our review of the past year in amateur satellites. 

Technical articles dive into RTTY as a viable emergency digital mode and explores the fascinating use of radio telemetry in insect tracking. We also have several articles on a current ‘hot’ activity, homebrew vertical antennas for Parks on the Air (POTA).  Finally, catch up on the excitement of the ARDF World Championship and a glimpse into the future of Software Defined Radio. 

There are articles for all levels of amateur radio and you’re sure to find something of interest.

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Dive in for inspiration, connections, and the pulse of what makes our hobby of hobbies special. A special year-end thank you to our contributors and columnists. On behalf of SARC and SEPAR, we wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season.  

Stay engaged—our readership powers us forward!

Enjoy this final issue of 2025!

~ John VE7TI, Editor

Contents for this issue:

• The Rest of the Story: RTTY and Émile Baudot’s Enduring Legacy 4
• Radio's Role in the 1917 Halifax Explosion 8
• NARA NVIS Test 12
• The Lighter Side of Amateur Radio 13
• Repair and Repurpose 14
• Radiofrequency and Telemetry in Insect Tracking 24
• What’s New at DLARC — October 2025 28
• ARDF Canada World Championship 2025 in Lithuania 30
• Integrating SkyRoof with the Icom IC-9700 32
• RTTY; A viable emergency digital mode? 36
• Pile-Up Control System - Take control of the pile-up! 40
• Satellite Tracking: Looking back on 2025, and ahead into 2026 42
• Homebrew Mobile Antennas 44
• The genius logic of the NATO phonetic alphabet 46
• The North American QRP CW Club 48
• Simple QRP 9:1 Unun Construction 50
• The Dominator End-Fed Halfwave Antenna by KJ6ER 52
• The POTA PERformer vertical antenna revisited 60
• FreqBuddy: A Modern Web-Based Radio Frequency Database 69
• Ham Radio Outside the box: PERformer modifications 70
• A good idea for suspending radials 72
• A Portable Power Project 73
• Zero Retries 76
• Margaret Atwood on CW? 80
• When your hobby revolves around electricity... 82
• Back to Basics - Digital Modes 86
• Study Aids 89
• No-ham Recipes: Meatloaf with sweet tomato-mustard sauce 91
• Profiles of SARC members: Sheldon Friesen VE7SRF 94
• SARC Member donates digital nautical archive 97
• SARC 50th Anniversary the transformative role of SARC 100
• Peter Vogel VE7AFV: Profile in Tech, Science & Amateur Radio  102
• SARC General Meeting minutes 104
• The SEPAR Report 110
• We’re back on track! 115
• QRT: Is Amateur Radio an Old Hobby or a playground for explorers? 116
• HAM LEFTOVERS... 118
• A look back… at The Communicator—December 2015 120

Pile-Up Control System

PUCS: Take control of the pile-up!

by SANDER PD9HIX and ERWIN PA3EFR VAN DER HAAR

Every special event station (SES) operator knows the thrill — and the chaos — of a true pile-up. The excitement of dozens of stations calling you simultaneously can quickly turn into frustration when QRM, doubles, and missed calls clutter the frequency. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to bring order to that chaos without losing the fun of real-time operating?

Enter PUCS, the Pile-Up Control System, a fully open-source, web-based platform designed by and for radio amateurs. Born from the ingenuity of the Radio Scouting Fellowship PA3EFR/J, PUCS elegantly blends traditional ham ingenuity with modern AI-assisted software development. The result is a modular, flexible system that any club or individual can tailor to their own operating style — from large-scale SES activities to small club field days.

PUCS can be seen operational at pucs.pa3efr.nl

From Normandy to the Netherlands

The idea for PUCS was sparked during an SES operation on the beaches of Normandy, where operators of TM80DDAY overheard multiple Australian colleagues discussing a private sign-up system for QSOs. Intrigued but unable to obtain the software, Erwin PA3EFR and his team decided to build their own version — and then share it freely with the world. With the help of AI tools and some Python wizard Barry, PC1K, PUCS was born. It was much later when Erwin decided to develop PUCS within his own environment.

Today, PUCS is freely available, fully documented, and open to anyone willing to experiment. It’s more than just software — it’s an invitation to collaborate, learn, and contribute to a smarter way of managing pile-ups.

