The September-October SARC Communicator Journal

Here's another great issue!

'The September-October 2023 Communicator' digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download.

Our biggest issue to date, read in over 145 countries, we bring you 132 pages of Amateur Radio news from the South West corner of Canada and elsewhere. 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.

You can view or download it as a .PDF file:  

The Communicator September-October 2023

Previous Communicator issues are at:

https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator

and a full index is HERE.  

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

The deadline for the next edition is October 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 May-June 2023 Communicator

Here's The Communicator!

'The Communicator' digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for view or download.

Read in over 145 countries now, with almost 14,000 downloads for the March-April issue, we bring you 130 pages of Amateur Radio news from the South West corner of Canada and elsewhere. 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.

You can view or download it as a .PDF file:  

The Communicator May-June 2023

Previous Communicator issues are at:

https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator

and a full index is 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

Remembering Jim Smith VE7FO - SK

 We have lost another of the 20%

Looking back, it is ironic that Jim wrote the following about Brett Garrett VE7GM when Brett passed away in August 2018

"They often say that 20% of a given membership do 80% of the work... Brett was one of the 20%, no, more like 5%. An active member of both the Surrey Amateur Radio Club (SARC) and Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR), Brett freely shared his knowledge and led Surrey Amateurs to two very successful Field Days."

I can attest to the same about Jim Smith VE7FO and his involvement with VECTOR and SARC.

Jim VE7FO is now a Silent Key

I first became aware of Jim when I laid the groundwork for the Vancouver Emergency Community Telecommunications ORganization (VECTOR) around 1999. Jim lived in the Dunbar area of Vancouver, and I became aware of his involvement with the Point Grey club, and that he was very knowledgeable about HF.

Jim was an avid contester who enjoyed working all modes -- especially CW and RTTY. A true mentor at heart, he often hosted "newbies" at his Vancouver home to introduce them to contesting. Many a new contester was given real experience operating "in the fray" and encouraged to keep honing their skills.

That knowledge translated into a very successful series of first Field Days for VECTOR. Jim also took on the project of planning the HF tower and antennas at e-Comm, the regional 9-1-1 and dispatch centre. That facility also houses the Vancouver EOC and its Amateur Radio component. Jim was a terrific resource in suggesting what might and might not work for that location, and he got that tower completed and functional. It was also Jim who persuaded me to look at offering our own Basic Amateur Radio classes. Well... 22 years later we are still offering them with the same basic content that we worked on back then, except now they are provided by Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC), on-line, with successful students across Canada and even graduates abroad.

VECTOR Field Day (about 2003) Jim VE7FO as Station Manager in the new VECTOR bus.
Fred VE7CX in the foreground.

Around the time that I left VECTOR for the SARC group in 2004, Jim decided that he too would become a member of SARC. What followed was a mentorship program to introduce new members to contesting, one of Jim's passions. I spent many hours at his QTH working various contests under Jim's expert tutelage.

Myself (VE7TI) and Jim VE7FO. I'm being taught the fine points of contesting.

In one of many articles written for our SARC newsletter 'The Communicator', Jim wrote:

"My own involvement with SARC started when I was recruited by John VE7TI, as a Field Day operator. There are many enjoyable ways of conducting FD which range from everyone sitting around the BBQ, telling stories and making a few contacts to the hard-core contest style where everybody goes all out to WIN. I was told that it would be a hard core, win for Canada situation.  Being a hard-core contester myself I took the bait.

Well, it turned out that the operators, while enthusiastic, didn't have the HF contest experience necessary to achieve the goal.  Nonetheless, it was obvious that the potential was there so, once FD was over, I joined the Club and made a FD training proposal to the Exec with the goal of winning for Canada, which was accepted. 

This training started in October and ran until next year's FD.  It consisted of many formal training sessions including classroom style and participation in the major contests, during which the ops received coaching on the operating techniques for maximizing the number of contacts per hour.

This would be a very significant investment of time for the trainees. This "Get Your Feet Wet" program to provide a low commitment introduction to contesting so that they could see whether or not they liked it."

