On a chilly -10C Saturday morning, three brave souls set out to Kin Park in Vernon to set up for Winter Field Day 2026. At 9am, Howard VA7PWF, Colin VA7EEH and Warren VA7WPX began the process of setting up the tents and arranging the radio equipment. Wilf VE7OHM and Alex VE7NOC arrived shortly after to erect the Cushcraft R5 which would be our main antenna. The new arrangement of putting two pop-up tents together and completely closing them in, then combined with a couple of heaters offered by Jerome VE7JAR and Paul VE7PDE, did the trick to keeping us warm and toasty. It wasn't long before all of us started peeling off our heavy winter coats allowing us to operate comfortably in hoodies and sweaters.
The turnout from our members was great with even a visit from the City of Vernon Councilor Teresa Ann Durning Harker who stopped in to see what NORAC was all about. The beautiful clear skies also brought out lots of passersby, many who stopped to ask what on earth are were doing!
Although band conditions started off poorly, they gradually improved as the day went on. Operating under VE7NOR, we managed to make 113 contacts.
For more images of the event, please check out the 2026 Winter Field Day gallery.
NORAC member Peter VE7PAE did this year's Winter Field Day on his own and wrote a report to document the exercise.
Please check out the report published on Peter's other radio club's website: https://sarc.ca/winter-field-day-wfd-january-24-25-2026/
It's easy to think that things were always rosier in the "good old days". In fact the number of licensed amateurs in Canada is growing faster than the overall rate of population growth. A very healthy sign for the hobby in Canada.
Some statistics to ponder:
Annual growth rate in the number of Canadian licensed hams: 2023 1.7%, 2024 2%, 2025 4.2%
Number of licensed hams in Canada in Aug 2025 = 78,819
Number of Canadian ham clubs in 2025 = 1,566. A decline of 7.5% from the previous year.
The growth rate of licensed amateur population 2024-25 in BC was 3.5%. The average growth rate across all provinces was 2.6%, roughly double the population growth rate.
Conclusion: The service or hobby (depending how you want to look at it) of amateur radio in Canada is not mouldering away. It's healthy and growing!
Thanks to Dave Goodwin, VE3KG, of the Radio Amateurs of Canada for publishing this information in the Nov/Dec 2025 edition of The Canadian Amateur.