SARC Bulletin: May 24, 2025

This bulletin, issued during the first and third week of each month, is a handy reference for SARC member activities, resources and links.  If you have relevant information for the next bulletin, please respond to membership@ve7sar.net.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 SARC Rolls out Redesigned Website

Thanks mainly to the tremendous effort and talent of Reg VA7ZEB, a redesigned SARC webpage is now up and running.  The new site reflects a fundamentally different concept from the previous one, as it is dynamic rather than relying on a supplementary blog for changing information.  Hats off to Reg and his webmaster team of Mike VE7YEG, Andrew VA7LGN, Dmitry VA7DVO , Jeremy VE7TMY who will be responsible for maintaining the site and to John VA7XB for contributing text and photos.  Please check it out at https://www.ve7sar.net and give the team your feedback.

A New Citizen of Canada

We congratulate SARC member and native of Colombia, Erika VA7ISI, for officially becoming a Canadian citizen in early May.  Erika is one of SARC’s most active members.

SARC’s Annual Foxhunt A Success
The threat of heavy rain never materialized but it was close. Big thanks to Anton VE7SSD for the excellent job of organization, Ralph VA7UB and Nell VA7PE for the excellent BBQ feast of hamburgers and hotdogs, as well as Scott VA7HA, their helper on the grill.  And … congratulations to Foxhunt winners:

• Open (over 18) – Gold:  Henry Dahl VE7HRY; Silver: Andrew, Blake Wiggs and Winnie;
  Bronze: John and Martin Schouten
• Youth (12-18) – Gold: Alex and Lance Brodie; Silver: Grace Liu VA7LZT
• Junior (under 12) – Gold:  Mya and Halle Schouten

Team Schouten

Winning Score for VE7SAR in 2024 10 Meter Contest
Congratulations to VA7DVO, VA7OM, VA7VJ, VA7XB, VE7KGK, VE7LWW, VE7SXM, VE7TI and VE7YEG for the first place win in the 2024 10 Meter Contest.

Annual General Meeting (June 11) – Annual Dues Now Payable
Plan to attend SARC’s AGM on June 11^th at Surrey Fire Training Centre for the election or re-election of 4 of the 8 Directors plus a review of fiscal year 2024-25 activities.   To vote, members must be in good standing, which means that membership dues must be paid at the latest, by June 11^th.  Payment can be made (preferably) by etransfer at payments@ve7sar.net or in person at the door.

Ordering SARC Name-Callsign Badge 

A new procedure is in place for ordering name badges. Please contact Doug VA7JDJ at  VA7JDJ@gmail.com to order a badge similar that shown.  Cost is $11.  You can pay for it at payments@ve7sar.net.

New UHF Net (starts June 1)
Darryl VA7CQD has agreed to host a new monthly UHF net to be held at 7:30 pm on the first Sunday of each month beginning June 1.  It will run on SARC’s UHF repeater 443.775 MHz+5 tone 110.9 Hz. This is a non-chat net; just check in and carry on with your evening.

UPCOMING EVENTS

CQ WW WPX Contest – CW (May 24-25)
There is still room for one or two more operator to fill the schedule.  If you enjoy CW contesting, please reply to membership@ve7sar.net.  We plan to use the special event callsign VB7MAN in the windup week of Project Manna, which you can read about on p. 18 of the May-June Communicator: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EnueGaZt9_t7J8K5XDbu1Xdy1qHxHwpf/view?usp=sharing

Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association NVIS Propagation Test (May 31)

NARA is seeking help to evaluate propagation of their NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) antenna between 11 am and 3 pm on May 31^st.  NVIS antennas are effective at short distances on the lower bands even during daylight hours, so are commonly used by emergency operators.  NARA requests operators to check in with VE7NA on 3.720 MHz, 5.3465 MHz and 7.120 MHz.  Details at:  https://ve7na.ca/activities/upcoming-events/

Fathers’ Day Walk/Run for Prostate Cancer (June 15)
About 12 radio operators are needed to assist event volunteers.  More information at https://www.thefathersdayrun.ca/,  To volunteer please email Hiroshi VA7LET@gmail.com and/or Harry VE7HVB@gmail.com.

