A very special eleventh team will join us for MANNA@80!

More Operation MANNA News

Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound were humanitarian food drops to relieve the famine in Holland behind Nazi lines late in World War II. 20,000 people had died from starvation and 980,000 were malnourished. Many had survived by eating pets and spoiled food. Some even eating tulip bulbs leading to poisoning. 

Allied forces air crews from the U.K., Canada, the U.S., Australia and Poland participated. From these countries there will be ten Amateur Radio stations participating in a special event commemoration.

Now for the very special part! 

We will be joined in our commemoration by a very special team. Trevor Brook G3WBQ, and his Dad Dr. Maurice Brook, will operate a station from Dorking, UK.

Dr. Maurice Brook was a Navigator on Lancaster’s with 625 squadron and flew the operation Manna missions. Dr. Brook is 100 years old, it is a massive honour to have him take part in this event for us at the International Bomber Command Centre and for all of the teams around the world. We can't thank him and Trevor G3WBQ, his son, enough.

Dr Brooks story in the IBCC digital archive

Muriel and Maurice Brook at the opening ceremony of
the International Bomber Command Centre in 2015.

Dr Brook still remembers Operation MANNA well:

• “Children in the streets and our aircrew chocolate with handkerchief parachutes to be thrown from the rear turret.”

•  “The German Command had refused a request, through the Red Cross, to allow army lorries to cross the border with food supplies. When asked to allow safe passage to an air drop they had also refused. Nevertheless, we were told that we were not to fire unless fired upon.”

•  “We were below church spires and just above chimney pots.”

• “As we swept over the houses and streets we could see adults and children waving excitedly, Some were weeping, soon so was I, as I still do when reminded. You could have recognised anyone, we were so low.”

• “We saw German machine gunners swing their weapons towards us and we did likewise to them, but no one fired.”

If you need more information about this special event, please visit: About Operation Manna / Chowhound

73

~ John VE7TI

Who said kids are not into Amateur Radio

We just graduated this mom and her two kids from our recent on-line course. The kids are age 11 and 13 and passed the written exam AND a CW endorsement with neighbour Guy VA7GI coaching them. 

Congratulations and see you on the bands. 

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VB7MAN is ON AIR!

Mark VA7MM and others are our first guest operators

A recent VB7MAN QSO with Jake, KC7WXD, in Nevada.

Jake is an antique wireless experimenter and the chirpy note of the Command Set at VA7MM using VB7MAN, obviously caught his attention. The photo is of Jake’s homebrew 802 tube transmitter. His QRP signal at 2.5 W with the 802 transmitter was a perfectly copiable up here in BC.

If you would like to be a guest operator using the MANNA@80 callsign VB7MAN, have a look at the calendar for available slots and send us a note at vb7man@gmail.com. You can use any band and any mode anywhere in BC.

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The Planning for MANNA@80 Continues...

Planning for the special event stations commemorating the life-saving food drops to NW Netherlands near the end of World War II is now in full swing. 62 nationalities were part of Bomber Command in WW2. 

Please visit Operation Manna @ 80 for a full list of stations around the globe. Here are the Canadian stations participating:

VB7MAN Surrey Amateur Radio Communications

In Canada, Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) has been granted special event callsign VB7MAN from April 1^st to May 10^th. We will be on the air from our training station and elsewhere prior to, during, and after the event and will seek involvement of the high school students from our RF Communications class. Contacts with Europe can be sporadic from our location but we are generally able to contact North and South America, Asia, and Oceania. We have created a QSL card to commemorate the event. The card bears the $100 Royal Canadian Mint gold and silver coin struck in 2020 for the 75^th anniversary. 

We will update this page as plans progress but hope to make a QSO with you in April or May. Any certified amateur in BC may operate the special event callsign, as long as it is only used in one location at a time. If you wish to use the call on any band or mode, a Google calendar has been set up to reserve the call for your use between April 1st and May 10th. If you wish to book an operating time for VB7MAN, please contact VB7MAN@gmail.com.

John VE7TI
Coordinator VB7MAN@gmail.com

 

VB6MAN Calgary Amateur Radio Association

CARA will be operating from the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta. They will activate on April 25, 26, and 27th and May 9 and 10. The final dates and hours of operations will depend on the radio amateur operators participating.

 

VE1MAN Nova Scotia

The Canadian teams closest to Europe will be operating from their club station as VE1MAN. They may be activating from a former WW2 air base or another location of significance to tie in with the event.

 

Radio Amateurs of Canada published an article about MANNA@80 in the March-April issue of The Canadian Amateur, as did the Radio Society of Great Britain in their national magazine RADCOM.

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The RF Communications course continues...

 

 

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Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Presentation

At the Surrey Amateur Radio Communications March general meeting, Hitoshi Takahashi VE7LET, the Radio Amateurs of Canada Director for BC & Yukon, presented John Schouten VE7TI with a plaque commemorating his appointment to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame for 2024.

John Schouten [left] and Hitoshi Takahashi [right]

[left to right] Hiroshi Takahashi, John Schouten
and retiring RAC BC-Yukon Director Keith Witney

Radio Amateurs of Canada recognizes deserving Amateurs by appointments to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. The Constitution for the Hall specifies that the appointment as Member of the Hall is made for “outstanding achievement and excellence of the highest degree, for serious and sustained service to Amateur Radio in Canada, or to Amateur Radio at large”. The Trustees of the Hall have interpreted the Constitution to mean that the person has performed significant service over many years to enhance the well-being of Amateur Radio. Radio Amateurs of Canada and the Board of Trustees of CARHOF sincerely congratulates John Schouten VE7TI, on his appointment to the Hall of Fame.

A detailed account of his achievements will be presented in an upcoming edition of The Canadian Amateur magazine.

For more information on the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame please visit: https://wp.rac.ca/carhof/

Frank Davis, VO1HP
Chair, Board of Trustees
Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame

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