Posts Tagged ‘Emergency Preparedness’
The Communicator: November – December 2025
October 31st, 2025 | 
Author: Welcome to the November-December 2025 edition of the SARC Communicator, your go-to guide for all things amateur radio in our vibrant RF neighborhood. This edition is a journey across the history, innovation, and fascinating activities of amateur radio.
As we transition from crisp fall days to the festive glow of holidays ahead, this issue looks at the enduring legacy of Émile Baudot, the pioneer of digital communication, and revisits the vital role of radio during the catastrophic 1917 Halifax Explosion.
For satellite operators, discover how to seamlessly integrate SkyRoof with the Icom IC-9700 for LEO satellite operations, and check out our review of the past year in amateur satellites.
Technical articles dive into RTTY as a viable emergency digital mode and explores the fascinating use of radio telemetry in insect tracking. We also have several articles on a current ‘hot’ activity, homebrew vertical antennas for Parks on the Air (POTA). Finally, catch up on the excitement of the ARDF World Championship and a glimpse into the future of Software Defined Radio.
There are articles for all levels of amateur radio and you’re sure to find something of interest.
Download smaller low resolution
Dive in for inspiration, connections, and the pulse of what makes our hobby of hobbies special. A special year-end thank you to our contributors and columnists. On behalf of SARC and SEPAR, we wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season.
Stay engaged—our readership powers us forward!
Enjoy this final issue of 2025!
~ John VE7TI, Editor
Contents for this issue:
- The Rest of the Story: RTTY and Émile Baudot’s Enduring Legacy 4
- Radio's Role in the 1917 Halifax Explosion 8
- NARA NVIS Test 12
- The Lighter Side of Amateur Radio 13
- Repair and Repurpose 14
- Radiofrequency and Telemetry in Insect Tracking 24
- What’s New at DLARC — October 2025 28
- ARDF Canada World Championship 2025 in Lithuania 30
- Integrating SkyRoof with the Icom IC-9700 32
- RTTY; A viable emergency digital mode? 36
- Pile-Up Control System - Take control of the pile-up! 40
- Satellite Tracking: Looking back on 2025, and ahead into 2026 42
- Homebrew Mobile Antennas 44
- The genius logic of the NATO phonetic alphabet 46
- The North American QRP CW Club 48
- Simple QRP 9:1 Unun Construction 50
- The Dominator End-Fed Halfwave Antenna by KJ6ER 52
- The POTA PERformer vertical antenna revisited 60
- FreqBuddy: A Modern Web-Based Radio Frequency Database 69
- Ham Radio Outside the box: PERformer modifications 70
- A good idea for suspending radials 72
- A Portable Power Project 73
- Zero Retries 76
- Margaret Atwood on CW? 80
- When your hobby revolves around electricity... 82
- Back to Basics - Digital Modes 86
- Study Aids 89
- No-ham Recipes: Meatloaf with sweet tomato-mustard sauce 91
- Profiles of SARC members: Sheldon Friesen VE7SRF 94
- SARC Member donates digital nautical archive 97
- SARC 50th Anniversary the transformative role of SARC 100
- Peter Vogel VE7AFV: Profile in Tech, Science & Amateur Radio 102
- SARC General Meeting minutes 104
- The SEPAR Report 110
- We’re back on track! 115
- QRT: Is Amateur Radio an Old Hobby or a playground for explorers? 116
- HAM LEFTOVERS... 118
- A look back… at The Communicator—December 2015 120
The Communicator: November – December 2025
Welcome to the November-December 2025 edition of the SARC Communicator, your go-to guide for all things amateur radio in our vibrant RF neighborhood. This edition is a journey across the history, innovation, and fascinating activities of amateur radio.
As we transition from crisp fall days to the festive glow of holidays ahead, this issue looks at the enduring legacy of Émile Baudot, the pioneer of digital communication, and revisits the vital role of radio during the catastrophic 1917 Halifax Explosion.
For satellite operators, discover how to seamlessly integrate SkyRoof with the Icom IC-9700 for LEO satellite operations, and check out our review of the past year in amateur satellites.
Technical articles dive into RTTY as a viable emergency digital mode and explores the fascinating use of radio telemetry in insect tracking. We also have several articles on a current ‘hot’ activity, homebrew vertical antennas for Parks on the Air (POTA). Finally, catch up on the excitement of the ARDF World Championship and a glimpse into the future of Software Defined Radio.
There are articles for all levels of amateur radio and you’re sure to find something of interest.
Download smaller low resolution
Dive in for inspiration, connections, and the pulse of what makes our hobby of hobbies special. A special year-end thank you to our contributors and columnists. On behalf of SARC and SEPAR, we wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season.
