On Saturday December 21, 2025, three brave souls set out to tackle the elements on the first day of winter to support the Nanaimo Amateur Radio Club (NARA)'s semi-annual NVIS propagation exercise. Fortunately, winter hadn't arrived yet and the day was sunny and seasonally warm. No heaters required!
Howard VA7PWF, Colin VA7EEH and Felix VA7VOL met up at the DND grounds in Vernon to set up a dipole resonant to 60m which was strung up between their trucks at a height of approximately 8ft. With one little adjustment, they got the SWR down to 1.7:1, good enough. When the radios (FT-710 and FT-891) were fired up, they immediately heard Jack VE7GDE, the exercise controller from Nanaimo loud and clear, a definite 5-7! The only problem was, they couldn't transmit on 60m. With a quick call to Lorne LWK, he suggested they do the unthinkable: read the manual! It explained how to tune into the channelized frequencies permitted on 60m. Who knew? With that, they all checked into the exercise with ease. Also checking in were Lorne VE7LWK and Paul VE7KWA.
This was a great learning exercise and a chance to operate on 60m, something that they had not done before.
Howard VA7PWF