What Makes PUCS Unique

At its heart, PUCS is a distributed system consisting of two parts:

• Frontend (commercial hosting): This is the public entry point where operators register their callsigns to join the queue. Think of it as a digital “waiting room” — transparent, fair, and visible to everyone.  
• Backend (local PC): Here’s where the magic happens. The backend checks QRZ.com logbooks every minute, automatically removes callsigns that have already been worked, and provides an admin dashboard to manage the queue, export logs, and adjust settings on the fly.

The system uses Python’s Flask framework, SQLite databases, and SocketIO for real-time updates — all standard, well-documented technologies familiar to many technically minded amateurs. It’s simple enough for a club to host on a modest PC, yet robust enough to handle large SES events.

Open Source, Open Spirit

PUCS is more than a tool — it’s a philosophy. The creators explicitly invite others to modify, enhance, and restyle the system to their own preferences. Whether you want to change the interface colors, add logging features, integrate digital modes, or redesign the operator dashboard, the code is yours to explore. There’s no hidden agenda, no locked components — just open code and open collaboration.
All scripts, examples, and documentation are available on GitHub:

https://github.com/PA3EFR/PUCS

Why You Should Try It

PUCS is a perfect project for your club’s next technical workshop. It offers practical lessons in networking, APIs, databases, and web hosting — all wrapped around a real amateur radio application. 
Beyond that, it promotes fairness in pile-ups, gives weaker stations a chance to make contact, and even allows SWLs to log their participation.

So fire up your soldering iron if you must, but this time, your “kit” is made of code.
Download PUCS, make it your own, and bring calm to your next pile-up.

As Erwin, PA3EFR, says: “Ask AI as your friend for support — and enjoy your own moments of challenge!” On behalf of the Radio Scouting Fellowship PA3EFR/J we look forward to see you on our PUCS screens at a next special event occasion.

~ Sander PD9HIX

The Communicator May-June 2025

Another full issue

Its a big issue, and great articles, along with our regular columnists.

Now read in over 165 countries, this issue brings you 120+ 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 May-June 2025 Communicator in 
LARGE or SMALL format, or read it on-line like a magazine

Previous Communicator issues:

Search for past Communicator issues

We now have a comprehensive searchable index back to 2007
HERE.  

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

The deadline for the next edition is June 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 May-June 2025 Communicator issue:

• The Rest of the Story: Pavel Schilling .............................................4
• NEW! A Complete Search Engine for The Communicator ..............7
• News You Can’t Lose: ..................................................................12
• News You Can’t Lose: Some enjoyable listening ahead! ..............12
• News You Can Lose: ARRL New Taxes for DX QSOs ..................13
• Mentoring Young Hams .................................................................15
• Post Special Event Summary: Operation Manna: .........................18
• Manna@80: The more unique contacts made by VB7MAN ..........24
• Radio Oranje and the ‘Kraut Sieve’ ...............................................25
• Radio Ramblings: Computing Science and Amateur Radio ..........28
• Computing Science and Amateur Radio ........................................28
• A LoRa-Based Mesh Network for Emergency Communication .....39
• A Heathkit “Cantenna” Deep Dive ................................................41
• Testing “Cantenna” oil ....................................................................43
• Making a Better Heathkit "Cantenna" ............................................46
• Another Notable Manna/Chowhound 80 Contact ..........................48
• Exploring the iCOM IC-7300's Internal Antenna Tuner ..................49
• Automatic Antenna Tuners & Couplers ..........................................52
• Electronic Keyers & Keyer Paddles ...............................................53
• Transients and Spikes on Power-line Voltage: ..............................55
• So... What is an MOV? ..................................................................57
• Testing MOVs ................................................................................59
• A Cheap and Light Weight HF Antenna .........................................60
• SO-124 [HADES-R] Satellite .........................................................61
• Tracking the ISS with an Arduino-Based System ..........................63
• Wondering where you can be heard? ............................................64
• A Reference for Coaxial Cable ......................................................65
• YADD: Maritime HF Activity Revisited ...........................................66
• The Mystery of the Mis-keyed Callsign ..........................................69
• Exploring Digital QSL Cards with DigiQSL: ...................................70
• How to Operate Pedestrian Mobile ................................................72
• Ham Radio Outside the Box: 25 Years a Ham ..............................75
• 2m: Weak-Signal Performance of Common Modulation Formats .79
• Zero Retries: An Introduction to the IP400 Network Project ..........82
• KB6NU: Buttons Are Back, Baby! ..................................................85
• KB6NU: Single sideband and a HAMNET update .........................87
• Foundations of Amateur Radio: .........................................................
• What is the difference between a Dummy Load and an Antenna? 88
• No-ham Recipes: Chinese Chicken in Sauce ................................91
• Back to Basics: A Balancing Act ....................................................92
• Profiles of SARC members: Jaspal Bagha VA7JB ........................98
• The Contest Contender: CQ WPX SSB ......................................102
• The Contest Contender: The 2025 ARRL Rookie Roundup ........104
• VB7MAN Participates in an International Microwave Party .........105
• High School Communications Course Update ............................113
• SEPAR Report: Winlink reestablished in the SEPAR program ....115
• QRT [Opinion]: The FCC Policy Statement .................................118
• Ham Leftovers... ..........................................................................121
• A look back: May 2015... .............................................................122

