A Triplexer... What is that?

Three Transmitters, One Antenna or Vice-Versa

You have probably heard about triplexers but are not sure what are they. Here is a simple explanation.

A triplexer is a device that allows 3 transmitters to share one antenna. The transmitters have to be on different frequency bands and the antenna needs to tune 3 bands. A good example is during a contest: 3 operators working with 3 transmitters one on 20m, second on 15 meters and third on 10 meters and the antenna is a 3 band Yagi 20-15-15 meters.
Inside a triplexer are filters that prevent power from one transmitter being routed to second transmitter and so on. 

A triplexer can also work backwards – it enables use of 3 different antennas with one radio. Here is an example:

A triplexer might not have enough attenuation to prevent strong signal from other transmitters from entering the receiver input. This could damage the receiver’s front end. Therefore extra filters are used:

More on this topic in the next Communicator... here December 1st

~ Les Tocko VA7OM

More Useful Knots...

The Sheet Bend 

Knots are used frequently in our hobby 

The Sheet Bend is recommended for joining two ropes of unequal size. The thicker rope must be used for the simple bight as shown. It works equally well if the ropes are of the same size.

See a video demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsj7riFkulE

The SARC November 2018 Communicator

Here is the latest Communicator 

Amateur Radio News from the South West corner of Canada and elsewhere. You will find Amateur Radio related articles, profiles, news, tips and how-to's. You can download it as a .PDF file directly from https://goo.gl/eSjJNb

https://goo.gl/eSjJNb

As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.  My deadline for the next edition is November 24th. If you have news or events from your Vancouver area club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from elsewhere, please email them to the communicator@ve7sar.net

Keep visiting this site for regular updates and news.

~ 73,
  John VE7TI
  Communicator Editor

New Vancouver Area VHF Contest

VECTOR Is Having A QSO Party

Sat, 17 November, 10:00 – 14:00

How often has a member said that they would like to participate in a QSO party, but cannot do HF at their QTH? Here is a way they can join us, on 2m! 

Nov 17th 2018, Saturday, from 10:00-14:00 PST, let's have a Party on 2m. Use a simplex frequency between 146.415 and 147.570 MHz, with PL 67.0 Hz to make as many contacts as possible. The reason for the PL, is to give operators a reason to use VFO mode, to learn some more features of their radio (Generic instructions provided below). 

Contest is open to all certified amateurs. Each QSO must have one station within southwest BC, northwest WA. to be considered for points.(Updated 20/10 14:00) 

• Radios will be classified by power as QRP (10w or less), LOW (11-49w), HIGH (>50w)
• Points will be given for the correct exchange of Callsign, Power class, Municipality.
• Stations may be MOBILE (calling from multiple Municipalities), or FIXED (one Municipality).

Each station worked is worth one point. A Fixed station may be worked only once, while a
Mobile station may be worked more than once if it has moved to a different Municipality. 10 bonus points for each municipality that you work. 10 bonus points for each municipality your transmit from. (Shhhhh, your first contact is worth 21 points (10+10+1 points).

Valid operating frequencies include 146.415, 146.430, 146.445, 146.460, 146.475, 146.490, 146.505, 146.535, 146.550, 146.565, 146.580, 146.595, 147.420, 147.450, 147.480, 147.510, 147.540, 147.570 MHz (ref: https://wp.rac.ca/144-mhz-2m-page/)

Electronic log files to be submitted in XLS or gsheet format to qsoparty@vectorradio.ca by Nov 30, to be included in the scoring. No prizes will be awarded, but lots of admiration from your peers.

For further information, contact qsoparty@vectorradio.ca or look thru the info directory https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Iki0Y_q0PpisrDkqXQk0HnPoviQvzMro

Knots...

Knots are used frequently in our hobby 

From securing loads to securing antennas, a knowledge of some basic knots is very valuable. We are considering a General Meeting session later in the season to see some knots and their application demonstrated. In the meantime, here is a common knot for you to practice. 

JOTA / JOTI Scouts On The Air This Weekend

Media Release

SARC, SEPAR and LARA will be providing communications

Scouts Unite the World!

Demonstration of Emergency Communications Saturday, October 20

Surrey, BC  October 18, 2018 – Jamboree On The Air and Jamboree On The Internet (JOTA-JOTI) is the largest Scouting event in the world with over 1.8 million Scouts participating across 150+ countries.  Scouts and Guides across the world connect with each other during JOTA-JOTI using the airwaves and the Internet.

Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, fires, storms, landslides, ice and even the occasional cutting of cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio. These federally licensed radio operators, often called “hams” provide backup communications for everything from community events to local Emergency Operations Centres and even for the International Space Station. Surrey and Langley “hams” will join with local Scouting groups showing them their emergency capabilities this Saturday at Camp McLean, located at 20315 16 Ave, Langley, B.C.

JOTA/JOTI is an annual World Scouting event that was first held in 1957. The event unites Scouts with their Scout friends world-wide. The purpose is to meet each other, exchange ideas, learn from each other, and gain mutual understanding. Contacts between the Scouts are made via Amateur Radio and in a supervised Internet chat room. The youth attending will also learn about radio communication and Internet safety. Scouts Canada gives special thanks to the Surrey Amateur Radio Club, the Langley Amateur Radio Association, and the TELUS Wise® team for volunteering their time to facilitate this great event.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across North America including B.C. wildfires, winter storms, landslides and other events world-wide. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of October 20-21, Lower Mainland Scouts will have a chance to meet and talk with Surrey and Langley’s ham radio operators to see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about, as Scouts worldwide take to the airwaves using both voice and digital communications. There are also planned demonstrations of satellite contacts, Morse code training and hidden transmitter hunts to give participants a chance to experience all facets of the hobby.

Amateur Radio is growing in Canada. Recent amendments 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. 

For more information about Scouts Canada, go to http://www.scouts.ca

For more information about JOTA/JOTI, go to https://www.jotajoti.info

For more information about The Surrey Amateur Radio Club, go to http://ve7sar.net

For more information about the Langley Amateur Radio Association, go to https://lngara.wordpress.com

Planned Activities   (Scout groups will rotate through these activities between 9am and 5pm on Saturday)

1.  Introduction to Amateur Radio

2.  HF Station 

• Worldwide communications using the 100 ft mobile tower
• Attempt to contact other Scout groups worldwide

3.  VHF/UHF Station

• Contacts with other Scouting groups worldwide using both voice and digital modes

4.  Public Service/Emergency Communication 

• Supervised hands-on communication exercise within camp area using radio

5.  Foxhunt

• A Radio ‘Sport’
• Hidden transmitter hunting techniques
• Search for 2 foxes within the woods surrounding the camp

6.  Morse Code (CW) and Phonetic Alphabet

• Using worksheet, practice sending name
• Using worksheet, print and learn to say name using phonetic alphabet 

7.  Satellite Contact 

• There are 5 daytime opportunities throughout Saturday to make an orbiting satellite contact

Any Scouting group wishing to make contact, we will be monitoring the suggested HF frequencies and can be contacted on VE7RSC 147.360MHz+ tone 110.9Hz or  IRLP node 1736, or our Echolink node number for VE7RSC-VHF: 496228

Update:

See the follow-up article in the Langley Times:
https://www.langleytimes.com/community/video-scouts-in-langley-learn-how-to-communicate-during-emergencies/

Early Amateur Radio In The Canadian Arctic

A Communicator Reprise: September 2013

Amateur Radio (aka Ham Radio) has been a way for almost 100 years for citizens to communicate wirelessly to distant locations. The hobby is still thriving and providing opportunities for experimentation in radio electronics and the operation of shortwave radio stations. In the 1930s people working in Canada’s Arctic often brought their amateur radio skills and equipment north with them so that they could relieve the isolation by contacting other radio operators around the world.

Recently a ham radio colleague, Bill Little (VA7ZBL), came across a collection of QSL cards from and old operator (Art J. Cook, VE4KZ, who lived in Calgary Alberta) that contained some from the far north of Canada. In their own way they give a glimpse into the history of the region and some of the people who worked there before the Second World War.
For those not familiar with Ham Radio – a QSL card is personalized postcard–sized acknowledgement exchanged by amateur radio operators to confirm the radio contact (or QSO in radio jargon) with each other. These cards from the Arctic would have been highly prized by the recipient as ham operators were very rare in those days – and even today there are not many of them active.


Radio Station VE5TV (1937), located at Nottingham Island, Northwest Territories
(in the former District of Franklin.) (Photo from the MacFarlane collection)

This station, operated by Dick Vaughan and Coll Baldwin was located on Nottingham Island. This location (Inuktitut: Tujjaat) is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located in Hudson Strait, just north of the entrance into Hudson Bay. A weather station was constructed on the island in 1884. In 1927, an airfield was constructed as part of a program to monitor ice in Hudson Bay. The island became uninhabited in October 1970 as Inuit residents migrated to larger towns, primarily Cape Dorset. Presumably the operators of the radio station were staffing the weather station.

Each radio call sign was unique to a licence holder. The call sign was synonymous with the licenced holder. Successful contacts were later confirmed with a QSL card, sent by mail, as confirmation or proof of the contact. These cards are highly prized by radio operators, and these cards from Canada’s Arctic were and still are very rare.

VE5OA (1936) located at Fort Norman, Northwest Territories.
(Photo from the MacFarlane collection)

VE5MR (1936) located at Fort Norman, Northwest Territories.
(Photo from the MacFarlane collection)

VE5MR was Hugh Ross and VE5OA was F.J. Rapp who worked for Canadian Airways. Fort Norman is now known as Tulita, a hamlet in the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories, located at the junction of the Great Bear River and the Mackenzie River.

VE5QB (1937) (Photo from the MacFarlane collection)

VE5QB was operated by E.A. Kirk (I don’t know what his affiliation or occupation was at this site). Old Crow is located on the Porcupine River in the far north of the Territory.


VE5LD (1937) located at Gjoa Haven, on King William Island.
(Photo from the MacFarlane collection)

VE5LD (1937) was operated by Donald Graham Sturrock (1914-1943), who was an Apprentice Clerk with the Hudson’s Bay Company at Gjoa Haven 1935–1938. He also operated the Hudson’s Bay Company radio station, call sign CZ2L, on 69 meters. He notes on his QSL card that his station is a very low power, 10 watts, and brags that he has contacted stations all over the world.

Sturrock (VE5LD) was one of the discoverers of relics and human remains of the doomed Franklin expedition. He was referred to in the article about the painting of the RMS Nascopie by Thomas H. Beament. Sturrock afterwards became the Wireless Operator in the HBC vessel Fort Ross (1939–1941), and his ham radio work obviously set the groundwork for this employment. He resigned from the HBC to join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1941. He was declared missing and presumed killed after operations over Central Burma on 29/05/1943.

Gjoa Haven, (Inuktitut: Uqsuqtuuq). The name Gjoa Haven is from the Norwegian and was named by polar explorer Roald Amundsen after his ship Gjoa. Permanent settlement at Gjoa Haven started in 1927 with a Hudson’s Bay Company outpost.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Crow,_Yukon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjoa_Haven,_Nunavut
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/s/sturrock_donald-g.pdf


Author’s Note: My thanks to Bill Little for the cards. I am also grateful to George Duddy for additional information included in the article.

~ John M. MacFarlane VA7PX