Posts Tagged ‘SARC Newsletter’
The Communicator: January – February 2026
December 31st, 2025 | 
Author: The Communicator First Issue of 2026
Happy New Year! This first issue of 2026 spans 110 pages and offers a comprehensive exploration of amateur radio. Readers will find a diverse mix of content, including technical projects, the latest operating news, and engaging historical perspectives relevant to the amateur radio community.
Historical and Informative Features
Readers will find historical profiles of
notable figures in radio, this time including Edouard Branly, inventor of the
coherer, and the fateful and communications-stricken flight of Amelia Earhart. The Silent Revolution: The future of RF is in light, is an overview of transceivers using light rather than wires, promising less noise and terrific bandwidth. You will find tutorials on a variety of relevant subjects including HF digital
modes such as FT8 and JS8Call, suggestions for contest logging software, and
tips for successful portable operations.
Technical Articles
Several articles in this issue delve into
practical projects and technical experimentation. Topics covered include encrypted
communications in amateur radio, antenna construction and tuning, including the
revolutionary Challenger+, low-power (QRP) operating strategies, free access to
online software-defined radio receivers, and modifications to homebrew
equipment. Additional articles address emergency communications preparedness,
recent regulatory changes affecting Canadian amateurs, and reviews of new ham
radio products and books.
Regular Sections
The issue includes our regular informative columnists,
providing valuable information for operators.
They include feature propagation forecasts, updates on satellite and
digital modes, reports on VHF/UHF activity, summaries of recent contests and
on-air events, and even a ‘snow muffin’ recipe for Winter Field Day.
Feature Article: Embracing Versatility in Amateur Radio
An opinion piece reflected by the cover:
“Are you an Amateur Radio chameleon?” (p. 102), employs the chameleon as a
metaphor for versatility in the hobby. Drawing on the Senegalese proverb, “The
chameleon changes colour to match the earth, the earth doesn’t change colour to
match the chameleon,” the article gently critiques operators who specialize
exclusively in one aspect of amateur radio—whether chasing DX on HF, focusing
on VHF repeaters, contesting year-round, or limiting activity to digital modes
like FT8.
While acknowledging that specialization can
foster deep expertise, the article contends that remaining in a single niche
may restrict personal growth and diminish the enjoyment of amateur radio.
Instead, it celebrates those who adapt fluidly, moving between CW, SSB, digital
modes, satellite work, QRP portable activations, microwave experimentation,
public service events, and homebrewing. These “chameleons,” the article
suggests, find greater fulfillment and contribute more broadly to the amateur
radio community.
It concludes with an invitation for readers to share their own stories of adaptation and discovery by emailing [email protected].
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Please note that there are active links for additional content when viewed on-line.
On behalf of SARC and SEPAR, we wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
~ John VE7TI, Editor
Contents for this issue:
- Edouard Eugène Désiré Branly and his Coherer 4
- Amelia Earhart: Better radio skills may have made a difference 32
- Photonics the Silent Revolution: The future of RF is in light 38
- Ham Rocket Men 42
- The story of Salmon, Idaho 44
- Profile: The Canadian International DX Club 48
- The Challenger+ OCF: A portable Halfwave Antenna by KJ6ER 50
- About that Un-un 57
- Coaxial Cables and Common Mode Currents 58
- A Challenger+ build 61
- 2025 Appointment to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame: Geoff Smith VA3GS (SK) 62
- A Starter Guide: Internet Remote Software Defined Radio (SDR) Receivers 64
- The BC QSO Party 66
- Ham Radio Outside the Box: What really determines the efficiency of an antenna? 68
- The VA7ZEB Line of Sight (LoS) Web App 71
- Converting the shack computer to Linux 74
- Foundations of Amateur Radio: I have a problem with logging 76
- Back to Basics: Near Vertical Incident Skywave 79
- Amateur Radio HH as a modular option of a new electric car 82
- No-ham Recipes: Winter Field Day Snow Muffins 83
- Profiles of SARC members: Blake R. Wiggs VA7BWG 86
- 2025 SARC Field Day Results 92
- SARC General Meeting minutes 94
- The Christmas Social 96
- Coming up 98
- The SEPAR Report 100
- Are you an Amateur Radio Chameleon? Embrace the multiverse of the ‘Hobby of Hobbies’ 102
- Ham Leftovers 106
- A look back: at The Communicator—January 2016 108
- Kudos 112
The New Year’s Ham Baby
Midnight struck! The calendar flipped,
A brand-new baby boy born fully equipped.
But this was no ordinary, cooing tyke,
He burst out screaming... "CQ! Q-R-Z! gimme a mic!"
His parents, both veteran 2-letter hams,
were thrilled—not only by baby, but the accurate count on his radiograms.
His first sound was: "dah dit dah dit, dah dah dit dah", a properly spaced CQ,
A perfect fist, spectacular for a ham just so new.
Mr. Jones, the neighbor wasn't as happy.
Just what I need, another ham next door like his mama and pappy.
They named him "Kenwood", a name everyone knew,
but in phonetics, baby confused quite a few.
