Norm's Ramblings

Thoughts on my first exposure to Ham Radio:

Norm VE7IIT

I had just graduated from high school, and was heading for higher education at UBC, and one of the early events at that campus was the annual drive for new memberships at the various clubs that exist at that locale… everything from Public Speaking courses, to Decorative Basket Weaving!

As I went around, talking to the various promoters of their clubs, I came across the UBC Ham Radio Club…  I had always liked to play around with electrons of some type, and the idea of getting into the club piqued my interest.    I was advised that there was a course being offered on the Theory of Radio, and classes were available in learning the International Morse Code (a requirement, in those days, to get one’s ham licence).
Within a few weeks, I found myself constantly being drawn to the Ham Shack (rather than spending time at the University Library…  where I should have been studying!), but I found the Theory of Ham Radio drawing my every free moment.   That is, until the results of the Mid-Term exams came out…  just before the Christmas recess.

My dad, a high school teacher, brought it forcibly to my attention that something had to be done about my marks…  and my first dalliance with radio had to come to an end.    However, that first infection with ham radio had taken its toll: over subsequent years, I started to build various HeathKits… first a multi-meter, and even many years later of building the venerable HW-101 transceiver.

I recall vividly spending many evening hours with the smell of solder wafting through my nostrils…  my wife being a registered nurse, worked a lot of shift work…  and my constant companion was the enjoyment of making marks on the kitchen counter with a hot soldering pencil.  By that time, I had made friends with a local ham (Mike Heritage, now a Silent Key) was my mentor (or, more correctly, my “Elmer” who encouraged me with my affliction of Ham Radio).

Still, I was not On the Air, and decades passed before I decided to attempt to write the multiple-question Industry of Canada ‘test of proficiency’ exam.    By this time, my late wife was fighting a battle with her cancers, and at the time of one her many surgeries, I had booked myself to write the exam, but suddenly she was in for more surgery, and the first of that month suddenly presented itself unexpectedly…  I decided the evening before that I should write the exam…  just to get the ‘feel’ of the exam...  it didn’t matter to me whether I passed it or not… 

But being former College Boy, I had some insight into how to handle a multiple-question exam, and I found myself leaving my fellow candidates in just over half hour, much to the surprise my fellow would-be-hams.  To my great surprise, the examiner placed the ‘stencil’ over my answers and seemed to be noting my answers…  suddenly looking up at me and asking me if I had $12 in my pocket.    My response was, “I thought the examination was free…”,  to which he remarked, “… well, you’ve just passed the exam…”  

I quickly dug into my wallet and found the necessary funds, and received the call sign VE7IIT, which I have to this day.   

Since the original contact with Ham Radio 1948, many times I found myself purchasing magazines that had the theme of Radio…  everything from “Popular Science” to Hugo Gernsback’s “Modern Electronics”…  occasionally even to purchasing the annual copy of “Radio Amateur’s Handbook”, as my funds would allow (I can recall it rising to a whopping $8.00 a copy !).   In 1942, the Handbook  was available from the ARRL for $1.00 (postpaid $1.50, outside of Continental U.S.A.). 

The big names in radio technology in the early days included, National, Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, Eimac, most of which are now just memories.  Hams, in the 40’s and 50’s were largely solder enthusiasts, but if a ham built his own transceiver, it had to be examined by a federally-appointed inspector before  turning on a key.

At U.B.C. Ham Club, we were running largely war-surplus 250 watts of AM radio transmission equipment that was crystal-controlled frequency…  a few hams had graduated to VFO control at that time, but were required to be as stable as a crystal.   The transmitter stood as tall as a home refrigerator, including the power supply.   The transmitting tubes were as large as a milk bottle, and one could put one’s hand the transmitter to fondle the tubes (also war-surplus, available for a few pennies on the dollar).

I recall being able to hear a few local (Vancouver-based) hams on the 2-meter band…  these were the true edge-of-Space experimenters, in 1948!   Side-band reception was that funny Donald Duck sounding voice on a few of the bands, again using home-brew equipment.  It was an un-written law at the Club to leave the transmitter turned ‘on’ to allow the crystals to stabilize to the frequency that we were transmitting.   

