Tom Wrinch VE7AMM, a radio amateur for approximately 60 years, and a well-known and respected teacher in the Shuswap School District, succumbed on March 22, 2017 to the ravages of a longstanding illness dating back to a workplace explosion in Trail while he was still a teenager.
John Sansom VE7BOZ became a Silent Key on March 28, 2017 peacefully at home in his 90th year.
John is well-known among the teaching fraternity, having been the vice-principal and then principal of Shuswap Junior Seconday, for a period of about 15 years, retiring in 1987.
Reino Keski-Salmi Loppet: January 14, 2017
Once again several volunteers from SARC gathered at the Larch Hills ski chalet in preparation to assist with radio communications for the Reino Keski-Salmi Loppet. The temperature at 0800 hours was a crisp -20 and not a cloud in the sky, promising a great day for a Loppet. After a short briefing, transport out to the various stations around the course began. Celia/NIA and Wayne/VT were going to South Hub as First Responders where they would provide medical help if required, Tim/TMK took up Ron’s/RLE old station at Baby Moonwalk, Al/AN was stationed at the bottom of Stig’s Loop and Rob/ALY was at the bottom of Hot Shot. Each station had a supply of firewood and the makings to start a fire to help keep warm. While the outdoor crews were getting their fires going Daryl/DBC and Dave/HDY got the base station set up in the loft of the chalet. Peter/RZZ provided a radio in a “lunch box” for this year’s operation that was much more compact than the regular Club radio used previously. Communications were good this year, even out of the South Hub. Our portable radios performed well when the base radio stopped transmitting late in the morning. We suspect a power supply issue was the problem here but we worked around it. At 1100 net control got a request from Rob for food as he was burning so much energy he was now “starving”. Ten minutes later a beef on a bun was delivered by skidoo. This could be the start of a new trend on the course. Could it be drones delivering food??
Well Ron and Dave have said it all but I will attempt to add few more photos
For the second time, the Shuswap Amateur Radio Club has worked Field Day at the Salmon Arm Airport in conjunction with the annual Shuswap Emergency Program Exposition and the Airport Appreciation Day which is held every second year.
On Tuesday, Simon VE7SHG, Dave VA7HDY, Peter VE7RZZ, and Ron VE7RLE spent some time getting the trailer looking presentable for Field Day this coming weekend and for display at the Field Day / Airport site as part of the Shuswap Emergency Program Exposition at the Sunday, June 26th Airport Appreciation Day.
Operators in rural Salmon Arm with the Shuswap Amateur Radio Club hone their skills in determining the transmission source of drones in unauthorized areas.
Present were Robin VE7HMN, Mike VE7LOG, Tim VA7TMK, Dave VA7HDY, and Simon VE7SHG with photos by Ron VE7RLE.
Further postings to this blog by members of the Technical Committee will comment upon the materials and procedures which will be required to further the club’s progress towards making the “hunt” more effective.
Club President and Technical Committee member Robin VE7HMN, at the May 12, 2016 Club Meeting, demonstrates the club 15-element 2.4 Ghz Yagi in conjunction with the wifi dongle and laptop.
At this demonstration, the laptop displays all WiFi sources and their respective signal strengths within an approximate one kilometer radius of the meeting site in the Piccadilly Mall Board Room.
The club has purchased the yagi and dongle–as part of its project to be able to locate the transmitter of a drone.
Hopefully testing will soon be conducted with drones personally owned by club members and then perhaps with the drones now being used by the Sicamous-based Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue group.
The club has been providing communication for this event for about 25 years.
This year on January 16 [2016] the roster of operators consisted of the following: