February 3, 2023 - Vernon, BC, Canada

Another Vernon Winter Carnival Parade went off without a hitch thanks to the NORAC members who volunteered to organize the parade staging and release.

Members in attendance included:

Cary Benson, VA7MXY
Robert Byrne, VE7EZI
Grace Byrne, VE7IGB
Mike Dennison, VA7XDM
Paul Elmont, VE7PDE
Jerome Hildebrand, VE7JAR
Elijah Hildebrand, VA7EHR
Bud Kuzenko, VE7KBK
Ritchie Leslie, VA7RLX
Alex Mulder, VE7NOC
Wilf Mulder, VE7OHM
Colin Parkes, VA7EEH
Richard Reeves, VE7NT
David Sinclair, VA7DRS
David Skelhon, VA7SZ
Doug Stewart, VA7CPS
Michael Van Kuyk, VE7KPZ
Felix Volta, VA7VOL
Jane Weitzel, VE7WWJ
Jake Wendland, VE7WEA (and YL)

Adding up prep time (approximately 16 hours for Bob, David, Cary and Wilf) and then 4 hours of service by each volunteer on the day, we are looking at around 100 community service hours!

Kudos to the all of the volunteers. This was one of our best volunteer turnouts and the smoothness of the organization and parade execution reflected that.

73 and thanks to all of our volunteers,
Bob VE7EZI

 

 

December 9, 2023, Big White ski resort surrounding area

NORAC members Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ along with their nephew Tristan volunteered at this year's Big White Winter Rally.

The crew awoke at 3 AM to drive to down the Okanagan valley and up to the Big White ski resort surrounding area where the rally was being held.

They then provided tactical radio support for the event, in the position of "blocker". This position effectively blocks a side road on the rally course and offers tactical radio support for course clearing, emergency coordination, etc.

The morning and afternoon stages were in different locations so a move was made around 2 PM to the afternoon blocking position. This more remote position required the use of cross-band repeat (on Mike's Kenwood TM-D710GA) as just a handheld transceiver did not have enough oompf to get into the main event repeater.

The rally stages finished around 9 PM and the crew got home and into bed around 11 PM - that was quite the day!

Kudos to the other Okanagan HAMs that volunteered as well. It was nice to hear so many familiar calls. And kudos to Chris VE7EQN and OCARC for allowing the event to use the VE7RBG repeater.

We always look forward to seeing the recap of the event on TSN and YouTube (a couple of months after the event) but nothing beats the front-row seat experience of actually being there as a volunteer. Check out the full recap below.

73,
Mike VE7KPZ

 

October 21-22, 2023 - Joe Rich area of Kelowna, British Columbia

NORAC club members Howard VA7PWF and David VA7DRS recently volunteered for a weekend of introducing youth to amateur radio at the Scouts Jamboree On The Air.

Howard's face made it on to the news:

To read more about the event and watch the news video, please visit: https://globalnews.ca/news/10041831/b-c-scouts-connect-with-counterparts-using-ham-radio-morse-code-and-online-chat-rooms/amp/

You can also watch the video here on YouTube when the above links age out.