And, yeah…  by utilizing the Club call… in those days VE7ACS, every novice, student, and unlicenced enthusiast used the transmitter.  We had a sked with a university club down in Texas, and we also hopped over to Australia, as the winter ‘skip’ came alive.
  
These are but a few of the early memories of my early days ‘in the shack’… 

~ Norm VE7IIT

Ham Radio's Patron Saint

SP3RN

A Polish priest, Father Maximilian was fascinated by mass media in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He established large printing plants in Poland and Japan for his Franciscan Order publications. When he was on a mission to Japan (as well as China and India), he got acquainted with broadcasting and amateur-radio stations. That medium could reach those who were unable to read in those years.

Upon arrival back in Poland, he applied for a broadcasting license.  The radio was a strategic medium in the 1930’s and only the Polish Radio (1925) and a military radio station were permitted to broadcast. Besides, the amateur radio movement was thriving in Poland; clubs were already established in Lvov, Warsaw, Poznan, Kraków, Lodz and other cities.

He is the only canonized saint to have held an amateur radio license 

Father Maximilian was permitted to broadcast test transmissions close to the 40m amateur radio band in 1938. His interest in amateur radio has been confirmed by quotations from his writings. He chose the SP3RN callsign for his test transmissions (spelt in Polish: Stacja Polska 3 Radio Niepokalanów).
Father Maximilian was murdered in the German Nazi Auschwitz Concentration Camp after he had volunteered his life for the life of another inmate, randomly selected for execution.

Beatified by Pope Paul VI on 17.10.1971. Canonized as St. Maximilian Apostle of Consecration to Mary and declared Martyr of Charity by Pope John Paul II on 10.10.1982.

Considered a Patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted and Patron Saint of amateur radio operators.

January 8th is the birthday of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe (SP3RN),  To mark the date of the Anniversary of the Radio Niepo-kalanów founded by St. Maximilian, several special event stations operate from Poland and Italy.

A Polish and an Italian Award is awarded for working the special event and other associated stations.

Anagrams

Anagrams You Can Relate To

THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
I'M A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

SEPAR: Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio History

Part 4

Boxes to functioning portable communications kits; this was no small project and involved many hours of design, assembly and testing.  As mentioned in Part 3, many hours went into a design that would meet the needs of the City of Surrey (CoS) and now we needed a mock-up, then a prototype and finally the finished product.  

Plans were to use a team approach to work our way through these steps. But in the end the construction of the kits was taken on by John Brodie, VA7XB using his own newly constructed workshop.¹  We carried on with the Sunday morning meetings at John’s shop each week, where we discussed the construction as it progressed.  Needless to say there were many details to work out and many hours went into the first kit.  Construction of kits two and three went more quickly as the first kit had been completely debugged before starting the others. John’s experience and training proved to be invaluable when problems arose, and as result, we have one of the best emergency communications kits around.

Once the kits were completed and tested we received many positive comments from both the City and other amateur radio groups, which prompted us to consider articles for RAC and ARRL.  The construction, testing and commissioning were fresh in our minds and John, VA7XB, offered to act as scribe and produce articles for RAC and ARRL.  With input from the SEPAR team John produced an outstanding article for RAC which was then picked up by ARRL.  ARRL even paid us a fee for the use of our article, great stuff. 

Our emergency communications kits were now becoming known in the amateur radio world and we started to receive requests for design and construction information, and we were anxious to make this information available. After some discussion it was decided to produce a CD with full construction details including high resolution images and schematics, this would be a professional product so let’s ask a nominal $20. for the CD, and it went over big.  We still have this information available if anyone is interested.

We continued to grow in terms of recognition and ARRL published our kits in the ARRL Handbook

An excellent video was produced showing the contents and assembly of the grab and go kits, you can view this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-a0yC--k6Q  It has over 10,000 views!