Jim was instrumental as well in the team organizing what was probably SARC's best scoring Field Day ever. It was in 2015 and, encouraged by Jim, Brett and Stan VA7NF, the Field Day Committee decided that operating QRP might put us in a better scoring position than our usual high power entry.

It took quite a lot of persuasion, but in the end, it was indeed to be QRP. Jim's specialty was consulting propagation predictions and other data to see what we might be able to do with just 5W.  Hoo boy!!  With some adjustment to our antenna lineup, he suggested that we could do very well indeed.

Did we?  We sure did.

Shattered the Canadian record for all categories.

Out of 2,719 FD stations in the US and Canada in 2015, some with more than 10 transmitters and most running 100W, we ranked #91 with our 3 transmitters and 5W.

Altogether a VERY significant achievement which any club would be proud of.

Wouldn't have happened without Jim (or Brett)

The 2015 winning QRP Field Day crew.

It may not be common knowledge that Jim was responsible for a lot of improvements to the premier Amateur Radio Contesting software N1MM+. As an expert contester Jim was able to make suggestions to the programmers that made the software the contesting leader it is today.

Jim always had a liking for analytics, and he took the lead in creating 'Station Manager' training. This role is as important to getting the maximum number of points in a contest as it would be in a real emergency, ensuring that critical traffic got through. The role includes selecting the most useful bands according to shifting propagation, switching antennas, and to assigning operators, so he was constantly monitoring rates, band conditions/solar conditions, greyline, run rates, etc. Everything was graphed and plotted.

Jim was also an active member of ORCA DX and Contest Club, and of the BC DX Club.
As the BC coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Challenge, for many years he looked after the collection of scores for the inter-club contest trophy -- the Pacific Northwest Cup -- and was a frequent attendee at club meetings.

We will miss you, Jim.

Thank you for all that you taught me and others.

We were very fortunate to have had you as a member.

Now Jim is gone

Damn!

Rest in peace.

~ John VE7TI

Field Day 2022 (Sunday) Update

 

It's a wrap!

Well, its all over for another year. A solar storm just before the weekend significantly affected propagation but we did make a substantial number of contacts, including on VHF.

It struck me how much Field Day has changed over the years. Despite the poor early 1985 photos, here are some of the comparisons...

No more paper logging and SDR transceivers

Antennas for every purpose and mode
Here Moon-Bounce, our 'BigFoot' and Satellites

That sense of accomplishment and
pride in the hobby remains the same

If you would like to see video of  SARC Field Days of the 1980's, and those more recent, visit our YouTube Channel.

So that's it for another Field Day. The RAC Canada Day contest is just around the corner though. This year SARC-SEPAR is operating as VE7RAC. See you on the bands.

There will be additional coverage and photos in the next Communicator e-Zine on July 1st.

Field Day 2022 (Saturday) Update

Here are a few photos of today's activities at VE7SAR and VE7HME

Our SEPAR - SARC Field Day 24-hour emergency communications exercise. Moon-bounce, satellites, Morse code and voice. Thank you to all our visitors, but especially to City of Surrey Councillors Brenda Locke & Linda Annis for recognizing that what we do as Amateur Radio operators and Surrey volunteers is more than just a hobby.

Left to right: City of Surrey Councillor Linda Annis,
Former Surrey Councillor and MLA Marvin Hunt,
and City of Surrey Councillor Brenda Locke

Councillor Brenda Locke checks out the SEPAR trailer
while Manvir Judge VA7BKI logs a contact.

Manvir VA7BKI one of our recent course graduates,

attempting a satellite contact 

Kevin VE7ZD/KN7Q at his EME (Moon-bounce) station

North American Emergency Communications Exercise June 26-27

 “Who ya’ gonna call? Radio Hams!”

Emergency Communications Exercise June 26-27

Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark, or worse. Tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, storms, landslides, ice and even the occasional cutting of cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, for over one-hundred years the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio. These federally certified radio operators, often called “hams” provide backup communications for everything from community events to local Emergency Operations Centres.  Surrey “hams” will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators testing their emergency capabilities this weekend. 

