This year, for the annual Winter Field Day event, the tenacious team of Austin VE7QH, Simon VE7RIZ and Mike VE7KPZ agreed to do a self-propelled winter expedition.
Mike found a rustic little cabin in the woods and made a reservation for the WFD weekend. Located in the Larch Hills Nordic area near Salmon Arm, BC, Cec's cabin would be the perfect spot to operate from. The cabin is off-grid and has no cellular service.
The team needed a radio callsign to use for the event. Amazingly the VE7RAC call had not yet been reserved. Approval to use the call for the event was arranged with new RAC BC/Yukon director Hiroshi Takahashi VA7LET.
The team also needed to find lightweight equipment to haul in food, radio and camping gear. Mike found a tiny pulk at Canadian Tire on sale, Austin borrowed a pulk from a friend and Simon re-purposed a kid carrier on skis for his gear transport.
The Friday of the WFD weekend finally arrived and the group met up at the Larch Hills Nordic area parking lot at 9am. The 6km snow hike to the cabin included just 200m of elevation gain, however, with heavily loaded pulks/kid carrier, it took a fair amount of physical effort. Simon surprised all by leading the entire way in.
Upon arrival at the cabin, the first task was to light a fire in the wood stove. Then a quick lunch and on to antenna setup. With just a couple of hours of daylight left, Austin and Simon focussed on the BuddiHEX while Mike focussed on the wire antenna for 40m and 80m bands. The antennas, coax and guy lines were well marked as visitors would be expected in and around the cabin the next day.
It was also the right time to start snow melting for drinking water. Mike placed his monster-sized thrift-store-beauty-of-a-find stainless steel pot on the wood stove and filled it with snow from a clean spot outside. Soon the team (and other cabin guests over the weekend) had a virtually unlimited supply of water that could be filtered for cooking/drinking or used directly for washing up.
Sunset signalled that it was time for dinner. Simon prepared a delicious meatball alfredo pasta along with Texas toast garlic bread, all cooked on the wood stove.
For bunks Simon and Mike slept up in the tiny loft, while Austin chose to sleep on a bench downstairs. Controlling the wood stove to keep temperatures consistent turned out to be the team's biggest challenge. Temperatures downstairs approached 0 Celcius/32 Fahrenheit lows while upstairs saw peaks of up to 38 Celcius/100 Fahrenheit. Despite a couple of too-warm moments upstairs, everyone slept well Friday night.
Saturday morning started early with the setup and test of the radio gear. The BuddiHEX antenna showed high SWR on all bands - eek! Fault finding found the SO-239 to BNC adapter at the feed point of the antenna to be defective. This was quickly replaced with a spare and then all was good to go for an 8am on-air start.
Austin and Simon started working on 20, 15 and 10 meter bands, CW and phone, via the VA6AM triplexer and band pass filters with the hex. Mike went to work on making espresso and sourdough toast with fancy preserves.
As the day progressed, Simon and Mike took turns operating phone on Mike's IC-705/PA500 rig while Austin worked CW and phone on his KX2/PA500 setup. In a rare quiet moment, Mike switched over to digital and sent and received some Winlink messages, one of the many outlined objectives for the WFD event.
Cec's cabin, in the daytime, is normally a warming hut for the cross country skiers that enjoy the Larch Hills Nordic area's trails. What surprised the team was just how much interest these random visitors showed for amateur radio operation. Headphones had to come off every half hour or so to let the onlookers hear both sides of the QSOs through the radios' speakers. In total nearly 50 guests were exposed to the joy of playing radio.
Mike was able to squeeze in cooking a fire-grilled steak dinner with caesar salad and some more Texas toast garlic bread. After dinner, the team focussed on satellite work, another emphasized WFD objective. Easy FM QSOs were made via the International Space Station. SSB/linear satellite QSOs were harder to come by so focus switched to making QSOs on the 40 and 80 meter bands. Additionally a 2m simplex FM contact was made with Salmon Arm local and friend Peter VE7PAE.
By 9 PM the team was exhausted. Twelve hours of intense radio operation, with a lot of explaining for the curious onlookers, made for a very long day. A development that Austin had to be home earlier than expected on Sunday prompted the call to shut down the station that night with 534 QSOs in the log.
Saturday night was spent relaxing, exchanging stories and eating a lovely dessert of fruit gummies and Skor bar bites. The team slept well again Saturday night.