SEPAR Obtains Society Status On July 3^rd 2009

Without a doubt the reason for SEPAR to become a society was provide an opportunity to obtain funding in order to continue to expand and improve our ability to provide emergency communications for the City of Surrey.  The grab and go kits were the center piece of SEPAR’s emergency communications strength but we needed to update the radio room at the EOC, amongst other things.  The plan for the radio room was to duplicate the equipment in the grab and go kits and provide a fixed amateur radio emergency communications station that could serve the needs of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), for the City of Surrey.

In order to equip the radio room we needed new radios, antennas, computers and Terminal Network Controllers and new workstations.  The City agreed to provide the workstations and cabinets and SEPAR undertook the responsibility of providing the equipment.  Our plan was to develop a budget and apply to BC Lotteries for funding for the new equipment.  And, while we were at it we wanted new emergency communications vests so that our members would be easily identified at exercises and community events.  Since becoming a registered society SEPAR now had an executive team that, due to a wealth of experience, put together an application for funding to BC Lotteries.  We were successful and now we could purchase the needed equipment and move forward with upgrading the radio room at the EOC and purchase high quality vests for our members.

The City very quickly had the cabinets made and installed and with the help of Bill Slaughter at Burnaby Radio and Icom Canada the equipment was purchased.  Installing the radios was time consuming, but with dedicated volunteers the installation went well.  

However, there was a major problem with the antenna installations. The existing, not functioning, antennas were mounted on tripods sitting on the roof of Fire Hall number one, and we could not make use of any of them.  Dan Barnscher, the Emergency Planner, wanted the antennas to be neatly and permanently installed and they had to be clear of the roof surface as the firemen use the roof for training purposes. 

After investigating possible locations for two dual band, two tri-band and one HF antenna a location on the west wall of the building was approved.  We now needed mounting hardware that we could attach to the vertical wall, we needed mounts and masts. After some checking with local tower company’s we were able to acquire, free of charge, the large brackets needed for mounting the antenna masts.  We purchased, at a discounted price, the schedule 40 and 80 aluminum mast material from a company in Langley. We had the material now how to get it attached to the building. Surrey Fire gave us the green light to do the work on the building ourselves and our volunteers quickly rose to the challenge.  In particular Kjeld VE7GP, who had been in the construction business before retiring, offered to oversee the installation of the antenna mounting hardware.  We had several volunteers to drill holes, hold pipes, tighten bolts, and the job was completed in 3 days.

~Fred VE7IO

SEPAR Coordinator

Note: ¹The credit for the concept, selection of gear and proper functioning of the grab & go kits rightly goes to other members of the team, who supplied the brain-power: Bill VE7XS, Fred VE7IO and Drew VA7DRW.  Though I did the actual physical construction, this was very much a team effort and it would be a discredit to the others if I did not say so. 

~ John VA7XB

RAC Bulletin: Two Metres Re-Allocation?

An Important Message

Radio Amateurs of Canada has received several requests for more information in response to reports on some websites and discussions on email lists of a proposal to reallocate 144 MHz -146MHz from the Amateur Radio Service to the Aeronautical Mobile Service.  The following has been prepared by Bryan Rawlings VE3QN RAC’s representative at the World Radio Conference and the domestic and International meetings leading up to that meeting. 

Glenn MacDonell
President
Radio Amateurs of Canada

Two Metres: Re-Allocation?

There is concern – understandably – in the amateur community over a French proposal to re-allocate 144 – 146 MHz to the aeronautical navigation service to accommodate the growing number of aircraft employing new navigation tracking and communication aids.

Here is a brief summary of what and where this proposal is…
The French administration have proposed a new primary allocation to the aeronautical mobile service in 144 to 146 MHz which is the entirety of the amateur two-metre band in ITU Region 1 (Europe, the Mid-East and Africa). Their proposal was most recently considered at a meeting in Prague of a subcommittee of the Conseil Europeen des Postes et Radiocommunication (CEPT). The CEPT comprises 48 European states.

