Manna@80! 

Operations Manna and Chowhound were lifesaving food drops to Northwest Holland 80 years ago, just prior to the end of World War Two. Over 20,000 people had died from starvation and a colder than normal winter. Allied pilots and support staff from the UK, the US, Canada, Poland, and Australia dropped over 7,000 tons of food behind enemy lines. 

There are 10 special event stations operating in these countries Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27. If you contact 4 or more, a special event certificate will be issued. Check QRZ.com for any of the following callsigns or Manna80.radio on the web where the stations’ current operating frequencies are available via HamAlert.

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Mark VA7MM and others are our first guest operators

A recent VB7MAN QSO with Jake, KC7WXD, in Nevada.

Jake is an antique wireless experimenter and the chirpy note of the Command Set at VA7MM using VB7MAN, obviously caught his attention. The photo is of Jake’s homebrew 802 tube transmitter. His QRP signal at 2.5 W with the 802 transmitter was a perfectly copiable up here in BC.

If you would like to be a guest operator using the MANNA@80 callsign VB7MAN, have a look at the calendar for available slots and send us a note at [email protected]. You can use any band and any mode anywhere in BC.

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Planning for the special event stations commemorating the life-saving food drops to NW Netherlands near the end of World War II is now in full swing. 62 nationalities were part of Bomber Command in WW2.

Please visit Operation Manna @ 80 for a full list of stations around the globe. Here are the Canadian stations participating:

VB7MAN Surrey Amateur Radio Communications

In Canada, Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) has been granted special event callsign VB7MAN from April 1^st to May 10^th. We will be on the air from our training station and elsewhere prior to, during, and after the event and will seek involvement of the high school students from our RF Communications class. Contacts with Europe can be sporadic from our location but we are generally able to contact North and South America, Asia, and Oceania. We have created a QSL card to commemorate the event. The card bears the $100 Royal Canadian Mint gold and silver coin struck in 2020 for the 75^th anniversary. 

We will update this page as plans progress but hope to make a QSO with you in April or May. Any certified amateur in BC may operate the special event callsign, as long as it is only used in one location at a time. If you wish to use the call on any band or mode, a Google calendar has been set up to reserve the call for your use between April 1st and May 10th. If you wish to book an operating time for VB7MAN, please contact [email protected].

John VE7TI
Coordinator [email protected]

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VB6MAN Calgary Amateur Radio Association

CARA will be operating from the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta. They will activate on April 25, 26, and 27th and May 9 and 10. The final dates and hours of operations will depend on the radio amateur operators participating.

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VE1MAN Nova Scotia

The Canadian teams closest to Europe will be operating from their club station as VE1MAN. They may be activating from a former WW2 air base or another location of significance to tie in with the event.

Radio Amateurs of Canada published an article about MANNA@80 in the March-April issue of The Canadian Amateur, as did the Radio Society of Great Britain in their national magazine RADCOM.

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 You may wish to add these to your calendar

We will publish a report in The Communicator's next issue.

I would like to inform you about a few special event stations we will put up in the next few months. 

February 14,15 and 16th, PA80OV will be operational from Gennep, Netherlands. 
I will be a guest operator, and probably the organisation has written to you allready, but it is nice to know. 

https://radioclublimburg.nl/pa80ov/

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The two others are also very interesting. 

At the end of WW2, the Netherlands suffered a hunger winter. Allied forces conducted a humanitarian action called Operation Manna. 
In April this year, 80 years ago, tons of food was dropped over the western part of the Netherlands, saving many people from starvation and death. 

To commemorate this event, we will activate a couple of stations, including GB80MAN, VE80MAN, VK80MAN, PH80MAN. 
We are hoping Poland is participating as well, and we hope the USA will put up a station. 

https://manna80.radio/the-team-in-the-netherlands/

As you have seen some SES from us, we will put up PH80MAN at a former drop zone. 
I have added a flyer with this mail.  This one is in Dutch, but an English version is under construction... will follow as soon as it is done!

Lastly, I would like to inform you about PA82AD. 
This is a call we used 5 years ago to celebrate 75 years of freedom. We held a DX-pedition but due to COVID, we could not really complete our goals. 
Please read the qrz.com page from bottom up. 

https://www.qrz.com/db/PA82AD

To finish this DX-pedition as planned, we will be operational for a very last time. 

Thanks again for reading, and hope to hear you on the bands. 

73, 

~ Sander PD9HIX

A special event station from The Netherlands

This is an HF activity on January 23 from PA25MC, which will be on the air for just one day to introduce Marines to the world of ham radio. They will try to use as many HF-bands as possible on SSB. They remind us to please remember that Amateur procedures are new to them, but will do everything to get them up to speed quickly. 

Marines are used to speaking English but naturally keep their communications short. The organizers would really appreciate it if you contribute to a successful event by connecting with them!

PA25MC is organized and supported by PI4VBD, the club station of the Royal Army. Their station will always comply with the user regulations and regulations for radio amateurs and has no military function.