New desktop publishing software opens up even more possibilities for the SARC Communicator, the digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications. This issue is now available for viewing or download. Another new feature is a smaller version, best suited for mobile devices, available here for viewing or download. The advantage of the larger version being higher resolution graphics and photos. 

The best new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to provide you with a compete Table of Contents [below]. This should enable better accessibility from search engines. 

You will find some great articles in this issue, along with our regular columnists.

Now read in over 165 countries, we bring you 120+ pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.

Download the January - February Communicator in 
LARGE or SMALL format, or read it on-line like a magazine

Previous Communicator issues:

Search for past Communicator issues

and a full searchable index is HERE.  

As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome. 

The deadline for the next edition is February 15th.

If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at [email protected]

73,

John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor

The Table of Contents for the January-February 2025 Communicator issue:

The conditions for contesting were both great solar weather-wise and local weather-wise. The solar weather was very favourable during the entire contest which was nice. The sun has been very active these past few months and this weekend it was nice and calm. Local weather was just right for contesting as well...it was pouring rain and windy all weekend. Why is this great you ask..well during the contest slow periods no sun and the blue sky were calling my name to get outdoors. My goals for this contest were to have fun (check), run for 98% of the time (check), beat last year's score (double check) and hopefully have no radio or PC issues (check).

As always this was a very well-attended contest with lots of DX so even if you are not an avid contester there was an advantage to logging some rare DX. My radio was the Icom 7610 at 100 watts using the Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna. Max  CW speed was at 34wpm and toward the end I dropped it to 30wpm. For most of the contest, the Kp index was Kp3 and dropped to kp1 toward the contest end. The Bz index was in the plus for Friday and Saturday but headed in the negatives on Sunday. When the Bz dips in the negative numbers it accounts for problematic signal fading. At times the caller was there and then gone. 

I was very pleased all the way around,  the radio worked great, the PC and its software had no issues and the solar conditions behaved themselves. Mind you toward the end of the contest I  started to have a little brain fog and messing up similar CW letters such as H and S and on occasion transposing letters. This year I also made a point to not take things personally. What I mean by this is when asking for a few repeats because at my end I had either a close station wiping them out or another station calling me on top of the desired station. In the past when the station I was asking repeat from seemed to leave in a huff it used to bother me....well not anymore. In the past, I took things personally and that took the fun out of contesting....well no more. 

A very busy map of my contacts.

Some things that threw me off were stations coming back to me with "DE WXYZ". I would copy DE thinking it was the first two letters to only find out they were sending "DE" for "this is". I have my filter set for 400hz when calling CQ TEST and in crowded bands like in the CQ WW contest that is wide for me. I would have some stations come back to me way off my calling frequency. Most of the time I thought they were answering another CQ TEST close to me....but not so. I would end up adjusting the RIT make the contact and get back. But that was it and I am not by any means complaining just sounding off a bit. 

Well ok, just one more....those who when they send back their exchange would also send their call again which makes me think I messed up their call.  This became problematic when their call was "HSH" or "KH5" so made for unnecessary back and forth while others waited to contact me....or some would just step in with their call knowing the call was good the way I had it.  I also had fellow blogger Bas PE4BAS contact me during the contest as well.
When you hit 1750 CW contacts once you're done with the contest and in bed with your eyes closed you can still hear cw code in your head rolling around. I had a blast and am looking forward to the next contest.

Very happy with the outcome.

This coming weekend is the CQ Worldwide CW DX contest. You don't have to be a contester to jump in this contest. There will be some great DX  to be had so one can add contacts to an award you are working towards.  If you are a QRP op you can see how far your 5 watts will get you. At one time I even ran QRPp power and was amazed at the distances I made. The exchange in this contest is easy peasy a signal report (always 599) and your CQ zone. (Found here). If you are working your way up the contest code ladder this is a great time to log in some practice time. So double-click on your contest icon and roll in a few hours over the weekend in the contest.

Whether you call it Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF), Radio Orienteering, Fox or Bunny Hunting

The feature speaker at our May 2024 meeting was Robert Frey WA6EZV. Robert spoke on ARDF - Radio Orienteering - Fox (or Bunny) Hunting. Robert was first licensed in 1968, and his interests include DX  and ARDF, as an on-foot foxhunter, for over 20 yrs. He was member of the US ARDF National Team in 2000, 02, 04, and 06 competing in China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and South Korea.

The presentation was recorded via Zoom so please excuse the video quality which is less than our usual presentations.

We have documented some of our own SARC  Foxhunts in years past, including this locally developed 80m fox receiver:

~ John VE7TI

Commemorating the 80th anniversary of
the Allied assault on Normandy beaches

From June 4 to 9, 2024, a number of crew members of the Plusscouts PA3EFR/J and other Radio Scouters will be traveling to Normandy (Omaha Beach) to support the international activities of the commemoration services around 80 years of D-DAY. 

Operators of this call are the operators of the PA3EFR/J-crew, a specialist group of Scouters, members of Scouting Netherlands through the national Fellowship called Plusscouts. In addition, we have invited some distinguished guests to join our team. This crew primarily brings TDOTA and JOTA to Scouting groups that are eager to get involved in the annual global Radio Scouting activities. Additional information on this years crew can be found on the Plusscouts Website. The station is valid for 2 points in the Dutch Radio Scouting Award scheme.

The good news is that we will be hosted again by the D-Day Museum at Omaha Beach. A radio shack in the backyard of the museum will be part of our radio station and associated radio scouting activities.

QSL cards will be sent out after the event. 

Some specific Radio details:

Radio waves (+- QRM)

1.882 MHz LSB

3.682 MHz LSB

7.182 MHz LSB

14.182 MHz USB

21.182 MHz USB

28.482 MHz USB

DMR TalkGroup 907 - JOTA