What is under consideration specifically is that an agenda item to this effect be included for the World Radiocommunication Conference tentatively planned for 2023. The WRC-23 agenda will be decided at the conclusion of the next WRC which begins October 28th in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was present as an observer at the Prague meeting and energetically opposed the French proposal. In the event, only Germany among the delegates opposed the French proposal. The issue will now be taken up at a higher level CEPT meeting in August. Belgium has apparently joined Germany in opposition. Should the number of administrations opposing the French proposal reach eight the proposal will fail to move forward. The IARU and European amateurs are now actively seeking the support of other administrations to oppose the French proposal.

Formally, the proposal is not on the agenda of any other regional groups preparing for WRC-19. RAC has made known to our regulator that we support the IARU’s opposition to the French proposal and its actions to defend amateur radio’s worldwide primary allocation and that we would oppose any similar proposal for re-allocation in Region 2 (the Americas). The Comisión Interamericana de Telecomunicaciones (CITEL) of the Organization of American States will meet in Ottawa in mid-August. The IARU will again be an observer and RAC will be represented in the Canadian delegation.

This issue is a clear illustration of the importance of amateurs and their national associations being vigilant and taking part in the regional and international regulatory conferences which can determine the fate of our most-cherished amateur bands. For a more-complete description of these processes read the article “The Importance of Showing Up” in the May-June 2019 issue of The Canadian Amateur.

Bryan Rawlings  VE3QN

More About The Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio

Part 3

It is 2007 and SEPAR is about to take a new direction, we had a new Emergency Planner and the requirements of the City Of Surrey changed. In this installment we will look at the new direction for emergency communications and the changes needed for SEPAR to meet these new requirements.  We had a lot of work to do.

Having just been appointed to the position of SEPAR Coordinator I needed to find out what the city expected of our amateur radio volunteers and how we would meet their needs. 

To begin with, I reviewed that past organizational structure, looked at what we had in place with regards to radios and how many volunteers we had to work with. 

Understanding these assets would allow me to meet with the new planner and Fire Chief and be able to work towards the City’s emergency communications needs.

The organizational structure, as outlined in previous articles, consisted of single VHF radios and antennas installed in schools, which were designated as reception centers.  These were fixed installations and some were in need of repair, mostly antenna work.  

There was a radio room at fire hall number one, the Surrey EOC. The radio room was mainly for storage of portable gear, however, there were antennas on the roof which I thought could be used, this was incorrect.  The question, should we rebuild the schools sites, upgrade the radio room or start new, what did the City need?

In the first meeting with Dan Barnscher, the Emergency Planner, and Len Garis, the Fire Chief, I quickly discovered that the new direction for amateur radio emergency communications would require radio portability for reception centers.  In order to meet these needs the fixed school installations needed to be decommissioned and new portable kits had to be put together in order to meet the City’s plan to use recreation centers as reception centers.  Len Garis wanted flexibility, in setting up reception centers and on site communications. There would be more changes to SEPAR but in the spring of 2007 we needed to get to work on portable communications kits.

In order to get the ball rolling we needed a plan and financing, both being rather tall orders considering we had exactly zero in both categories.  How much would we need, who would lead the design and development of the portable kits, how much radio capacity should the kits have... all these were immediate questions.

Well, without financing we could not move forward so I approached Surrey Fire and the City for funding.  How much would we need?  I will get into the numbers later in this article but for now I will just say that both Surrey Fire and the City gave us the green light to go ahead with the design and construction of three grab and go kits.

OK, we had the money, now we needed a kit design.  The Coquitlam amateur radio emergency group had built several portable kits so I arranged for Ian Procyk to come to a meeting with Dan Barnscher and the SEPAR volunteers to demonstrate the Coquitlam kits.  It was a big success with the City immediately wanting the same communications ability.  We had the money, now we had a basic design goal, now we needed the human resources to get started.