Stay engaged—our readership powers us forward!
Enjoy this final issue of 2025!
~ John VE7TI, Editor
Contents for this issue:
- The Rest of the Story: RTTY and Émile Baudot’s Enduring Legacy 4
- Radio's Role in the 1917 Halifax Explosion 8
- NARA NVIS Test 12
- The Lighter Side of Amateur Radio 13
- Repair and Repurpose 14
- Radiofrequency and Telemetry in Insect Tracking 24
- What’s New at DLARC — October 2025 28
- ARDF Canada World Championship 2025 in Lithuania 30
- Integrating SkyRoof with the Icom IC-9700 32
- RTTY; A viable emergency digital mode? 36
- Pile-Up Control System - Take control of the pile-up! 40
- Satellite Tracking: Looking back on 2025, and ahead into 2026 42
- Homebrew Mobile Antennas 44
- The genius logic of the NATO phonetic alphabet 46
- The North American QRP CW Club 48
- Simple QRP 9:1 Unun Construction 50
- The Dominator End-Fed Halfwave Antenna by KJ6ER 52
- The POTA PERformer vertical antenna revisited 60
- FreqBuddy: A Modern Web-Based Radio Frequency Database 69
- Ham Radio Outside the box: PERformer modifications 70
- A good idea for suspending radials 72
- A Portable Power Project 73
- Zero Retries 76
- Margaret Atwood on CW? 80
- When your hobby revolves around electricity... 82
- Back to Basics - Digital Modes 86
- Study Aids 89
- No-ham Recipes: Meatloaf with sweet tomato-mustard sauce 91
- Profiles of SARC members: Sheldon Friesen VE7SRF 94
- SARC Member donates digital nautical archive 97
- SARC 50th Anniversary the transformative role of SARC 100
- Peter Vogel VE7AFV: Profile in Tech, Science & Amateur Radio 102
- SARC General Meeting minutes 104
- The SEPAR Report 110
- We’re back on track! 115
- QRT: Is Amateur Radio an Old Hobby or a playground for explorers? 116
- HAM LEFTOVERS... 118
- A look back… at The Communicator—December 2015 120
The Communicator September – October 2025
This publication, "The Communicator" from Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC), serves as a bi-monthly electronic periodical for amateur radio operators. It covers a wide array of topics, including historical figures in radio. This month Jonathan Zenneck and Edwin Armstrong. In this issue we also provide technical explanations of radio propagation phenomena such as the Gray Line and solar indices, and practical guides for amateur radio activities like building antennas. We take a closer look at specific radio equipment (Baofeng, Icom, and Anytone), and engaging in digital modes like FT8.
The Communicator also features emergency preparedness strategies, and the diverse interests and community focus within amateur radio. Furthermore, it touches upon innovative developments like the Linux Handie Talkie (LinHT) and the importance of in-person technical conferences for knowledge exchange.
Now read in over 165 countries, this issue brings you 130 pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and around the globe. 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.
LARGE or SMALL format, or read it on-line like a magazine
Previous Communicator issues:
Search for past Communicator issues
We now have a comprehensive searchable index back to 2007
HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is October 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 September - October 2025 Communicator issue:
- The Unsung Pioneers: Jonathan Senneck 4
- A look at Edwin Armstrong’s contribution to broadcasting 6
- Field Day and Cross-Border Microwave Activity 7
- The Northern California DX Foundation: Decrypting solar indices 8
- Propagation Profile: Exploring the Gray Line in Radio Propagation 10
- News You Can’t Lose: Rescue team locates and rescues 12
- Page13—News You Can Lose: Mystery in Back Yard 13
- Radio Ramblings: Aircraft Radio Systems 14
- Another RFI Tracker 29
- Sniffing RF Noise with an Oscilloscope 29
- A Bridge Too Far... For Now! 30
- An AM Radio Transmitter Suitable for in-home broadcast 32
- ISED Releases New Documents for Amateur Exams 34
- Getting Started: Beginner's guide to the FT8 mode 36
- Using the Baofeng Radio: Your Guide to a Handheld Radio 37
- iCOM Special Interest Group: RFI & Noise reduction - USB cable 38
- WA5VJB’s "Cheap Yagis": Looking for a 1.2 Ghz solution? 41
- RigPi: Probably compatible with your rig 422
- The AnyTone 878 portable receives a major firmware update 44
- Ham TV again from the International Space Station! 46
- After 14 attempts our first circumnavigation of a pico balloon! 47
- The PERformer: 2024 ARRL QST Antenna Design Competition 50
- But, does it PERform? 59
- Ham Radio Outside the box: Testing the “PERformer” 60
- The Zenith Satellite Tracker 62
- Another Simple Morse Code Trainer: It uses only 7 parts 63
- High Altitude RF Adventures 64
- Hamshack Hotline Orphans invited to apply at Hams Over IP 69
- Zero Retries: The Linux Handie Talkie 70
- Ham on a Bike: Snatched a big one working my grey line 75
- Foundations of Amateur Radio: A POTA procedural proposal 76
- Listening to local RF via a web browser 78
- Back to Basics: Understanding decibels in Amateur Radio 80
- Crossword 83
- Danger in St. Elmo 84
- No-ham Recipes: Chili Con Rotini 85
- Profiles of SARC members: Michael Papp WB6GJE 88
- The SEPAR Report: Emergency Program: Net Strategies 92
- A new beam antenna for the OTC 95
- QRT: Building Your Own Antennas 96
- HAM LEFTOVERS... 98
- A look back at The Communicator—October 2015 100
The Eruption of Mt. St. Helens
Remembering the amateur radio
account by Gerry Martin W7WFP
On Sunday, March 27, 1980, a series of volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows began at Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States. A series of phreatic blasts occurred from the summit and escalated until a major explosive eruption took place 44 years ago today, on Sunday, May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am. The eruption, which had a volcanic explosivity index of 5, was the first to occur in the contiguous United States since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California. It has often been declared the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.
