The November - December Communicator is now on-line

Wrapping up another year!

The November - December 2023 Communicator, digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download.

Read in over 145 countries, we bring you 134 pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.

You can view or download it as a .PDF file:  

The Communicator November - December 2023

Previous Communicator issues are at:

https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator

and a full index is HERE.  

As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome. 

The deadline for the next edition is December 15th.

If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at communicator@ve7sar.net

73,

John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor

November 11 is a great beginners contest weekend!

 

Two VHF contests to get you started

There are not one, but two VHF contests on the November 11th holiday weekend. These should be easy to work for both beginners and experienced hams alike.

2m QSO Party

Saturday 2023-11-11  10:00 – 14:30 (Pacific Time - Vancouver)
https://wp.rac.ca/144-mhz-2m-page/

This contest is open to all certified amateurs. Each QSO must have one station within Metro Vancouver, Vancouver and Gulf Islands, Southwest BC (Grids CN79, CN89 and CN99) or Northwest WA (only Grid Squares along the Canada-USA border: CN78, CN88, CN98) in order to be considered for points.

Valid FM 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. Valid SSB operating frequencies are between 144.200 and 144.275.

And…

The Repeater Roundabout

The Repeater Roundabout is a weekend-long event held on many of NW Washington’s nearby repeaters. The goal is to meet new people and work repeaters you might not usually key up. It’s also a great way to get started with ham radio contests for folk who are primarily repeater users. Light up the airwaves and make some noise on the great repeaters in the Puget Sound area, with a decent antenna and some height, most from Seattle north are accessible to us in southwest BC!

The Repeater Roundabout will begin on November 11th, 2023 at 00:00, and end on November 12th, 2023 at 23:59, Pacific time.

Anyone with a ham radio license can participate ! You don’t even have to be local; stations may participate over Echolink, Allstar, or IRLP if they are available.

Joining the Repeater Roundabout

To get started, check out the Rules page.

Then, check out the list of 91 participating repeaters from across 43 radio groups that you’ll play on during the contest. You can also view the map to see where the repeaters are located.

The website  provides files to program your radios with CHiRP and other software.

Visit their logging page to log your contacts and submit your logs for scoring.

Join their Discord chat server to chat with other participants, arrange skeds, and get help.

~

 

Our first soldering workshop

Demand exceeded seats

 Larry VE7LXB signed up 15 hams, who now have a better understanding of proper soldering techniques. Thanks to Dino VE7NX and John VE7TI at our first SARC Soldering Workshop. We already have a waitlist for a repeat.

~

Another successful POTA activation

Dmitry and Alex score big 

Alex and I just came back from another successful POTA activation at our favourite spot, Boundary Bay (Mud Bay) park. We ran out of daylight, and could only do FT8. We got 19 contacts, mostly from the US but one from Chile. Almost got South Africa, but could not reach back to him. We used a 40 feet fiberglass mast with EFHW tuned for 20M on it. Antenna was right next to the salt water, so the contacts were plentiful today. We had to bike there, weight was an issue, but we had a successful portable operation.  

Both of us had fun. I have attached a few pictures:

~Dmitry VA7DVO

The SARCBUZZ news - October 2023

 SARCBUZZ

Monthly News and Announcements
Celebrating 50 years of service - 1975-2023

September 30, 2023

• CQ WW DX Contest (SSB)
  October 28/29 Don’t miss out on your chance to compete in the largest Amateur Radio contest in the world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves on the last weekend of October with the goal of  making as many contacts with as many DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible. Both seasoned SARC DXers and GOTA newbies are invited to participate as a VE7SAR team. Coaching will be available to those who request it. Whether we operate two radios as Multi-Two (Low Power) or one radio as Multi-One (High Power) will depend on the number of operators signed up. Both Larry (VE7LXB@gmail.com) and John (brodiejb@shaw.ca) will collect names of those who wish to participate, and prepare a schedule. The team already has the September CQ WW RTTY contest under its belt and is looking forward to this next challenge.

• Soldering Workshop
  October 21 8:30 am - Noon. FULL This workshop is for those new to soldering or wishing to refresh their skills. As presented by Dino (VE7XDT) and John (VE7TI) the workshop includes an introduction to soldering, types of soldering irons and stations, and  the construction of an xmas tree circuit board (agenda attached). This workshop is FULL but if you wish to be put on a waiting list or have interest in the next workshop you may contact John VE7TI or Larry VE7LXB .

• Delta ARS Comfest

Sunday October 15 10am - 1pm The long tradition of the ComFest Amateur Radio Swap Meet continues. It is a great venue to meet fellow hams, buy and sell gear and or simply discover what the world of amateur radio has to offer. 1720 56th Street Tsawwassen. General admission $5. Major door prizes.

• SARC Monthly Meeting
  Wednesday October 11th 7pm - 9pm. Location: Surrey Fire Hall Training Centre. The guest speaker for the next meeting is Halden Field VE7UTS. Halden is a member of the North Shore ARC and a past contributor to their newsletter and to The Communicator. Halden has presented at several west coast Ham Fests including at Seaside Oregon. He will be speaking on some of his favourite amateur radio construction projects.

• Saturday Morning Breakfast and OTC
  SARC Meets informally for breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant 6850 King George Boulevard in Surrey, between 7:30 and 9:00am each Saturday morning. We’d love for you to join us. Following breakfast, the OTC will be open from 9:30 until noon. You are invited to come down to the OTC with your equipment and any ham-related issues and our Elmers will try to assist you. You can also reach Elmers by email at elmers@ve7sar.net.

Thank you for being a SARCBuzz reader.

gota@ve7sar.net

Calendar of Events