ARRL Field Day (June 28-29)
Field Day officially starts at 11 am Saturday June 28 and continues until 11 am Sunday, with setup of radios and antennas beforehand on Friday June 27.  Ralph VA7UB and Nell VA7PE will manage a hamburger/hot dog dinner on Saturday evening for participants. Operation will be from the OTC again this year with one radio on SSB and the second on CW.  Another station in the SEPAR trailer will also be set up.  If you can assist with planning, setup or takedown, please contact Andrew Elgin: va7lgn@gmail.com.

RAC Canada Day Contest (July 1)
Mark your calendars for this important contest, which follows close on the heels of Field Day.  Bigfoot tower will be deployed at the OTC, remaining in place after Field Day.  Both SSB and CW operators are needed. 

Winlink Net (every 1^st and 3^rd Monday)
SARC has two Winlink Gateways, one at Surrey Firehall 1 using callsign VE7HME-10 on 145.710 MHz and a second on Concord tower at 100th Ave and King George Blvd using callsign VE7ADQ-10 on 145.770 MHz, packet 1200 Baud and VARA FM Wide capable. 

The 1st and 3rd Monday of every week, participants will get a Winlink message that includes: 1) a question or request for action; 2) a tip; 3) results of previous week's question/action.  You have until the following Sunday to reply using any Winlink mode including Telnet.  To participate, send a Winlink message to VE7ADF with subject “Winlink Net Signup”.

Every Saturday Morning (except when other scheduled events conflict) 

Members, spouses and prospective members are invited to join the SARC Breakfast social every Saturday morning from 7 to 9:30 am at Denny's Restaurant 6850 King George Blvd, followed by activation of the Operations & Training Centre ("OTC") from 9:30 am to noon at 5756 142 St. Surrey.  At the OTC you may get help with your radio issues, operate the radios including satellite station, participate in contests, write the exam, and join in workshops and training. Or, just engage in friendly discussion with your fellow hams.

SARC Official Calendar
Your official reference for dates and times of events is the SARC Google Calendar, which is updated as details change, so please check the Calendar tab on the homepage of SARC’s website: www.ve7sar.net.

NETS & REPEATERS

Tuesday Evening SARC and SEPAR Nets
Join the SEPAR net every Tuesday at 7:30 pm and the SARC net at 8 pm on either of the repeaters: North repeater on 147.360 MHz tone 110.9 Hz and South repeater on 147.360 MHz tone 103.5 Hz. You can also join via IRLP (node 1736) and Echolink (node 496228), which are available only on the North repeater.

Sunday Evening Monthly 220 MHz Net (next one is May 25)
Join the 220 MHz net taking place at 7:30 pm on the last Sunday of every month on VE7RSC repeater 223.960 MHz -1.6MHz tone 110.9 Hz, with net control, Shawn VE7BD.  This is not a "chat" net – just check in, exchange signal reports, and get on with your evening.

Yaesu System Fusion (YSF) repeater 443.775 MHz+ tone 110.9Hz
This repeater is connected full-time to CQ-Canada (VE1AO) room 40678 – home to the Cross Canada C4FM Weekly Net on Wednesday 6 pm PST or 0200 UTC. Located on the Concord high-rise in Surrey, it is one of the few System Fusion repeaters in BC that is WIRES-X capable (i.e. it connects to the Internet). Using your Yaesu C4FM radio, you can use this repeater to talk to the world.  It is connected to the highly fault-tolerant BC WARN Internet system, which is designed to remain operational during most internet outages, thus playing a crucial role in emergency preparedness.