In recent years, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies around the globe. When communications become overloaded or fail, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 26-27, Surrey’s ham radio operators will join with thousands of similar groups and individuals throughout Canada and the United States, using a variety of voice and data techniques in an annual exercise of emergency communications capabilities known as “Field Day”. 

This annual event is recognized throughout North America, and locally through a civic proclamation by Surrey City Council designating June 20-26 as “Amateur Radio Week”. Self-sufficiency is the key. Using only emergency power, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, parking lots, schoolyards and backyards throughout the continent and operate without commercial infrastructure for the duration of the 24-hour exercise. Their slogan, "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” is more than just words to the hams, as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, the internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 38,000 amateur radio operators across the continent participated in last year's event.  

Surrey Fire Service Assistant Chief Shelley Morris, who coordinates emergency response for the City of Surrey adds: “Amateur Radio plays an integral part in emergency preparedness during any major disaster for the city. They train extensively and they operate a communications room out of our Number One fire hall. They play a very important role keeping backup communications for the operations centre up and running during a major disaster and providing enhanced life safety for the citizens of Surrey.”

Gord Kirk, coordinator for the Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR) group highlighted the value of Amateur Radio in its flexibility. “Amateur Radio is not centralized. There is no single point of failure; it does not rely on the Internet, a power utility or a communications company, cell towers or other infrastructure to provide service. It works when nothing else is available.  In partnership with the Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) group we provide knowledgeable people, sophisticated equipment, and thousands of volunteer hours annually to support the City of Surrey Emergency Program. Once set up, we need nothing between us but air.” 

The SARC group supports SEPAR by providing equipment, infrastructure and technical assistance. SARC President John Brodie commented that: “We are fortunate that what hams enjoy as a technically-challenging hobby can make a vitally important contribution to emergency communication during a crisis”.

The Surrey team placed first in their Canadian category in recent years. The event takes place from 11am Saturday, June 26th to 11am Sunday, June 27th.  While this is normally a public affair, due to current COVID restrictions there are no public demonstrations, although in past years the technology shown has included contact with astronauts orbiting in the International Space Station. This year, smaller stations and individuals will participate from several neighbourhoods in Surrey.

Amateur Radio is growing in Canada and requests for training have increased significantly since COVID restrictions started. Hams socialize daily through radio contacts and the basic equipment to communicate worldwide can be purchased for less than $50. You no longer require Morse code, although it is still used in the hobby. Amateur Radio is practiced as a hobby, as a sport, and as a reliable means of communications by outdoors enthusiasts and others where cellular telephone towers do not exist. There are now over 30,000 Amateur Radio licensees in Canada, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the Amateur Radio emergency services program, ham volunteers provide both emergency communications for thousands of provincial and local emergency response agencies and non-emergency community services too, all for free. 

To learn more about Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio visit http://separ.ca/. To learn more about Amateur Radio visit http://www.rac.ca/.   See what modern Amateur Radio can do. 

In a nutshell:

Surrey Field Day Overview

SUMMARY: An emergency preparedness exercise to establish long distance communications capabilities in support of the City of Surrey Emergency Program. Surrey Amateur Radio operators will set up a field station simulating emergency conditions, without using commercial services, to contact thousands of other hams throughout North America and beyond, in the continent’s largest ham radio on-air event. This team placed first in their Canadian category for Field Day 2018. They will be looking to better their score in 2022 after COVID prevented team participation for the past two years; the public is invited to observe contest operations, see ham radio’s new capabilities, experience a moon-bounce contact, view a satellite contact and learn how to obtain their own Industry Canada radio certification.

WHO: Federally certified Amateur Radio Operators supporting the City of Surrey Emergency Program.

WHAT: Hams will set up and operate field radio stations to contact other hams throughout Canada, the US and beyond over 24 hours using a variety of modes including voice radio, Morse code, satellites, and digital. The objective is to see who can make the largest number of contacts during the exercise period.

WHERE: The Surrey Emergency Program facility at 5756 142 Street, Surrey BC.

WHEN: Operations 11 am Saturday, June 25 to 11 am Sunday June 26.

WHY: Participation in the amateur radio community Field Day. Amateur Radio operators’ emergency communication skills under adverse conditions with generators, battery-powered equipment and portable antennas.

