Posts Tagged ‘Special Event Station’
Tomorrow starts Manna/Chowhound Weekend
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.
Participating stations:
The UK
2. GB80MAN: International Bomber Command Centre
3. GB8MAN: Royal Air Force Station Binbrook
4. GB80CHO: 100th Bomb Group Museum in Thorpe Abbots
The United States
5. W4C: Boca Raton Amateur Radio Assn
Canada
6. VB7MAN: Surrey Amateur Radio Communications in Surrey, BC
7. VB6MAN: Calgary Amateur Radio Club at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta
8. VE1MAN: Pictou County ARC in Picton, Nova Scotia
Australia
9. VK80MAN: Bull Creek Aviation Heritage Centre Perth, Australia
Poland
10. SN80MAN: The SP5KAB Radio Club
We hope to make contact with you.
![[IMG]](https://manna80.radio/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IMG_1100-768x494.jpeg)
VB7MAN is ON AIR!
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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The Planning for MANNA@80 Continues…
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 1st to May 10th. 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 75th 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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Special Event Station PA80OV
Radio Club Limburg
announces
Special Event Station
PA80OV
Next week, members of Radio Club Limburg (https://rclb.nl) in the North Limburg region of The Netherlands, will activate:
PA80OV is a special event station to commemorate Operation Veritable, celebrating 80 years of freedom. Operation Veritable, namesake of the station, and the successor of Operation Market Garden, was the northern part of an Allied pincer movement in the Second World War.
We are back in 2025 for the third consecutive time with this special event station; having added another 5 years to our callsign.
Members of Radio Club Limburg will activate the callsign PA80OV from February 13 to 28, 2025, to work as many amateur radio operators across the world as possible. If you're in the area, you can visit our station in the old town hall in the city of Gennep, The Netherlands between February14 and 16.
Whether you are an amateur radio operator, hoping to contact a new country, a new callsign, or you're a casual visitor, you're welcome to our website:
https://rclb.nl/pa80ov
We hope to hear and work you.
On behalf of the PA80OV team.
Jan, PA2P
https://rclb.nl/pa80ov
Operation Manna 80
A very special, special event station
SARC has been asked to participate in a large-scale special event late in April commemorating the relief efforts of the winter of 1944-45 to drop tons of food to the starving population of NW Holland. It is well described at: Operation Manna @ 80 and in the video https://youtu.be/0PwhYFdzY_Q. Amateur stations from the drop zones in Holland, air force bases in Britain, plus the Allied forces that provided aircraft and pilots, including the UK, Canada, The US, Poland and Australia will be represented by special event stations in those countries.
Three UK Teams, one at the International Bomber Command Centre, another at former RAF Binbrook (an Operation Manna Airfield in the UK) and another at the 100th Bomb Group Museum Thorpe Abbots representing the US operation Chowhound from a former Chowhound airfield.
The national Radio Scouting team (Plusscouts PA3EFR/J) will be operating from an Operation Manna drop zone near The Hague, The Netherlands. Read on for further details on this team and their radio station location at The Team in the Netherlands – Operation Manna @ 80
The stations will be active April 25-27 (Friday through Sunday) using variations of the xx80MAN callsign. Here in Canada, we will be applying for VE80MAN.
Children and youth activities will also be included and there will be activity on HF, DMR and VHF
https://manna80.radio/w p-content/uploads/2024/12/Award_new.jpg
There will be a full article in the next Communicator (March 1st)
Manna80 and other Special Event Stations
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.
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
Hams meet Marines
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.