The time frame was around January 2007 and we needed a team leader to lead the due diligence on developing the communications kit.  Bill Gipps, VE7XS, stepped up and he called meetings of the SEPAR volunteers through, February and March to tap into the experience of our radio amateurs.

 

The first steps were to build a consensus of what the objectives would be.  A subgroup was formed with some of the volunteers and many emails back and forth kept everyone on the same page.  In addition to the emails coffee meetings were held at MacDonald’s and at John Brodie’s VA7XB on Sunday mornings, all this before kit construction began.  There were literally dozens of meetings focused on building a consensus of what we were trying to achieve.

There were presentations made at the SEPAR general meetings and to the Surrey Fire management.  Ideas were put forth, discussed and explored.  Surrey Fire had a keen interest in the development of the grab and go kits as they were expensive and had to meet their requirements. We worked mostly with subgroups, vetting designs to come up with design considerations.  Some of the considerations were, how many hours of run time, protection of radios that were not connected to an antenna and how could we separate the workstations for practical operation.  Many hours went into these discussions with white boards being used to compile the information. At round table meetings we discussed options, solutions to problems others had experienced and at the end of the design process we were very happy with the outcome and ultimately the kits themselves.

In the next article we will get into the actual construction and commissioning of the three portable kits.  We will look at the response from other emergency groups, PEP, ARRL and RAC to the design and operation of the SEPAR communications kits. 

~Fred VE7IO

SEPAR Coordinator

The History of SEPAR

Part 2 

https://separs.ampr.org/

The first installment in the history of SEPAR began in 1994 and covered the years through to 1997; this month will cover the period from 1997 to 2006.  The first article covered the setup of the SEPAR volunteer organization, the installation of amateur radios in the schools (receptions centers) and the management of the area teams.

In 1997, the first coordinator for SEPAR, Ken Boles, moved from SEPAR to take a position with the Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) and James Longley, VE7JMS, was appointed by the Surrey Emergency Planner to the position of SEPAR Coordinator.  James was very active with Surrey Fire as a volunteer fire fighter and was well suited to carry on the work which began in 1994.  James was an amateur radio operator, he had knowledge of the workings of Surrey Fire and he had been involved with PEP, so with this background James was well suited to take SEPAR to the next level.  As it turned out, the next level in the progress of SEPAR was not easily achieved.

In 1998 SEP decided to relocate the school radios from the gymnasium area to the administrative offices in a number of the schools.  This required removing and re-installing cables and radios into new secure enclosures located in the school offices, all of which was done by volunteers. The only school that did not have the radio station relocated was Queen Elizabeth Sr. Secondary in Whalley. This was due to an earlier removal before school construction. All schools were completed in 1996 or 1997, with Semiahmoo being completed on July 3, 1996. The school that later received a change was Whalley area’s Queen Elizabeth Sr. Secondary. The equipment was removed from this school and stored at Hall One storage lockup on September 1997 due to school construction work and the need to protect it from any damage. The plan for this equipment was a future installation at L.A. Matheson Secondary. This may have been in part because large turnover of Emergency Planners within the Surrey Emergency Program (SEP).

James had his work cut out for him but fortunately for him he had the support of Jim Hurrell, VE7HUR, who became James’s right hand man.  Jim was the SEPAR volunteer who, “got things done”. As Jim explains, “James would decide on the projects and I would make it happen”, and it worked well.

Despite the many volunteer hours put in by James and Jim, SEPAR did not expand or move forward during the years between 1997 and 2000.  Many proposals were made to the city, in which SEPAR would plan to improve existing installations, add new communications equipment and provide for improved training, however none were completed.  This may have been due, in part, because during that period of time there were six (yes six) different Emergency Planners.  The six planners, during James’s term as SEPAR Coordinator were, Jim Bale, Len Garis, Stefan Gherghinoiv, Jim MacDonald, Natalia Skapski and Tom Lewis.