Special awards are given for “alternative” power sources such as solar, wind and other means. Field Day is a competition as well as a “trial run” for emergency communication skills used during disaster situations

Our Amateur Radio volunteers will accommodate photo opportunities, interviews, and profiles of the activities of both our participants in an important national Amateur Radio event and their role in the Surrey Emergency Program. There is an opportunity to see all Amateur Radio communication modes in action, including voice, Morse code, satellite, and digital. There will be opportunities for the public to participate, including activities geared toward children.

There will be opportunities to explore the relationship to other facets of the Surrey Emergency Program.

Sponsors and participants:

• ·         Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio
• ·         Surrey Amateur Radio Communications
• ·         Surrey Fire Service
• ·         Surrey Emergency Program

Our Field Day video: https://youtu.be/4zAtFz9hcZY

 

Surrey Celebrates Amateur Radio Week

Surrey City Council Recognizes
The Contribution Of Amateur Radio

Again this year Surrey City Council has proclaimed June 21 to 28th, the week leading up to Field Day, as 'Amateur Radio Week".

The Mayor and council have historically been strong supporters of our role in the emergency program and several VIPs from all levels of government and our served agencies  have visited our Field Day site in past years. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, this year will be an exception but several members of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) and the Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR) will be participating from individual home or field stations.

Since 1933, ham radio operators throughout North America and beyond have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during an annual exercise called Field Day to showcase the science and skill of amateur radio. 

For more than 100 years, amateur radio — also called ham radio — has allowed people from all walks to experiment with electronics and communications techniques and provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster or emergency, all without needing a cellphone or the internet. Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent communications network. More than 35,000 people from thousands of locations participated last year in Field Day 2019 activities.

It’s easy for anyone to pick up a computer or smartphone, connect to the internet and communicate, with no knowledge of how the devices function or connect to each other, but if there’s an interruption of service or you’re out of range of a cell tower, you have no way to communicate. Ham radio functions completely independent of the internet or cellphone infrastructure, can send messages by voice, Morse code or digital mode, even email via radio. It can interface with tablets or smartphones, and can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. That’s the beauty of amateur radio during a communications outage.

The Surrey team placed first in their Canadian category for Field Day 2019 and have consistently placed in the top three stations in Canada, even achieving an all-time high score for using low power (less power than it takes to light a Christmas tree bulb) to contact other stations. In 2014 we even spoke to an astronaut aboard the International Space Station!

Field Day

In today’s electronic do-it-yourself environment, ham radio remains one of the best ways for people to learn about electronics, physics, meteorology and numerous other scientific disciplines. In addition, amateur radio is a huge asset to any community during disasters or emergencies if the standard communication infrastructure goes down. They also provide communications for relief agencies that do not have radio communications systems of their own and offer free communications services for non-profit events to practice these skills.

Surrey Fire Service Deputy Fire Chief Mark Griffioen, who coordinates emergency response for the City of Surrey adds: “Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio plays a supporting role in emergency communications during any major event for the city.  They train extensively and operate a communications room out of Fire Hall 1. During a major event, they provide enhanced life safety for the citizens of Surrey by providing a communication link with the Emergency Operations Centre.”

Stan Williams, President of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications, highlighted the value of Amateur Radio in its flexibility. “Amateur Radio is not centralized. There is no single point of failure; it does not rely on the Internet, a power utility or a communications company, cell towers or other infrastructure to provide service. It works when nothing else is available. We need nothing between us but air.” 

Anyone may become a licensed amateur radio operator. Worldwide there are more than 3 million licensed amateur radio licensees, as young as 9 and as old as 100. And with groups such as SEPAR and SARC, it’s easy for anybody to get involved right here in Surrey.  We offer regular amateur radio courses, classroom or on-line, see https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/2020/03/our-basic-amateur-radio-course.html 

To learn more about Amateur Radio in the Surrey Emergency program, watch the video at http://tinyurl.com/SeparsInfo.