Mt. St. Helens one day before the eruption and 4 months afterwards
The Role of Amateur Radio - Gerry Martin W7WFP
Gerry, 64, was a volunteer ham radio operator who was monitoring the mountain for the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. The day before the eruption, he drove his motor home onto a ridge a couple miles north and slightly higher than the geologists’ observation post. When the mountain erupted, he reported to the other ham operators monitoring the volcano, “Gentlemen, the camper and car that’s sitting over to the south of me is covered. It’s going to hit me, too.” As with Dave Johnston, no trace of Martin or his motor home was ever found. The audio account of his observations as the mountain erupted is in an Oregon Public Broadcasting article. The article also has a link to a video of the event.
The eruption claimed the lives of 57 people, mostly through the effects of ash asphyxiation.
~
Restricted putting up an antenna?
Hide it in your holiday lights!
For all their supposed benefits, homeowner’s associations (HOAs) have a reputation of quickly turning otherwise quaint neighborhoods into a sort of Stanford prison experiment, as those who get even the slightest amount of power often abuse it. Arbitrary rules and enforcement abound about house color, landscaping, parking, and if you’ve ever operated a radio, antennas. While the FCC (at least as far as the US is concerned) does say that HOAs aren’t permitted to restrict the use of antennas, if you don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side you’ll want to put up an antenna like this one which is disguised as a set of HOA-friendly holiday lights.
For this build, a long wire is hidden along with a strand of otherwise plain-looking lights. While this might seem straightforward at first, there are a few things that need to be changed on the lighting string in order to make both the antenna and the disguise work. First, the leads on each bulb were removed to to prevent any coupling from the antenna into the lighting string. Clipping the leads turns what is essentially a long wire that might resonate with the antenna’s frequency into many short sections of wire which won’t have this problem. This also solves the problem of accidentally illuminating any bulbs when transmitting, as the RF energy from the antenna could otherwise transfer into the lighting string and draw attention from the aforementioned HOA.
Tests of this antenna seemed to show surprising promise while it was on the ground, but when the string and antenna was attached to the roof fascia the performance dropped slightly, presumably because of either the metal drip edge or the gutters. Still, the antenna’s creator [Bob] aka [HOA Ham] had excellent success with this, making clear contacts with other ham radio operators hundreds of miles away. We’ve shared another of [Bob]’s HOA-friendly builds below as well which hides the HF antenna in the roof’s ridge vent, and if you’re looking for other interesting antenna builds take a look at this one which uses a unique transformer to get wide-band performance out of an otherwise short HF antenna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uG_D0bDGuI
Antenna Hidden In Holiday Lights Skirts HOA Rules | Hackaday
~ Hackaday
The November – December Communicator is now on-line
Wrapping up another year!
The November - December 2023 Communicator, digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download.
Read in over 145 countries, we bring you 134 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.
You can view or download it as a .PDF file:
Previous Communicator issues are at:
https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator
and a full index is HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is December 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 March – April 2023 SARC Communicator
Another BIG issue!
'The Communicator' digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download.
Read in over 145 countries now, with almost 10,000 downloads for the November-December issue, we bring you 124 pages of Amateur Radio news from the South West 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.
You can view or download it as a .PDF file:
Previous Communicator issues are at:
https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator
and a full index is HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is April 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