Net Control
Net Coordinator Reg VA7ZEB has provided the full NCO Schedule here. If you are a Net Control Operator (NCO), we encourage you to review the schedule regularly to ensure you're satisfied with your shift. If you'd like to be an NCO send a note to Reg:  reg@natarajan.ca.   

"Net reminders" for those running or participating in various nets are automatically sent out by AdvancedAmateur.ca.  If you are forgetful like me, you may want to receive reminders by signing up at Net Reminders.

PROJECTS AND GROUPS

Satellite Station Project
Dino VE7NX is available to coach members who wish to learn how to make contacts via satellite using SARC's new satellite station.  Contact Dino at dimtchog@gmail.com or reply to membership@ve7sar.net  if you would like to learn more. 

Contesting Group
To participate in scheduled contests, or if you wish to operate the station radios on your own time, please reply to Contesting@ve7sar.net .  Coaching is available as needed.  See WA7BNM Contest Calendar: Home for a complete list of available contests. 

USEFUL LINKS

Comprehensive Index to Communicator Articles Now Available
Thanks to the impressive efforts of Blake VA7BWG and Reg VA7ZEB, a database index of Communicator articles back to 2007 is now available at Surrey Radio - Search the Archive . Try it out by entering a topic, author or anything in the search box. 

You will also find PDF Indexes available for download.  If you click on Author Index, Topic Index or Chronological Index, it will bring up a PDF where you can find the page number of interest for your selection. Scroll down to the relevant page number and you will find the article, which you can open.   The May-June Communicator includes more comprehensive how-to-use instructions: https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/SARC Communicator

Parks-on-the-Air (POTA) Brochure Available
Members who do POTA are frequently approached by passers-by inquiring what we are doing. For this purpose, John VE7TI has created a SARC POTA brochure that can be handed out. The .pdf file is available for download at https://bit.ly/POTAbrochure.

Do You Want to Learn CW?
Check out the Long Island CW Club, which has a comprehensive and highly-regarded on-line program for learning and mastering Morse Code: https://longislandcwclub.org/#. 

 

Advanced Amateur Group
Hosted by Reg VA7ZEB, this group is for those who want to take amateur radio beyond the basics: advancedamateur.ca.  Among other things, here you can find a Vancouver Area Frequency List of useful frequencies across several services including Amateur, EmComm, Broadcast, Weather, LADD, Regional Road, FRS/GMRS, Railway, Airband and Marine. It can be easily downloaded in Generic CSV, Chirp and RT Systems format, or you can download it in PDF format for printing.

 

Incoming QSL Bureau
Any member wishing to receive in-coming QSL cards should send Ken VE7BC an email at ve7bc27@gmail.com or call/text him at 604-816-5775 and the cards will be collected for local distribution by Shawn VE7BD.  Or, if you are simply wondering if Ken has any cards for you, please contact him.  Alternatively … Ken Clarke VE7BC and John Schouten VE7TI have created a new site which can tell you if you have QSL cards waiting at the bureau (although it is not yet complete for all callsigns) at BC Incoming QSL Bureau.   Also included is a detailed procedure for creating your own QSL cards using MS Word software.

Free VE7DXE Advanced Certification Course: ve7dxe@hamshack.ca

Link to SARC’s Basic On-Line Basic Ham Class Overview – Registrations for the Spring course are now Closed.  

If the proposed new question bank can be accommodated in course material in time, the next on-line course will take place in the Fall.  Welcome to our courses.pdf - Google Drive. 

May-June 2025 SARC Communicator is Now Available – 120+ pp of technical and SARC Information

 https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/SARC Communicator

Do You Want to Join Surrey Amateur Radio Communications?
Reply to membership@ve7sar.net.

WANTED OR FOR SALE BY MEMBERS

For Sale

Stephen Churchill VE7ZVV is selling his nearly new Anytone AT-D878UV II Plus handheld transceiver for $425.  Contact: stephen.churchill@gmail.com .

~ 73, John VA7XB membership@ve7sar.net