May 2-4, 2025 - Fintry Provincial Park, Central Okanagan, BC
The life of silent key Cary VA7MXY Benson was celebrated at Fintry Provincial Park group site 3 this first weekend in May, 2025. Radio friends, childhood friends and family attended a wonderful weekend at the park topped with a decadent pot-luck dinner Saturday night. In total, nearly 30 people came together doing what Cary loved, camping. Stories were shared throughout the day and around the fire each night to ensure Cary's memory is preserved.
For NORAC members in attendance we remember Cary as being one of the most brilliant on-air operators, an instigator of many club camping trips, a regular club service volunteer and an all-round amateur radio enthusiast. At this event the hams in attendance tested out some of Cary's old gear as well as got on the air in his memory.
Group site 3 just before the pot-luck dinner on Saturday afternoon.
Mike VE7KPZ prepares for some FT8 digital mode communications while David VA7DRS looks on.
Colin VA7EEH's DX Commander Expedition multi-band vertical antenna setup at the edge of the site with Tao the dog in foreground.
Jane VE7WWJ working some FT8 to overcome the challenging HF band conditions.
Colin VA7EEH prepares his famous ribs for the pot-luck dinner while Tao the dog looks on with anticipation.
Good times around the campfire with Paul VE7PDE, friend of Cary's, Colin VA7EEH and Lorne VE7LWK.
Hams also in attendance but not pictured were Ritchie VA7RLX with YL Rose, Michal VE7TMZ/VE7MHX with YL and John VE7JWS.
John VE7JWS produced some fantastic laser-enscribed "dog tags" to mark the event.
It was great to see Cary's YL Maggie and son Aiden surrounded by so many great folks, some coming from as far as the lower mainland for the event.
Colin VA7EEH has already booked the group site for spring 2026 as it was such a well-attended event.
The VA7OKN repeater is back on the air from just above East Hill in Vernon.
Wilf VE7OHM installed and tested the repeater with Paul VE7KWA's assistance on Sunday April 13, 2025.
The repeater can be used analog FM or digital NXDN and is linked to VE7RVN (the SIRG hub atop Silver Star which ties into the Vernon IRLP 1050 node).
Please see the NORAC Frequencies page for more information on this repeater.
Thanks to Wilf for offering this repeater for public use, and to Garry VE7EIY for hosting the hardware at his QTH.
If you have any questions about the use of this repeater please contact Paul via
norac.bc.ca has just completed a major website migration and infrastructure update with our internet service provider Provision Data Systems. We can't say enough good stuff about the support Provision has given. They have had the answers to all of our questions and have been super responsive to all of our requests for service. Kudos to such a smart and responsive team.
For our club members' info, we've moved to a newer Linux server, Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP scripting engine. The recent versions of these components will continue to be patched against security vulnerabilities. In addition to that we have also updated/migrated to the latest version of Joomla, the content management system that underpins our website.
Big thanks for Provision's continued support of NORAC,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Webmaster 2025
Provision Data Systems is the second largest commercial datacenter in the Okanagan and an Internet Service Provider based in Kelowna. Provision Data provides web hosting, managed services, dedicated servers, colocation and custom Internet related solutions for corporations and other ISP’s. We have 25 years of experience in the IT industry, and currently run multiple datacenters that are located in the prestigious Landmark Technology Campus. We have ambitious growth potential, and have experienced continuous annual growth over the last 20 years.
February 8, 2025 - Vernon, BC
Another Carnival Parade Successfully Delivered!
Big thanks to all the NORAC members who turned out today to support the Vernon Winter Carnival parade. It was a great event and the NORAC team pulled off another successful parade organization with great support from the new executive from VWC. There was definitely some creative parking the NORAC team came up with given the rather cramped size of the new staging area.
This is a very important event to serve our community and create publicity for the club and amateur radio service.
Team members included:
John VE7JWS
Doug VA7CPS
Howard VA7PWF
Colin VA7EEH
Mike VE7KPZ
Robert VE7EZI
Jake VE7WEA
Jake's YL Caitlin
Jake's buddy Spencer
Richard VE7NT
Felix VA7VOL
Bud VE7KBK
Mike VA7XDM
David VA7SZ
Ritchie VA7RLX
A special shout out to Felix VA7VOL who did most of the heavy lifting to plan in advance.
In total, with pre-event planning plus on-the-day efforts, the club provided approximately 20+(15*4)=80 hours of service to our community.
Here are some pics of NORAC club members in action (thanks to John VE7JWS and David VA7SZ):
The volunteer crew gets ready for the briefing meeting.
The team's excitement shows in anticipation of a challenging event.
Mike VE7KPZ answers some questions from parade participants.
Howard VA7PWF and Colin VE7EEH happy to get the participants staged in numerical order.
Mike VE7KPZ receives guidance from Robert VE7EZI (multi-year VWCP organizational lead alumni).
Ritchie VA7RLX checks in with the Vernon SAR group while guiding traffic down a tight corridor.
Doug VA7CPS and Bud VE7KBK re-checking the plan. This duo had the trickiest section to coordinate this year.
Jake VE7WEA and Spencer manning the entry point of the staging corral.
Jake VE7WEA answers a participant's question while Spencer looks on.
Mike VA7XDM checking in with staging area organizational lead Felix VA7VOL.
Ps: right-click on any image and select "open image in new tab/window" to see a higher resolution version.