They bypassed the rattle, the blanket, and ball,
‘cause he only wanted a transceiver with a nice waterfall.
He skipped "goo-goo" for Q-codes instead:
"My QTH is my bedroom!" is what he often said.
And change me often when I get wet…
I don’t want to risk the high voltage when I’m on a QSO in bed.
One day, they found him, in a corner on the floor,
He'd built a QRP rig they couldn’t ignore.
He keyed up on twenty, it was truly a feat,
Sending: "Happy New Year!!" it sounded so sweet.
The FCC called, "Is that your harmonic on the air?"
His dad just laughed, "No, sir, that’s my son you hear there.
"He's only seven weeks old, and his signal's 5-9-9"
The New Year's Ham Baby? He’s doing just fine!
~ The Communicator ~
It’s our 50th Anniversary!
Commemorative VHF Net check-in
Tuesday 7 October at 8 pm (PST)
SARC will be hosting its usual net at 8 pm (Pacific time) on Tuesday, October 7 on frequency 147.360 MHz +600 KHz, tone 110.9 Hz for a special commemoration of the society’s founding on Tuesday, October 7, 1975.
Members and non-members are invited to check in. We'll also be connecting to IRLP reflector 9005 for any stations who wish to join from outside our repeater’s footprint. You can connect a repeater or your personal device by dialing node 9005.
You can read about SARC's history at The Communicator Digital Edition: The Communicator July - August 2025
We encourage SARC members, past students, non-members, and readers of The Communicator to check in on this historic net and we hope to commemorate our 50th anniversary with a record number of check ins.
~
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 Communicator July – August 2025
We're coming up to our club's 50th Anniversary and this is another big issue, with a look back at our history, great articles, and our regular columnists.
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.
Download the July - August 2025 Communicator in
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 August 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 July - August 2025 Communicator issue:
- The Unsung Pioneers - Some lesser-known early Amateur Radio experimenters and the dawn of wireless communication 4
- Some Early Surrey Amateur Radio Club History 7
- Telus Donates Tower/Trailer to SARC! 10
- News You Can’t Lose: The Centennial Gleissberg Cycle 12
- Page13—News You Can Lose: The Lighter Side 13
- Amateur Radio History In the Province of British Columbia 15
- Radio Ramblings: The Grab Bag 18
- Amateur Radio Contesting... But is your log accurate? 27
- Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications 30
- Remote WAN Operation and the Perils of CG-NAT Drive 32
- Six Meters: The SARC 50.070 MHz beacon 34
- Spooltenna Product review 36
- (ISED) Releases New Documents for Amateur Exams 39
- You’ve got the Power!! Monitoring your voltage 40
- Reinventing Spark Gap Radio 42
- 7300 SIG: Efficient SD Card Management 48
- Antenna Adventures: A compact 2m/70cm J-pole that wasn’t 52
- Fence Solar - Add a back-up power source 54
- The first interstellar software update: Voyager 1 58
- Update on the VE7NFR Pico Balloon 60
- AMSAT Designates SO-125: A New FM Repeater Satellite 61
- SkyRoof: New Amateur Satellite Tracking Software 62
- CQ: International Dog & Cat Days Special Event 63
- A Comprehensive Guide to Crafting an Engaging QRZ Bio 64
- Ham Radio Outside the box: An Improved Tank Circuit 67
- Top Ten Steps For successful portable QRP operation 70
- Small Pistols of Ham Radio Contesting 73
- The RSGB Looks at Morse Code 73
- "Too Many Antenna? What You Talking About Willis?" 74
- The World of CW - VE9KK Looks at a Contest Keyboard 76
- Zero Retries: Repeaters Are For Voice, Digipeaters Are For Data - NOT! 78
- KB6NU: What’s In Your Rubber Duck? 84
- Foundations of Amateur Radio: What's really happening at the IARU? 86
- Back to Basics: The Common Mode Choke 89
- No-ham Recipes: BBQ Chicken Marinade 93
- Profiles of SARC members: Fred Orsetti VE7IO 96
- Another SARC Founder: Ralph Webb VE7OM 100
- Here is a great new callsign search site 103
- SARC-SEPAR Field Day 2025: 3F at our Training Centre 104
- The RAC Canada Day Contest: Celebrating Canada’s 158th 107
- I have switched PDF readers! 108
- CQ WPX (CW) Contest: Using VB7MAN 109
- The New Look of Our Website 110
- Friends Lost... 111
- SARC General Meeting Minutes: May 2025 112
- SARC Annual General Meeting Minutes: June 2025 115
- The SEPAR Report: Field Day 2025 120
- QRT: OM, YL, and XYL: Are they still appropriate? 124
- Ham Leftovers... 127
- A look back at the Communicator—July 2015 128
The Communicator May-June 2025
Its a big issue, and great articles, along with our regular columnists.
Now read in over 165 countries, this issue brings you 120+ 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.