Sunday morning Simon cooked a fantastic bacon and eggs breakfast on the wood stove and then it was time to tear down the site. A much quicker downhill snow hike back to the parking lot made for an easy exit.
The entire team was blown away by the hospitable and friendly folks encountered at the cabin and on the area's trails. Austin, Simon and Mike still can't get over the amazing amount of interest in amateur radio shown by the cabin's visitors that Saturday.
Big thanks go to Karen, manager of the Larch Hills Nordic operations, for allowing the team to use the cabin for the weekend. As well, big thanks to RAC for allowing the use the VE7RAC call for this event. And finally, big thanks to Simon for bringing his new Starlink Mini along so that our YLs at home could also get a taste of the incredible backwoods cabin radio action over FaceTime.
It was fun,
73,
Mike VE7KPZ
Ps: primary gear used for this endeavour:
Elecraft KX2 transceiver with DL4KA PA500 HF amplifier
Icom IC-705 transceiver with DL4KA PA500 HF amplifier and TopTek PA-85V VHF amplifier
Kenwood TH-D74A handheld transceiver
BuddiHEX hex beam 20-6m antenna with Mastwerks 7m mast system
HyEndFed Portable Mini Field Day 80-10m EFHW wire antenna with Spiderbeam 12m mast
Elk log-periodic VHF/UHF antenna
VA6AM triplexer with matching bandpass filters for 20/15/10m
HyEndFed competition bandpass filter for 40m
Microsoft Surface and Surface Go Windows tablets running N3FJP logging software networked via hotspot wifi
Fun side note: Austin worked Scott N3FJP during the WFD event!
Power Queen 12V 100Ah Mini LiFePO4 battery (~80 Ah used for radios, amps, wifi and computer powering)
RoamSat Mini (Starlink)
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.
Winter Field Day 2025 – by Peter VE7PAE
Winter Field Day 2025, held on January 25th and 26th, was an exceptional experience in winter contest conditions. I was offered to go with a team (VE7KPZ, VE7QH, VE7RIZ) to Larch Hills, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to join. Instead, I decided to go somewhere closer to home, in the South Canoe area near Salmon Arm, British Columbia. I had been thinking about this contest all year, and the day had finally arrived.
I worked this event one day, January 25th. Outside, the temperature was -4°C, with mostly overcast weather. I decided to compete in the mobile class using my electric car, a Nissan Leaf. I spent six hours in the field, fully dedicated to the contest, just like in the old days when I started with amateur radio as a high school student.
For this occasion, I used mobile radio equipment Yaesu FT818, a SOTABEAMS fiberglass pole 6 meters high, installed on a satellite antenna roof tripod, and a SOTABEAMS Band Hopper III - a three-band (20m, 30m, 40m) portable dipole antenna system. I also installed a mobile antenna for the 70cm and 2m bands. As a power source, I used a Jackery 250 battery, which proved to be a reliable partner in this adventure.
I worked CW, SSB, and digital Winlink-VARA HF to send and receive emails. In total, I made 22 QSOs (9 contacts on CW and 13 contacts on SSB), all on the 20m band. I am particularly pleased that, with low-power equipment, I managed to successfully send and receive emails multiple times over HF waves using Winlink and VARA HF. Although I didn't have many QSOs, I am satisfied with participating in this significant and important event.
Winter Field Day is a unique experience that should involve as many amateur radio operators as possible because it is an exercise in how to set up equipment and establish connections, especially in winter conditions, in case of an emergency.
73,
Peter
VE7PAE
20 November, 1922 – 21 January, 2025
We are saddened to announce the peaceful passing of our father affectionately known as “Watty” by family and friends. He was 102 when he passed away. Dad was born in Harriston, Ontario and left home at 17 to join the war effort in Europe. He made a career of being a soldier, achieving the rank of warrant officer, with the 3rd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. His last posting was to Vernon, BC in 1961 and he worked tirelessly with the Army Cadet program throughout BC, spending his summers at the Vernon Cadet camp in various roles. Upon leaving the military, he signed up with the BC LCB as a sales and customer service representative until his retirement. During his retirement he pursued his true passions; camping, fishing, fly tying, hunting and ham radio. Dad was predeceased by our mother Connie and second wife Winnie. He was survived by sons Michael, Leonard, grandchildren and great grandchildren. There will be a placement of his ashes ceremony in the family niche at Pleasant Valley Funeral Home to be announced at a later date.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-ca/obituaries/vernon-bc/nelson-whatmore-12209925
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.