Tomorrow starts Manna/Chowhound Weekend

Manna@80! 

Operations Manna and Chowhound were lifesaving food drops to Northwest Holland 80 years ago, just prior to the end of World War Two. Over 20,000 people had died from starvation and a colder than normal winter. Allied pilots and support staff from the UK, the US, Canada, Poland, and Australia dropped over 7,000 tons of food behind enemy lines. 

There are 10 special event stations operating in these countries Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27. If you contact 4 or more, a special event certificate will be issued. Check QRZ.com for any of the following callsigns or Manna80.radio on the web where the stations’ current operating frequencies are available via HamAlert.

​

Participating stations:

Netherlands

1. PH80MAN: Operating from drop zone Duindigt near The Hague.

The UK

2.  GB80MAN: International Bomber Command Centre

3. GB8MAN: Royal Air Force Station Binbrook

4. GB80CHO: 100th Bomb Group Museum in Thorpe Abbots


The United States

5. W4C: Boca Raton Amateur Radio Assn


Canada

6. VB7MAN: Surrey Amateur Radio Communications in Surrey, BC

7. VB6MAN: Calgary Amateur Radio Club at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta

8. VE1MAN: Pictou County ARC in Picton, Nova Scotia


Australia

9. VK80MAN: Bull Creek Aviation Heritage Centre Perth, Australia


Poland

10. SN80MAN: The SP5KAB Radio Club

We hope to make contact with you.

 ​

~ John VE7TI

Who said kids are not into Amateur Radio

We just graduated this mom and her two kids from our recent on-line course. The kids are age 11 and 13 and passed the written exam AND a CW endorsement with neighbour Guy VA7GI coaching them. 

Congratulations and see you on the bands. 

~

VB7MAN is ON AIR!

Mark VA7MM and others are our first guest operators

A recent VB7MAN QSO with Jake, KC7WXD, in Nevada.

Jake is an antique wireless experimenter and the chirpy note of the Command Set at VA7MM using VB7MAN, obviously caught his attention. The photo is of Jake’s homebrew 802 tube transmitter. His QRP signal at 2.5 W with the 802 transmitter was a perfectly copiable up here in BC.

If you would like to be a guest operator using the MANNA@80 callsign VB7MAN, have a look at the calendar for available slots and send us a note at vb7man@gmail.com. You can use any band and any mode anywhere in BC.

~

The Planning for MANNA@80 Continues...

Planning for the special event stations commemorating the life-saving food drops to NW Netherlands near the end of World War II is now in full swing. 62 nationalities were part of Bomber Command in WW2. 

Please visit Operation Manna @ 80 for a full list of stations around the globe. Here are the Canadian stations participating:

VB7MAN Surrey Amateur Radio Communications

In Canada, Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) has been granted special event callsign VB7MAN from April 1^st to May 10^th. We will be on the air from our training station and elsewhere prior to, during, and after the event and will seek involvement of the high school students from our RF Communications class. Contacts with Europe can be sporadic from our location but we are generally able to contact North and South America, Asia, and Oceania. We have created a QSL card to commemorate the event. The card bears the $100 Royal Canadian Mint gold and silver coin struck in 2020 for the 75^th anniversary. 

We will update this page as plans progress but hope to make a QSO with you in April or May. Any certified amateur in BC may operate the special event callsign, as long as it is only used in one location at a time. If you wish to use the call on any band or mode, a Google calendar has been set up to reserve the call for your use between April 1st and May 10th. If you wish to book an operating time for VB7MAN, please contact VB7MAN@gmail.com.

John VE7TI
Coordinator VB7MAN@gmail.com

 

VB6MAN Calgary Amateur Radio Association

CARA will be operating from the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta. They will activate on April 25, 26, and 27th and May 9 and 10. The final dates and hours of operations will depend on the radio amateur operators participating.

