Recent News - NORAC

January 8, 2025 - Vernon, BC

On a chilly January day, a number of keen hams huddled together at the Kin Beach shelter in Vernon to work the 2025 Winter Field Day event. With tarps covering up the open spaces in the shelter and a couple of propane heaters, we managed to keep the chill off, sort of. Thanks to Paul and Michal who brought heaters. Although the bands were not on fire, we managed 224 phone contacts using the 10, 15 and 20m bands.

Lunch consisted of BBQed burgers and Tina's (Howard's wife) homemade chili.

Equipment consisted of two Yaesu FT-891s and a Kenwood TS-440SAT. The antenna used was Wilf's Cushcraft R5 - 5 band vertical. To operate three radios with one antenna, we utilized our club's VA6AM triplexer and three band pass filters, which worked very well. Three computers were used linked together with N3FJP logging software.

A big thanks for those who ventured out to show their support!

Results:

123 Wilf VE7OHM & Alex VE7NOC

26 Howard VA7PWF

26 Felix VA7VOL (1st time contesting)

18 Alex VE7NOC (solo)

16 Warren VA7WPX (1st time in a long time)

15 Colin VA7EEH

TOTAL: 224 Total Phone Contacts

A big thank you from the club to the event organizers Howard VA7PWF, Colin VA7EEH and Wilf VE7OHM.

Photos courtesy of David Skelhon VA7SZ/VA7SKN.

Ps: right-click on each image and choose "open image in new tab/window" to see a higher resolution image.

October 19-20, 2024 - Joe Rich, BC

Once again, NORAC members Howard VA7PWF, David VA7DRS and John VE7JWS introduced their passion for ham radio to over 150 Scouts and Guides from across British Columbia and Alberta.

There were three amateur radio stations set up for this year's JOTA-JOTI event: HF, CW and digital. Howard and David hosted the digital station while John demonstrated HF.

The weather for the weekend wasn't too promising with cool temperatures and rain in the forecast. Except for a little snow on Friday afternoon, the rain held off for the balance of the Jamboree.

Despite the conditions, dozens of contacts were made using Yaesu's C4FM WIRES-X digital technology with Australia, England, Wales and all across Canada and the US.

The Australian contacts were mostly made on Friday evening. While setting up the station, Howard heard an Aussie JOTA station calling CQ and looking for contacts through the CQ-Canada room. Howard quickly put out a call to the leaders to send him some participants that were setting up their tents. The Australian Guides were most fascinated when they learned the Canadians were setting up their tents in the snow!

Lots of fun and looking forward to 2025,

Howard VA7PWF

Ps: big thanks must go to Fred VA7UN for the use of his C4FM repeater on Black Knight mountain and for his provisioning of a WIRES-X gateway for us to use exclusively for the event.

Pps: NORAC club members contributed approximately 60 hours of service time to this event.

Ppps: check out some pics from the event: