JOTA - Scouting Jamboree On The Air

On Saturday, October 21st we will host area Scouts for the 60th annual Jamboree On The Air. JOTA is the largest Scouting event in the world with over one million Scouts participating across 150+ countries. They have an opportunity to discover the exciting communications possibilities that Amateur Radio offers and, in doing so, make contacts with other Scouting groups around the world. See http://jotajoti.info/

This year, SEPAR, the Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio is hosting the event. Depending on sign-up numbers and weather, Surrey JOTA will be either at our Operational Training Centre or outdoors with a field station. 

We hope to offer additional activities this year including some Morse code practice, an exercise using hand-held radios and 'Fox hunting'. No, not real foxes but a hidden transmitter that is found using radio direction finding techniques.

Stan VA7NF coaches a JOTA 2016 participant

We are excited that this year, Canada's 150th birthday offers us the opportunity to use the callsign VE7RAC. This is part of a contest by Radio Amateurs of Canada challenging stations from around the world to make a contact with all Canadian Provinces and Territories and, in doing so, win a commemorative award. See http://wp.rac.ca/rac150-ve7rac-operating/

If your Scouting Unit would like to participate, please send an email to communicator@ve7sar.net. Space will be limited so preference will be given to units from the Surrey area.

Spring 2017 SARC Presentations

Links to two recent SARC presentations [2017]

Afedri SDR Project by Alex Danese VE7ADA

Gnuradio Presentation to SARC.pdf 

The On-line Communicator: August 2017

The Month in Review: JULY 2017

We do not publish the regular monthly edition of the Communicator in July and August, but it was another month worthy of a news brief; so here are some items to keep you up to date.

An OTC Work Party

Last week there was a work party at the Surrey Amateur Radio Operational Training Centre, 'The OTC'. Priority was to install the new Alfa-Spid rotator on the mast and get it hooked into the radio room.

Rotary Bike-A-Thon For Hearing Loss

This annual benefit event occurs every July and spans a distance of 120 Km from Burnaby to Harrison Hot Springs along the Lougheed Highway. Riders collect pledges from their sponsors. Amateur Radio provides assistance all along the route and specifically at a number of rest stops. Many of the radio volunteers are SARC members but the group also includes Amateurs from other organizations. 

This year, the 33rd edition, about $140,000 was raised for treatment of children with hearing impairment. A nice dinner followed at the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel. Kudos to SARC member Ken Clarke VE7BC who has been an organizer from the beginning.

SARC Fall Basic Class

Sign up soon...

The RAC Canada 150 Award

The RAC Canada 150 Award is a celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday since Confederation in 1867. The Award is issued for contacting the RAC stations between July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. In addition to the RAC Canada Contest, the RAC Canada Winter Contest and the IARU HF Championship Contest, the RAC stations will be activated by volunteers at other times by pre-arranged schedule. SARC-SEPAR member Fred Orsetti VE7IO is coordinating the use of the VE7RAC callsign in BC. 

RAC has prepared a few Guidelines and Procedures to assist making contacts with participating stations. SEPAR is planning to operate SSB from the OTC on August 19 and/or 20th using VE7RAC.

More on this in the September Communicator

JOTA - Scouts On The Air

SEPAR has been asked to provide the support for local Scouts to participate in JOTA - Scouts On The Air again this year. Last year the event was held at the OTC with about 15 Scouts participating. We hope to expand the program for 2017 to include Morse Code practice, a hand-held radio exercise and possibly a small foxhunt so that they can remain busy while one of them is on the air via HF. If you would like to assist on Saturday, October 20, contact John VE7TI at communicator@ve7sar.net. For more information on the exercise browse http://jotajoti.info/

GNU Radio Workshop

Hopefully the SARC members who have signed up for this workshop on September 30 have already ordered their dongle. If not, the time is now! Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD will follow up on his excellent presentation from our March general meeting.

ARDF Events in August

August 3rd: Presentation by Michael Sterba, KG7HQ talking on the general subject “Radio Direction Finding” at the North Shore Amateur Radio Club.

August 12th: ARDF fox-hunt event, 80m - Day Trip to Victoria. A venue to be selected, hosted by Victoria Friendship Amateur Radio Society. More info will be available at http://www.ardf.ca. We plan to car pool, please RSVP if you can drive and how many people you can take, or you will be on foot and need a ride.

Contact Amel at akrdzalic@gmail.com or http://www.ardf.ca site for more details.

Are Your Dues Due?

Our fiscal year ended on May 30th so if you have not renewed, a friendly reminder to do so. You can bring it to a meeting, a Saturday morning coffee or use this link to pay your Membership Via PayPal. 

Weekly Coffee

Our weekly meet-up continues through summer at the Kalmar Family Restaurant, King George Blvd at 81st Avenue. Come join us any Saturday between 8 and 10am.  

August Social

We will get together for an informal gathering in lieu of a regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, August 9 at 7pm at the OTC. Our regular general meetings resume September 13th at EMBC.

See you next month when we start our new season with a full issue Communicator

Move Over JT-65 For The New Kid On The Block

The digital mode FT8 has caught on, luring many using the popular JT65 weak signal mode.

The WSJT-X 1.8.0 beta software has the FT8 mode described as fast with an entire QSO taking about a minute, which is four times faster than JT65. Developed by Steven K9AN and Joe K1JT – the name FT8 stands for its creators Franke and Taylor and 8-Frequency Shift Keying modulation.

Using a 15-second transmit and receive sequences it provides 50 per cent or better decoding probability down to minus-20 dB. An auto-sequencing option can also respond automatically to a CQ call decoded reply.An excellent HF DXing mode and multi-hop sporadic-E propagation on 6 metres where deep fading may make fast and reliable QSO completion desirable. Some are comparing FT8 use to that of JT65, and believe more are on air trying the new one. The free software, available for Windows, Mac and Linux, is available at https://wsjtx.net/home/ft8-mode.html. Besides the software it requires a transceiver and a soundcard interface. Full documentation is available via the link http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx.html

Jim Linton VK3PC

Tiny “Sprite” Satellites Deployed

Transmitting on 70 Centimeters

According to Scientific American, six tiny “Sprite” satellites, each consisting of a 4-gram circuit board but packed with electronics, were deployed in late June. The Sprites are the brainchild of Zac Manchester, KD2BHC, whom Scientific American interviewed for the article.
The Sprites went into low-Earth orbit as secondary payloads on the Latvian Venta and Italian Max Valier satellites, launched from India. Signals on 437.325 MHz from at least one of the exterior-mounted Sprites have been received in California and New York.
Manchester launched 104 Sprites into orbit in 2014 aboard KickSat-1, but they failed to deploy.

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:

SARC Field Day 2017

Our Field Day Drone

Amateur Radio Field Day is an annual emergency communications exercise. We use an air cannon firing tennis balls on a string to launch our wire antennas. This year we had a drone to give us a bird's eye view.

https://youtu.be/h0RlLvE6q4o