 

VE1MAN Nova Scotia

The Canadian teams closest to Europe will be operating from their club station as VE1MAN. They may be activating from a former WW2 air base or another location of significance to tie in with the event.

 

Radio Amateurs of Canada published an article about MANNA@80 in the March-April issue of The Canadian Amateur, as did the Radio Society of Great Britain in their national magazine RADCOM.

~

The RF Communications course continues...

 

 

~

Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Presentation

At the Surrey Amateur Radio Communications March general meeting, Hitoshi Takahashi VE7LET, the Radio Amateurs of Canada Director for BC & Yukon, presented John Schouten VE7TI with a plaque commemorating his appointment to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame for 2024.

John Schouten [left] and Hitoshi Takahashi [right]

[left to right] Hiroshi Takahashi, John Schouten
and retiring RAC BC-Yukon Director Keith Witney

Radio Amateurs of Canada recognizes deserving Amateurs by appointments to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. The Constitution for the Hall specifies that the appointment as Member of the Hall is made for “outstanding achievement and excellence of the highest degree, for serious and sustained service to Amateur Radio in Canada, or to Amateur Radio at large”. The Trustees of the Hall have interpreted the Constitution to mean that the person has performed significant service over many years to enhance the well-being of Amateur Radio. Radio Amateurs of Canada and the Board of Trustees of CARHOF sincerely congratulates John Schouten VE7TI, on his appointment to the Hall of Fame.

A detailed account of his achievements will be presented in an upcoming edition of The Canadian Amateur magazine.

For more information on the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame please visit: https://wp.rac.ca/carhof/

Frank Davis, VO1HP
Chair, Board of Trustees
Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame

~

 

 

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

Special Event Station PA80OV

Radio Club Limburg

 

announces

Special Event Station

PA80OV

Next week, members of Radio Club Limburg (https://rclb.nl) in the North Limburg region of  The Netherlands, will activate:

 

PA80OV is a special event station to commemorate Operation Veritable, celebrating 80 years of freedom.  Operation Veritable, namesake of the station, and the successor of Operation Market Garden, was the northern part of an Allied pincer movement in the Second World War.

We are back in 2025 for the third consecutive time with this special event station; having added another 5 years to our callsign.

Members of Radio Club Limburg will activate the callsign PA80OV from February 13 to 28, 2025, to work as many amateur radio operators across the world as possible. If you're in the area,  you can visit our station in the old town hall in the city of Gennep, The Netherlands between February14 and 16.

Whether you are an amateur radio operator, hoping to contact a new country, a new callsign, or you're a casual visitor, you're welcome to our website:

 https://rclb.nl/pa80ov

We hope to hear and work you.

On behalf of the PA80OV team. 

Jan, PA2P
https://rclb.nl/pa80ov

 

Operation Manna 80

A very special, special event station

SARC has been asked to participate in a large-scale special event late in April commemorating the relief efforts of the winter of 1944-45 to drop tons of food to the starving population of NW Holland. It is well described at: Operation Manna @ 80 and in the video https://youtu.be/0PwhYFdzY_Q. 

Amateur stations from the drop zones in Holland, air force bases in Britain, plus the Allied forces that provided aircraft and pilots, including the UK, Canada, The US, Poland and Australia will be represented by special event stations in those countries.

Three UK Teams, one at the International Bomber Command Centre, another at former RAF Binbrook (an Operation Manna Airfield in the UK) and another at the 100th Bomb Group Museum at Thorpe Abbots representing the US operation Chowhound from a former Chowhound airfield.

The national Radio Scouting team (Plusscouts PA3EFR/J) will be operating from an Operation Manna drop zone near The Hague, The Netherlands. Read on for further details on this team and their radio station location at  The Team in the Netherlands – Operation Manna @ 80

The stations will be active April 25-27 (Friday through Sunday) using variations of the xx80MAN callsign. Here at SARC, we will be using VB7MAN (because of Canadian location designations we are required to have a '7' in our callsign). Visit VB7MAN - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio

Children and youth activities will also be included and there will be activity on HF, DMR and VHF

https://manna80.radio/w p-content/uploads/2024/12/Award_new.jpg 

When we activate, you can find out if we're on the air
from our HamAlert spots:

Our Grid.Radio Location

There will be a full article in the next Communicator (March 2^st)

Our email address is VB7MAN@gmail.com and our activation calendar is here.

~ John VE7TI