Welcome to NORAC The North Okanagan Radio Amateur Club

It was a day, not unlike any other day, however, this particular day was a Thursday when two trucks quietly departed the Canadain Tire parking lot in Vernon, B.C. Having freshly stocked up on food stuff from the local grocer, VA7MXY and VE7PDE pointed their rigs east and head into the wild wonders of the B.C. backcountry. They went up hill and down hill and wound their way around corners. Cautiously avoiding pot holes and odd patches of snow they arrived at the destination, Grizzly Lake. Their arrival was preceded by forward recon scout VE7LWK. Having successfully secured the site and scared off any local critters, he was lazily awaiting their arrival.

Now that camp was established it was only a matter of time before the next participants in the weekends' activities arrived. A short time later, VA7EEH appeared out of the fading light and added his portion to base camp. The balance of the day was uneventful and peaceful relaxation around the campfire.

Friday saw our intrepid adventurers greeted with glorious weather that persisted for the balance of the weekend. Friday saw VE7LWK, VA7MXY, and Aiden try their hands at fishing. They confirmed that there are fish in the lake, however they decided, out of the goodness of their hearts, to leave the fish for the next fishers to cast their line. VA7EEH strung out a 100+ft long random wire and Aiden explored and stepped into the role of ensuring our adventurers never ran out of chopped wood for the fire. Meanwhile, VE7PDE relished in the opportunity to work with and try out different antennas.

Late in the afternoon, having broken free from his shackles of responsibility, VA7PWF arrived on site completing the list of those contributing to the resulting antenna farm. The farm currently having been planted with VA7EEH's long wire and vertical, VA7MXY's overly large rabbit ears, VE7LWK's OCF 80m Dipole and vertical. At this point in our story, I believe VE7PDE and create and was tweaking a 20m dipole. 

Thanks to an error in coordinates (VA7MXY was thoroughly beaten), VE7KPZ and VE7WWJ stopped, set up and awaited others at an adjacent camp spot. Later visited by VE7WEA and XYL making their way out to check up on our intrepid adventurers who then migrated over to main base camp. None the less, good times and good laughs were had around the fire.

Late Friday evening, after all the weary heads of our adventurers had hit their pillows and visitors returned home, VA7MXY decided to take a quick night shot. He was rewarded with the Northern Lights illuminating the sky.

Keeping with the glorious weather, our adventurers awoke to another beautiful day on Saturday. Sadly the previous nights visual display completely killed the bands. Leaving our rugged Hams struggling to make a contact. None the less, VE7KPZ and VE7WWJ moved their setup over to base camp and best efforts were put to making any QSO.

Some minor success was had. VE7LWK and VE7KPZ landed on an American station calling CQ POTA. The stellar band conditions saw the dedicated POTA peeps call CQ for 2 hours with only a couple contacts prior to being found by our adventurers. 7 additional contacts were given in under 5 minutes, giving a successful activation for the POTA Station. They again ganged up on W9IMS special event station calling CQ.

VA7PWF managed to make a QSO where he had the pleasure of being a first contact for an American operator. Meanwhile, VE7PDE strung out 300+ft of wire with 17ft of ground using a 9:1 balun and showed them all, much to their amazement, that a really long random wire is an amazing thing. 1.5:1 SWR or lower across the bands. Then proceeded to amaze all with an inverted J-Pole.

Meanwhile, VA7PWF entertained all with his dietary choices. Yes, that is a brownie headed for a dip in some cheesewiz.

Topping of the day with a bit of irony, our joyous Hams enjoyed some fresh farm raised pork supplied by VA7MXY. VE7PDE providing baked beans, VA7EEH providing said brownies for desert, VA7PWF adding his famous taco pasta salad, with VA7MXY and VE7LWK topping things off with chips and dip.

Belly's full, spirits high, our intrepid adventures laxed the evening away around the campfire. Sharing good times, good stories, and good music until each sought their respective beds.

Sunday morning again kept with the previous day and another beautiful morning greeted our travellers. Activity was slow around camp as each tore down their antennas and packed up their gear. Weekly net was joined, farewells were said, and talk of next time was put forth as our adventurers each departed on their own time and begin the return journey's home.