Download the May-June 2025 Communicator in
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 June 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 May-June 2025 Communicator issue:
- The Rest of the Story: Pavel Schilling .............................................4
- NEW! A Complete Search Engine for The Communicator ..............7
- News You Can’t Lose: ..................................................................12
- News You Can’t Lose: Some enjoyable listening ahead! ..............12
- News You Can Lose: ARRL New Taxes for DX QSOs ..................13
- Mentoring Young Hams .................................................................15
- Post Special Event Summary: Operation Manna: .........................18
- Manna@80: The more unique contacts made by VB7MAN ..........24
- Radio Oranje and the ‘Kraut Sieve’ ...............................................25
- Radio Ramblings: Computing Science and Amateur Radio ..........28
- Computing Science and Amateur Radio ........................................28
- A LoRa-Based Mesh Network for Emergency Communication .....39
- A Heathkit “Cantenna” Deep Dive ................................................41
- Testing “Cantenna” oil ....................................................................43
- Making a Better Heathkit "Cantenna" ............................................46
- Another Notable Manna/Chowhound 80 Contact ..........................48
- Exploring the iCOM IC-7300's Internal Antenna Tuner ..................49
- Automatic Antenna Tuners & Couplers ..........................................52
- Electronic Keyers & Keyer Paddles ...............................................53
- Transients and Spikes on Power-line Voltage: ..............................55
- So... What is an MOV? ..................................................................57
- Testing MOVs ................................................................................59
- A Cheap and Light Weight HF Antenna .........................................60
- SO-124 [HADES-R] Satellite .........................................................61
- Tracking the ISS with an Arduino-Based System ..........................63
- Wondering where you can be heard? ............................................64
- A Reference for Coaxial Cable ......................................................65
- YADD: Maritime HF Activity Revisited ...........................................66
- The Mystery of the Mis-keyed Callsign ..........................................69
- Exploring Digital QSL Cards with DigiQSL: ...................................70
- How to Operate Pedestrian Mobile ................................................72
- Ham Radio Outside the Box: 25 Years a Ham ..............................75
- 2m: Weak-Signal Performance of Common Modulation Formats .79
- Zero Retries: An Introduction to the IP400 Network Project ..........82
- KB6NU: Buttons Are Back, Baby! ..................................................85
- KB6NU: Single sideband and a HAMNET update .........................87
- Foundations of Amateur Radio: .........................................................
- What is the difference between a Dummy Load and an Antenna? 88
- No-ham Recipes: Chinese Chicken in Sauce ................................91
- Back to Basics: A Balancing Act ....................................................92
- Profiles of SARC members: Jaspal Bagha VA7JB ........................98
- The Contest Contender: CQ WPX SSB ......................................102
- The Contest Contender: The 2025 ARRL Rookie Roundup ........104
- VB7MAN Participates in an International Microwave Party .........105
- High School Communications Course Update ............................113
- SEPAR Report: Winlink reestablished in the SEPAR program ....115
- QRT [Opinion]: The FCC Policy Statement .................................118
- Ham Leftovers... ..........................................................................121
- A look back: May 2015... .............................................................122
The SARC Communicator – January-February 2025
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 Rest of the Story: Charles Wheatstone 4
- News You Can’t Lose: Field Day results are in 12
- Page13—News You Can Lose 13
- Radio Ramblings: Reflections 15
- Does the Ghost of Salvador Dali Haunt ChatGPT? 26
- Tech: A transceiver on your Android phone 27
- Xiegu G90 Review 28
- Another Tape Measure Antenna 31
- POTA is Calling - Will you answer? 32
- A Different Kind of Foxhunt 34
- USA Radio Orienteering Championship 35
- Mastering iCOM HF: A deep dive into filtering capabilities 37
- Schooling ChatGPT on Antenna Misconceptions 42
- LIDS: The Less Involved Data Society 43
- Experimental Maritime Mobile on 630m 44
- From the ATV Journal 48
- B.C. QSO Party 50
- A Light Dipole 52
- An Easy Field Strength Meter 53
- AMSAT - OSCAR 7 55
- Dutch Amateur Radio Operators Detect Signals From Voyager 1 56
- Update on the Local High Altitude Balloon Project 57
- They Don’t Make ‘em Like They Used To… 58
- LingoSat ISS Deployment 59
- Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Appointments 2024 60
- The Santa Barbara 1925 Earthquake 62
- Ham Radio Outside the Box: Antenna height matters 65
- What Did Beethoven Do For Ham Radio? 68
- VE9KK - The World of CW: I am at peace with the RFI gods 69
- K0NR - 2 Meters: Handie-Talkie or Walkie-Talkie? 71
- Which Modes Have You Operated? 73
- KB6NU’s Ham Radio: Hurricane Helene 74
- Pico-based SDR runs stand-alone 75
- Foundations of Amateur Radio: The venerable QSL bureau 76
- No-ham Recipe: Oatmeal brown bread 79
- Back to Basics: Codes & encryption 80
- Profiles of SARC Members: Jeanne Wilson VA7QD 88
- CQ WW DX Contest [CW] 92
- ARRL 10m Contest 94
- RAC Winter Contest 96
- SARC News… 97
- SEPAR Report 103
- Ham Leftovers... 107
- QRT: Blog vs PDF? 108