For a look at our previous Field Day efforts visit our YouTube channel at https://tinyurl.com/SARC-Video

When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works

Temporary Rule Waivers Announced for 2020 ARRL Field Day

Club scores will be permitted from distributed stations

With one month to go before 2020 ARRL Field Day, June 27 - 28, the ARRL Programs and Services Committee (PSC) has adopted two temporary rule waivers for the event:

1) For Field Day 2020 only, Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations, including other Class D stations, for points. 

Field Day rule 4.6 defines Class D stations as "Home stations," including stations operating from permanent or licensed station locations using commercial power. Class D stations ordinarily may only count contacts made with Class A, B, C, E, and F Field Day stations, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows Class D stations to count contacts with other Class D stations for QSO credit.

2) In addition, for 2020 only, an aggregate club score will be published, which will be the sum of all individual entries indicating a specific club (similar to the aggregate score totals used in ARRL affiliated club competitions).

May/June 2020 Communicator

Ordinarily, club names are only published in the results for Class A and Class F entries, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows participants from any Class to optionally include a single club name with their submitted results following Field Day.

For example, if Podunk Hollow Radio Club members Becky, W1BXY, and Hiram, W1AW, both participate in 2020 Field Day -- Hiram from his Class D home station, and Becky from her Class C mobile station -- both can include the radio club's name when reporting their individual results. The published results listing will include individual scores for Hiram and Becky, plus a combined score for all entries identified as Podunk Hollow Radio Club.

The temporary rule waivers were adopted by the PSC on May 27, 2020.

ARRL Field Day is one of the biggest events on the amateur radio calendar, with over 36,000 participants in 2019, including entries from 3,113 radio clubs and emergency operations centers. In most years, Field Day is also the largest annual demonstration of ham radio, because many radio clubs organize their participation in public places such as parks and schools.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many radio clubs have made decisions to cancel their group participation in ARRL Field Day this year due to public health recommendations and/or requirements, or to significantly modify their participation for safe social distancing practices. The temporary rule waivers allow greater flexibility in recognizing the value of individual and club participation regardless of entry class.

ARRL is contacting logging program developers about the temporary rule waivers so developers can release updated versions of their software prior to Field Day weekend.

Participants are reminded that the preferred method of submitting entries after Field Day is via the web applet. The ARRL Field Day rules include instructions for submitting entries after the event. Entries must be submitted or postmarked by Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

The ARRL Field Day web page includes a series of articles with ideas and advice for adapting participation this year.

~ ARRL

Our Field Day Success!

Another First For The SARC-SEPAR Team

We just got the results from 2019 ARRL Field Day, VE7SAR achieved top score in Canada (again) for 3A. Great work and congratulations to the SARC & SEPAR team members.

How did we accomplish this again?

Our planning this year followed the Incident Command System (ICS), a structured means of planning and staffing a large event. Our ICS approach to planning was described in detail in a previous post.

Field Day and Special Events: Why ICS?

The Incident Command System 

ICS or the ‘Incident Command System’ is a management structure for planning significant events, both large and small, be they emergencies or not.  It was developed in California to manage large fire situations, but was quickly adopted by other organizations as an effective method to scale up—or scale down a response to a significant event. It is now used universally by emergency services for planning and responding to significant events. Its modular, meaning it can be scaled up, or down, to suit an event.

Amateur Radio Field Day is a significant event, requiring a multitude of people and resources to proceed efficiently. Most clubs, SARC included have a committee structure for their Field Day planning. ICS was first introduced in 2011 and helped to identify duties and responsibilities. In 2012 we hope to build on that experience and further develop our planning and execution so that the process in documented for future years.

Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR) provides ICS level 100 training. While we cannot hope to cover that material in a short article, here is a brief overview of ICS positions as they relate to Field Day.


Incident Commander—The Field Day Chair


Safety Officer Has the absolute final say on safety issues in and around the site. Also ensures the site has adequate security.


Information Officer Public Relations or Public Information Officer (PIO)
Media releases before
Hospitality / Public relations at event
Media releases after the event


Planning Section [Section Chief & Committee]
Situation Unit: Ensures FD rules and class are followed in planning the event.
Resources Unit (recruiting): Help other committees schedule people before FD. May utilize Talk-In (Logistics/Services/Comms) to recruit club members in real-time on Field Day.
Demobilization Unit (takedown planning): Planning who/how to take it all down, and (via Logistics) get it all, and everyone, back to where they belong.
Documentation: Preserve guest book, contest logs with Bonus Unit. May help plan logging process, process/submit logs afterwards.