In all, it was a great weekend, though the bands didn't play along. I'd like to that VA7PWF (Howard), VA7EEH (Colin), VE7LWK (Lorne), VE7PDE (Paul), VE7KPZ (Mike), and VE7WWJ (Jane) for participating and making it a great weekend.

Special Mention to VE7WEA (Jake) and Kaitlyn (my apologies if Ive spelt that wrong) for making the trip up on Friday night and adding to the experience.

Lastly, and more definitely not last nor the least, I'd like to give a huge shout out to Tao for being there and adding some K9 class to the chaos.

Thanks again everyone. Look forward to QSO Backcountry Camping Party #2. Be good to one another.

73, VA7MXY (Cary)

The first annual NORAC Spring Radio Camp was a resounding success! A huge thanks to CJ (VA7MXY) for organizing!

Meeting at the Fintry Provincial Park group camp #2, 7 hams stayed the weekend with RV trailers, tents, families, kids, and too many dogs to count.   Another 3 hams came to visit throughout the weekend. We even celebrated CJ son's 10th birthday.

With multiple anteannas, radios, and moderate band conditions, many contacts were made. The winner of the farthest contact was Colin (VA7EEH) with Easter Island!

A big thank you to John (VE7JWS) for the wonderful commemorative coasters he made for each ham.

We talked, laughed, spent much time tuning antennas, with quiet guitar music in the background performed by Alex (VE7AHX).  Thanks to Howard (VA7PWF) for being the unofficial bon fire keeper!

If you were not here, you missed a truly great time. Please consider this an invitation for next year!

73 de VE7MHX

Michal

With the successful completion of the spring NORAC Basic qualification course, it is my honour to welcome our newest hams and NORAC members:

VE7TCS Trevor Sproule
VA7KXS Christoph Blecker
VY1GGG Steve Kinoshita
VE7HLL Andrew Hilland
VE7ZFS Josiah Palmer
VE7PXS Peter Sidorczuk
VE7XCX Trevor Cook
VA7GBT Walter Naten
VE7RZT Reed Spence
VA7TDH Tyler Higgins

If you see them in person or hear them on the radio, please welcome them to our wonderful hobby!

I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude for everyone that stepped up to help and teach, administer the exam, take care of the laptop, projector and setup the room, or even just to sit in during the course and help out with discussions.

I appreciate you all!
Michal VE7MHX

Austin VE7QH had an idea to do Winter Field Day 2024 from one of his favourite fire lookouts. This lookout sits at the summit of Greenstone Mountain in the Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia (grid square CO90qo). He mentioned this to Mike VE7KPZ who figured it would be a challenge but possible with the right team. A consensus was made to invite Simon VE7RIZ along as the third member of the team not only because Simon would fill the role of transportation captain, but because Simon had shown he was a strong operator at the NORAC Field Day 2023.

In subsequent pre-event planning the biggest question raised was: what callsign should the group run for the event? We could not run our usual club calls as we weren’t with our usual club mates. The idea to start an expeditions club with a unique call was tossed around but then Mike thought, “what about a Radio Amateurs of Canada call?” The entire team were already RAC members so what would the chances be that the VE7 callsign wasn’t already reserved for the event? With a couple of emails to Dave Goodwin (RAC Regulatory Affairs Officer), Ante Laurijssen (RAC Awards Manager) and Keith Whitney (RAC Director BC and Yukon), approval was obtained to use the VE7RAC call for the event. What an honor and privilege to finally be that station.

All team members took Friday off work and met up at the 6 km mark of the Greenstone FSR at around 9 AM local time. Here the team would transition over to snow machines for the remaining 15 km of travel to the 1799 meter (5902 foot) summit. Simon had arranged with the Merritt Snowmobile Club to borrow their new extra-large skid. One trip up with the snowmobiles and two trips up with the side by side on tracks towing the skid brought up all persons, radio and survival gear plus about half a cord of firewood.

Friday night dinner was Austin’s “college” spaghetti with meat sauce along with Simon’s garlic bread. Then it was early to bed as the team would need to hustle to get set up on Saturday morning before the official event start time of 11 AM local. It ended up being a very warm night as the team was still figuring out how to regulate the lookout’s old Donahue woodstove.