From the beginning SEPAR had a seat at the quarterly ESS meetings.  These meetings, which are still going on, provided an opportunity for all players in SEP to exchange experiences and keep an accurate record of key people within the volunteer organizations. The current schedule for ESS meetings is bi-annual but the benefits of the meetings are still extremely valuable. The role of SEPAR within ESS has always been to provide communications between reception centers and the EOC.  In the early days the reception centers had their own radio installations but due to a change of policy within SEP the radio stations are now portable kits. 

In the years 1996, 1997 and 1999 SEPAR had a display booth at the Safety Fairs Fire Combat Challenge.  The booth consisted of static displays of SEPAR activities with an active demonstration of HF, VHF and UHF using SEPAR radios and antennas from the EOC package. This required a lot of time and hard work on the part of many SEPAR volunteers. It was considered good EOC setup practice, as a large earthquake may have required setup in tents under similar conditions. While some members operated the station, others gave out information on the role of amateur radio communications during an emergency.  It seems these Fairs ended around 1999.  It may be that Canada Day and CN Family day now provide the venue for displaying emergency preparedness within Surrey.  SEPAR has been a participant in both these events since 2007.

In addition to the Safety Fairs SEPAR put on demonstrations along with Surrey Fire and ESS in malls and the ice arena within Surrey.  They set up 2 or 3 radio stations as a display.

SEPAR made presentations to Delta and Langley emergency programs. During these presentations the Delta Emergency Planner Robin Gardiner complimented SEPAR on their work within Surrey.

Jocelyne Colbert, SEP Executive Assistant, was a key person in the Surrey Emergency Program.  Jocelyne kept track of many volunteer organizations including SEPAR.  To become a SEPAR member you had to register with the City, have an RCMP background check and it was desirable for you to hold a valid amateur radio licence.  The entire SEPAR roster had only one or two unlicensed members and was kept up to date by Jocelyne. 

One of Jocelyne’s tasks was to organize the annual Volunteer appreciation dinner in the fall of each year. At these dinners awards were handed out for long service, outstanding contributions and leadership roles. Over the years there were many SEPAR volunteers who received awards at these dinners.

During James’s term as SEPAR Coordinator he managed the SEPAR volunteers in an exercise named “Thunderbird”. This exercise covered the South West Region and Vancouver Island and was a two day event. Ken Boles, the previous SEPAR Coordinator, was then “Provincial Regional Amateur Radio Coordinator” and also had a role in this wide area exercise.  During this exercise the office we now know as the PREOC was the Provincial Field Response Center (PFRC) and located in an old building at the Green Timbers site.  

The Radio Room at hall number 1 came into being in 1998 and slowly added antennas, radios and operating positions.  However, as previously stated, it was difficult to complete plans for improvements so the room largely sat incomplete.

Things were moving forward with PEP and it was decided in 2005 to move the then PFRC to a new facility renaming it to the Provincial Regional Emergency Operations Center. It would still be located on the Green Timbers property.  At this point James was Coordinator for SEPAR, a volunteer firefighter and station manager for the new PREOC facility as well as his role with Surrey Search and Rescue.  Moving into the new PREOC facility, selecting equipment for the new radio station and getting it all up and running was, in itself, a full time job.  James decided to step down as SEPAR coordinator in order to spend as much time on the PREOC project as possible.  I was approached by James and Jim Hurrell and asked if I would take on the SEPAR Coordinator position and I accepted.  My name was then put forward to the Emergency Planner, Tom Lewis, and finding me acceptable appointed me to the position. This was the summer of 2006. 

Having accepted the position I needed to quickly get myself up to speed on the SEPAR operation.  I needed to make contact with the SEPAR volunteers, meet with the Emergency Planner and find out what Surrey expected of the radio amateur emergency volunteer communicator. 

Next installment I will continue on, with the construction of the grab and go kits, the radio room renovation, BCWARN and the many exercises and events that followed. And what happened to the radio that were removed from the schools?  You may be interested in knowing that we made very good use of them and they are still available for emergency communications.

~Fred VE7IO

Retired SEPAR Coordinator

SEPAR produced a promotional video in 2015. You can view it at https://youtu.be/6B-qFOTtqoQ