DKARS Magazine

Some English Content... Excellent Articles


The Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society (DKARS) is a foundation to defend the interests of Radio amateurs within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They publish an excellent monthly magazine which is mostly in Dutch, but with a few English articles. Many of the articles are technical. It is not difficult to cut text from the .PDF file and paste it into a translator like Microsoft or Google so anyone can read it.

The Editor writes:

DKARS does not copyright and you may freely send this link to as many radio-friends as possible. DKARS Magazine normally appears every month and we appreciate any contributions that are radio amateur related.

On behalf of the Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society I wish you a lot of reading pleasure after you click on the link below:

Link to the December issue.

Would you rather download a PDF to browse the Magazine on-line? If so, go to this link:

https://issuu.com/pj4nx/docs/dkars_20magazine_2020171173

on behalf of the DKARS

Peter Dan
PJ4NX and PA3CNX
Secretary DKARS

CQ WW [SSB] Contest (2)

Canada 150 and VE7RAC Made It Special

As mentioned in a previous post, a number of Surrey Amateurs worked the CQ WW [SSB] contest a few weeks ago. I was fortunate enough to be one of the operators at VE7IO's excellent station. We were using the call VE7RAC as part of the RAC Canada 150 celebration.

Here is a brief recap video

The Science of World War I: Communications

Amateur Radio Matured That Decade

The rapid expansion and even "mania" for amateur radio, with many thousands of transmitters set up by 1910, led to a wide spread problem of inadvertent and even malicious radio interference with commercial and military radio systems. Some of the problem came from amateurs using crude spark-transmitters that spread signals across a wide part of the radio spectrum. In 1912 after the RMS Titanic sank, the United States Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912, which restricted private stations to wavelengths of 200 meters or shorter (1500 kHz or higher). These "short wave" frequencies were generally considered useless at the time, and the number of radio hobbyists in the U.S. is estimated to have dropped by as much as 88%. Other countries followed suit and by 1913 the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was convened and produced a treaty requiring shipboard radio stations to be manned 24 hours a day. The Radio Act of 1912 also marked the beginning of U.S. federal licensing of amateur radio operators and stations. The origin of the term "ham", as a synonym for an amateur radio operator, was a taunt by professional operators. But the restrictions of the Radio Act of 1912 spurred Amateur Radio forward and Hams experimented, developing new technology to use the restricted frequencies that were first believed to be useless. These innovations passed into the commercial sector and radio use made significant strides in the years that followed.

World War I is frequently referred to as "the first modern war," since a number of technological inventions made their debut during the war, which lasted from 1914 to 1918. Nowhere was this more true than in the realm of communications — the recent introduction of electricity- and radio-based communications revolutionized the art of war, joining other advances such as military airplanes, tanks, machine guns and chemical weapons.

Despite these new technologies, many military leaders were slow to take advantage of them and continued to wage war as if it were a cavalry-based affair. Their reluctance (or inability) to adapt to new methods of warfare has been cited as one reason World War I was such a bloody affair, resulting in more than 17 million civilian and military deaths. 

A portable radio transmitting station in Germany, 1919

World War I had put a stop to amateur radio. In the United States, Congress ordered all amateur radio operators to cease operation and even dismantle their equipment. These restrictions were lifted after World War I ended, and the amateur radio service restarted on October 1, 1919. Many Amateur Radio operators are veterans, some got their start in radio communications while serving. 

Please take a moment tomorrow, November 11th, to remember the many who sacrificed for our freedom in military operations.

To read the entire story above, click:
https://www.livescience.com/45641-science-of-world-war-i-communications.html

The November 2017 Communicator

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

• The Rest Of The Story—Lee De Forest 
• What’s Happening This Month In Ham? 
• News You Can Lose
• Back To Basics
• Club News—SARC
• Radio-Active
• Club News—SEPAR Report
• Emergency Comms—NVIS Antennas
• JOTA—Scouts On The Air
• Club News—North Shore ARC
• Club News—Richmond ARC
• Tech Topics—Hamstick Dipole Follow-up
• SARC Course Update
• and more... 

Two Enthusiastic JOTA Participants

You can read or download this edition here

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

Ham License Plate Woes

Our Provincial Insurance Provider Fails To Provide

Two recent emails revealed a possible problem with registration and renewal of 5 character (also known as 2-letter call sign) BC Amateur Radio vehicle licence plates. The first Amateur spent time last week attempting to renew his car insurance and registration with his VA7-- Amateur Radio plates. It became apparent that there was a problem with the new Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) computer system accepting five-letter/number registrations.

The option presented to him on Saturday, the last day of his insurance coverage, was to
relinquish his VA7-- plate and accept a new plate and sticker that had been prepared.
Unwilling to relinquish the VA7-- plate, his broker agreed to issue a three-day temporary permit to give more time to resolve the issue, on the condition that he remove the VA7-- plates from his car and display the temporary permit in its place. Inquiries during the weekend indicated that he was not alone in this issue. Some brokers had found a solution, but regrettably some BC Amateurs had given up their "call sign" plate and accepted a regular plate in return.

The following Monday he spent a significant amount of time waiting on hold to contact an
ICBC agent at their head office. This was a specialized problem, and by the time he found the department responsible, the staff had gone home for the day. The following day he was able to contact someone in the Personalized Plate department (604 661 2267) and they reassured the Amateur that there was a temporary work around. ICBC had an outstanding trouble ticket to resolve the issue with their IT staff, but it was not yet actioned. ICBC asked him to contact his broker, and have them contact ICBC directly to reissue the VA7-- plate. Meanwhile his broker called him, prior to their office opening. The broker had also taken the time and trouble to find a solution. His VA7-- plate is now valid again with a new sticker for 2017/18 but unfortunately the ICBC system went down during the renewal process and the broker was unable to print any paperwork.

He commented that it was surprising how many people were completely unaware of
the significance of an Amateur Radio vehicle license plate.

The second incident involved a long-time Amateur with a similar experience. He has had a ham plate since about 1965 with never a problem. In October 2016, he bought a new used car and wanted to trade in his weathered plates for new. When the Insurance agent called ICBC, he was advised that new plates could not be issued for at least 18 to 24 months. As his insurance was expiring, he had no option but to surrender his plates. Upset by this action, he went online to ICBC, found a Complaints page and asked why was he not able to register his callsign plate, or receive new ones for years.

Not expecting an answer, he received a phone call from ICBC within three days was advised to go back to his Insurance agent in about five days, where he could pick up his
new plates! Which he did… go figure. This year, October 2017, renewal was again due so he went to his Insurance Agent on a Friday. Crisis! ICBC could not proceed with the renewal as the ICBC system would not accept the 5 digit plate number, VA7…, expiring the following Monday. Weekends are not work days for ICBC, but he was advised it would be resolved by Monday. The problem not having been rectified, he went home, and took the car off the road. He borrowed his wife’s car on Tuesday and visited his broker. Fortunately the Agent was very good and worked with ICBC right then, while he was there, and was able to complete the renewal.

Hopefully, this note will encourage other BC Amateurs to persevere with their broker to
retain their five-letter/digit call sign vehicle plate while the problem with ICBC's computer exists.

I Wonder what will happen in October 2018? 

ICBC Plate Information Page

 

CQ WW SSB Contest

SARC Members Operate From Three Surrey Stations

It was a busy weekend, as stations operated by at least three Surrey Club members, with
multiple operators, participated in the largest Amateur Radio competition in the
world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves on the last weekend of October
(SSB) and November (CW) with the goal of making as many contacts with as many
different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible.

Separate stations operated by SARC members John Brodie, Fred Orsetti and Sheldon Ward were active for much of the contest operating as VE7SAR, VE7SRY and VE7RAC
respectively. In the case of VE7RAC, operated as part of the RAC Canada 150
program, we reached every continent but Antarctica and logged 1,820 contacts for a
respectable score of 714,054 points.

Robert VA7FMR at the mic

Rookie contester Michael VE7GMP
operates CQ WW at VA7XB 

John VE7TI operating at VE7IO

Jeanne VA7QD operating at VE7IO

Here is a video of the contest in progress

Check out the results here

A Successful JOTA 2017

The Scouts Enjoyed Amateur Radio

It was International Scout Jamboree On The Air today and Surrey BC was represented by operators and stations from the Surrey Amateur Radio Club and the Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio. We operated from our Operations & Training Centre.

Stan VA7NF and the HF Station

Various ages and levels of Scouts circulated through five stations including:

1. Basic Radio Theory
2. Morse Code
3. VHF/UHF including IRLP and Echolink
4. HF (Shortwave)
5. Handheld Radio practise

Rob VE7CZV introducing VHF

They spoke with stations including London, England and Colorado. This is an annual event in October and it is highly recommended as a community involvement project. Next year it is on the weekend of 19-21 October. More on this year's event in the November Communicator.

More info: http://jotajoti.info/

SARC: VE7SAR.net    

SEPAR: separs.net