The next morning at first light the team started to assemble the antennas. The primary antenna was a BuddiHEX that would be positioned somewhat sheltered from the mountaintop winds. Austin and Simon focused on that while Mike focused on the secondary antenna, an EFHW wire for 40 and 80 meters held up by the larger-diameter sections of a guyed SpiderBeam pole.

Mountaintop winds stayed consistently strong so extra guy lines were installed for all antennas. Coax was routed through Alpha Delta RF surge protectors before entering the “shack” via one of the lookout’s vent windows. A Diamond X50 antenna was set up to get a bit of VHF and UHF gain in a relatively wind-resistant form factor.

The team started operation right on time as VE7RAC 3O BC. Austin ran CW and SSB on 20m, Simon SSB on 40m and Mike FM on 2m and 70cm. Competition bandpass filters for 20m and 40m ensured that both bands could be used at the same time at full RF power (50 watts) with zero interference. The team did not have filters for the other bands so all operators took turns with a single HF station to get QSOs on 80m, 15m and 10m.

Learning: to maximize simultaneous operation, have a filter for each band and ideally implement a triplexer for 20m/15m/10m (so that three radios can simultaneously share one multi-band antenna (the hex)).

Saturday evening the phone contacts began to slow so focus changed to JS8call digital mode QSOs on the low bands and making a satellite QSO via the ISS. A fantastic steak dinner was prepared and consumed, and then it was again early to bed. It would be imperative to start operating right as the higher bands opened in the morning.

Mike woke early to take care of JS8Call QSOs on 20m, 15m and 10m. Noting the skip distances for these QSOs also allowed Mike to pick a suitable gateway to both send and receive a Winlink email. Next Austin ensured that he had CW QSOs on all bands. And finally, with all possible multipliers in hand and all required Winter Field Day objectives met, the team took turns running high-band phone pileups to simply increase the total QSO count.

A highlight of Sunday’s operation was phone QSO with a request to pass some real traffic. A message was to be relayed to Phil McBride, RAC President. Mike emailed Phil and he in turn responded to the inquiring party.

Working together as efficiently as with the setup, the antennas and stations were torn down and packed back into the skid for the trip down the mountain. While getting ready to leave, the sun appeared, in a way suggesting to the team to perhaps return to the lookout for a future event. The remaining firewood was left behind as a donation. Only one trip with the three snow machines and skid was required to get back down the hill.

It might not be possible to find a better group of operators to do such an event with. The teamwork was incredible, everyone anticipating what needed to be done and doing it. The result: 539 QSOs in the log, all objectives met for the Winter Field Day 2024 event and home on time for Sunday dinner.

An interesting note on power: the team used approximately 70 Ah of 12V battery power for the whole 24 hour event (18 hours operation). Low power logging/digital mode computers that could take USB or USB-C PD 12V powering ate but a small fraction of the total Ah consumed. QRP radios with highly efficient amplifiers (a pair of Icom IC-705s, an Elecraft KX2 and a pair of DIY599 PA500 amplifiers) made for very efficient RF operation. Solar was simply not an option due to the weather so the team was happy to have brought enough battery capacity.

Simon reflects on the endeavor, “Definitely a memorable trip and glad I was a part of it. It’s amazing what a good working team can produce when all working together.”

Austin reflects on the idea of operating from such a challenging location, "I initially said it as a joke. I didn't think Mike would take it seriously. I'm glad he did."

Thanks must go to the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC and the Logan Lake ATV Club for their efforts to restore and maintain the fantastic Greenstone Mountain fire lookout. As well, thanks to the Merritt Snowmobile Club for the loan of the skid that carried the bulk of the gear and firewood to the summit. Thanks also to the Kamloops Amateur Radio Club for their great webcam pointing right at the lookout and Jane VE7WWJ for collecting webcam photos during the event. Big thanks to Simon for bringing his quiver of snow machines - not having to hike/ski the 15 km up to the summit meant the team could just concentrate on making a home in an old fire lookout and playing radio. Finally, many thanks to RAC for letting us use the VE7RAC call and trusting us to represent for this event.

73,
Mike VE7KPZ