Southwest BC & Northwest WA QSO Party

Many urban radio amateurs have no access to High Frequency (HF) radio equipment and are prevented from participating in the active world of Radio Sport, a popular and interesting dimension of amateur radio.

If you live in Metro Vancouver, Southwest BC from the Islands to Hope or Northwest Washington, we’ve got something for you!

The one, the only, the inaugural… SOUTHWEST BC + NORTHWEST WA VHF QSO PARTY

In keeping with VECTOR’s need to develop and expand on a high level of VHF voice communications capability in Vancouver and the local region, and our desire to reach out to the broader amateur radio community, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to launch a new contest opportunity, the Annual Southwest BC & Northwest WA VHF QSO Party for the Amateur Radio community on both sides of the Canada-US border. Join us on November 17th, the first Saturday after Remembrance Day, for the launch of what will become an annual tradition in Southwest British Columbia and Northwest Washington State.

In the summer of 2017 while performing communications duties at a major public event VECTOR member Deven Prasad VA7DDP, a trained medic, provided life-saving first aid treatment to an unconscious and unresponsive person.

At a ceremony on Monday Deven was honoured for his actions and received the BC Emergency Health Services Good Samaritan Award.

See in the latest edition of TCA - The Canadian Amateur an article featuring the efforts of our own Patrick Jackman VE7EPJ in developing the VECTOR Radio Skills Course, a four-week program designed to take new radio amateurs beyond certification.

A downloadable PDF reproduced with permission is available at this link.

Why Just Run?

Experience the fun of orienteering, radio and competition - ARDF! Two upcoming events are open to anyone - no experience necessary, no equipment needed to join in the fun (although bringing your own earbuds would be appreciated).

In an actual disaster there’s no script - Kenneth Finnegan W6KWF (twitter | blog)

This talk is interesting for the scope and obvious professionalism and how the group has without apology used a mix of commercial and amateur radio equipment and frequencies to support a large sporting event. Our skill sets need not be limited to only that which our Certificate of Proficiency allows; we are radio communicators who can always use the right tool for the job at hand.

The APRS configuration is of particular interest to VECTOR.

• 20 APRS trackers, a variety of personal and club owned, many Bionics MicroTrak All-In-One.
• 40 second beacon interval; not using the standard local APRS frequency allowed for this; devices configured for time-slotting.
• 3 i-Gates linked back to a separate APRS console not linked to the Internet (not unlike what VECTOR has done at Incident Command Post for Celebration of Light).

Finnegan is well known for writing his MSEE thesis on Examining Ambiguities in the Automatic Packet Reporting System. He is also a maintainer of the Aprx package.

His thesis is an interesting read - you will undoubtedly learn something about APRS you didn’t know (and that writing a standard early on in the life of APRS would have been nice!); see the following video for his defense of his thesis:

Here’s Stuart, Jeff, Erland, Andrew, August, Patsy (at the back!), Tyler, Nick and Patrick (behind the camera) on Wednesday evening working away configuring personal laptops with packet radio clients for members so they can practice and participate at home.

Many learning and practice opportunities have been held in the lead up to our Exercise SWEEPER on May 3; check your inbox for other happenings in the next few weeks.

On Thursday May 3 VECTOR members and Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services Fire Prevention Officers will join other teams in Metro Vancouver and the mid-Island region in activating emergency communications for Exercise SWEEPER 2018.

Exercise, Exercise, Exercise

This is the scenario for Exercise SWEEPER 2018

In the early morning hours on Thursday May 3 a supercooled Arctic front plows headlong into a moisture-laden Pacific Ocean airstream directly over coastal areas in Southwestern British Columbia. What would be just another rainy spring morning has instead become an unprecedented ice storm - in May - with movie-sized impacts the likes of which have never been seen here in Vancouver. Where is The Rock when you need him?

Starting on Wednesday March 28 the regular VECTOR Wednesday Night Net will feature a message passing practice component. Anyone in range of our signal may participate.