Logistics Section

Service Branch
Communications Unit (this is where we, as Hams, usually fall within someone else's ICS operation). Provides talk-in and any other non-contest comms operations, whether on radio/cell/Internet, whether on ham, commercial or PS licensed, or FRS radios. Might include scoring the NTS points with/instead of Operations/Bonus Unit. Monitor the repeater, 146.52, and club simplex frequency for queries (and a couple of extra points), provide communications liaison with the Safety Officer, relay information for any supply needs. Also, set up wireless or wired internet access.
Food Unit Can break down into Planning & Shopping, Drinks, Snacks, Cooking, Lunch, Breakfast, Dinner and Dessert. Can leverage the Support Branch to find & move the stuff once a list & budget are prepared.

Support Branch
Supply Unit (truck-type transport; leg-work on purchasing for food and supplies; transporting borrowed equipment for other sections' unfilled requirements, e.g. antenna tuner, and return!)
Facilities Unit (arrangements & interface with the City; renting outhouses and other equipment; arranging borrowing of equipment based other sections' unfilled requirements, e.g. generator.)
General Ground Support General hands/labour details (in other words, everyone!) Antenna and tent raising, lugging.
Power Group runs the generators, charges batteries, manages available power. Once you're operational, it's the primary component of Support. 

Finance & Admin Section (Typically the organization's Treasurer)

Operations Section 
Deputy Operations Chiefs who lead while the Chief sleeps and take on the role of Station Manager. License trustee; ensures the operators are working the right band with the right equipment and antenna; ensures FD rules and class are followed. Also ensures the operator schedule is followed so everyone has an opportunity to participate.
Operations is divided into functional Branches as needed; with further geographic or functional Divisions or Groups, as needed. Most of our functional Divisions can naturally be called "Stations".

Contesting Branch: Each Station counted in our 3-Alpha Field Day class would be one "Division" or "Group" for ICS purposes, both for planning and operations. 
HF SSB Division Station (Station leader; shift operators, shift loggers)
HF CW Division (ditto)
VHF+ Division(s) (ditto)
Digital Division(s) (ditto)
Satellite Division (ditto)

Bonus Branch: The bonus points may cross into other ICS Divisions, but may be included in Bonus Branch
Handling NTS traffic (for points)
Any other special points available (satellite or digital)
Making Natural Power contacts (for points)
Demo points

It may sound like a lot of positions, but the advantage is that everyone in the structure knows who their team leader is and what their responsibilities are. Obviously there are more positions than people so, in an organization an individual may have more than one responsibility. In the end you should have a structured approach to Field Day with a written manual that others can follow.

For an on-line ICS-100 course, visit the FEMA website: https://emilms.fema.gov/IS100c/curriculum/1.html

Field Day 2015 Video

Our Field Day 2015 video was missing from our YouTube channel. Here it is:

https://youtu.be/EURKvTUv31A

The Communicator - January 2018

Here is the latest Communicator. In this edition you will find:

• QRM 
• The Rest Of The Story—Heinrich Hertz 
• Back To Basics 
• Tech Topics—Mobile Installation Basics 
• What’s Happening This Month In Ham? 
• News You Can Lose 
• Club News—SARC 
• Club News—OTC 
• Radio-Active 
• Emergency Comms 
• Club News—SEPAR Report 
• Satellite News 
• News From Clubs 
• Hardware - The Baofeng UV-5R
• Tech Topics II  - Antenna Modelling Software
• Tech Topics III - Programming Chinese Radios
• Field Day 2017 Reviewed
• and more... 

You can read or download this edition here

My deadline for the February edition is January 20th. If you have news from your Vancouver area club, events or other items of interest please email them to the communicator@ve7sar.net

Field Day 2015 Revisited

A Look Back

Field Day 2017 is in the log and we have some time to catch up with email, Twitter and FaceBook requests and comments. One of these referred to the absence of a Field Day video for the 2015 event. At SARC we generally celebrate Field Days past with photos and video. Field Day 2015 was no exception but the video never made it to our YouTube channel. 

Wait no more... Here it is:

The On-line Communicator: July 2017

The Month in Review: JUNE 2017

We do not publish the regular monthly edition of the Communicator in July and August, but it was such an eventful month that a news brief is timely; so here are some news items from the past month to keep you up to date.

The SARC Annual General Meeting

The AGM was held at the EMBC SW PREOC on June 14th. The bylaw amendments related to membership classifications was amended and now everyone who is a member of SARC, licensed or not, may hold office.
Four of eight Director positions were up for renewal as per our 2-year terms. We had 6 candidates for these positions so an election was required. Once the considerable dust settled, the following were elected:

• John Brodie  VA7XB
• Robert Fishwick VA7FMR
• Scott Hawrelak VE7HA
• John Schouten VE7TI

In keeping with our Constitution and Bylaws, at the Directors meeting on June 28th the following Officers were appointed for the 2017-2018 term.

• Stan Williams VA7NF - President
• John Brodie VA7XB - Vice President
• Scott Hawrelak VE7HA - Treasurer
• Jeremy Morse VE7TMY - Secretary

The following Directors will also assume portfolios

• Stan Williams VA7NF - SEPAR Liaison
• John Brodie VA7XB - OTC Committee Chair
• John Schouten VE7TI - Communicator Editor
• Sheldon Ward VA7XNL -  Repeater Manager
• Robert Fishwick VA7FMR - Net Manager
• Jeremy Morse  VE7TMY - Interim Webmaster

Your 2017 -  2018 SARC Directors

(absent Bill Gipps VE7XS)

The Operational Training Centre

The OTC was not used for this year's Field Day. Some of the new equipment, purchased as a result of our community grant, and presented by MLA Marvin Hunt, has started to arrive. Included are a sparkling new heavy duty rotator and control box. The Flex radio that was selected is on back-order and may not arrive until fall. Having seen a developmental version at the Seaside, Oregon SEA-PAC HamFest recently, I was impressed. It will be worth waiting for. Watch your email for a request for assistance for an upcoming work party to install the new gear.

Field Day 2017

The sun was shining and, although it was hot, Field Day was a success. On Friday a group of SARC members arrived and raised Big Bertha, complete with the TH-7,  a 40/80 meter long wire antenna, several tents and signage. Sheldon tested the gear on Friday night and the 3  Field Day stations came to life at 11am Saturday morning. We stayed on the air for the full 24-hours despite less than ideal propagation conditions. MLA Marvin Hunt visited the FD site and remained to observe, converse and ask questions. Marvin has been a supporter of Amateur Radio and a solid friend to SARC. 

Many thanks to Nell and Ralph Wrotniak who provided food for the event.

On Sunday we had the fastest take-down ever for SARC. We were done about 90 minutes after going off-air. Although this was staged as a social and emergency preparedness event as opposed to a contest, we nevertheless made over 800 contacts (we're still counting) and several members who do not usually operate at Field Day had an opportunity to do so.

By the way... where were the SARC members who voted for an outdoor Field Day at the SARC general meeting but did not show to lend their support?

Many thanks to all who helped to make this a successful event.

Photos  and video of the event, including some amazing drone clips,
are now on-line through our SARC photo album: 
https://goo.gl/photos/kEyMC8Mi3X1Gocxx8

Meetings, The Net and Saturday Coffee

Although they may be informal, all three of the above will continue through the summer. If held, the July and August general meeting dates would be July 12 and August 9th but these will be social gatherings at the OTC instead. We will send out a reminder a few days ahead of time.
The weekly Net will continue through the summer as well, for those able to participate... and please do.
Saturday coffee, always informal, will also continue at 9am at the Kalmar Family Restaurant, 81st and King George Blvd.

Sad News

To close off, we had a friend of SARC pass away this past week. Many of you may remember Tony EI4DIB from our sister club in Ireland. Tony and his wife Madeline made several visits here including a Field Day and last year at the OTC.

Let me know through the summer of any other club related news I may have missed.

73,

John VE7TI
Communicator Editor