For the first time ever, Emergency Services in Kamloops joined forces to present Emergency Services Day. The free event combined Emergency Preparedness Week with National Police Week to provide the opportunity for residents to meet their emergency response community.
Visitors learned about Kamloops community’s emergency services teams and how to be better prepared for an emergency event. The event took place in the North Parking Lot of Aberdeen Mall on Saturday, May 14th and the event featured a variety of emergency services partners, ranging from the Provincial Emergency Radio Communications Service (PERCS), Kamloops Fire Rescue, RCMP, BC Ambulance Service, CN and CP Police, Conservation Service, the Air 4 RCMP Helicopter, the BCSPCA, and many others.
PERCS volunteers Gina Charlesworth (VA7AIR), Bill Foster (VE7WWW), Myles Bruns (VE7FSR) and Mike Knauff from Emergency Management BC set up and staffed the PERCS tent, and visitors learned how amateur radio volunteers provide Emergency Radio Communications in the Province of British Columbia in support of their local municipality, Emergency Management BC or other response agencies.
ARRL has posted a new guide, “Find a ‘Doctor’ Near You” to help “ARRL The Doctor is In” visitors to locate and download and enjoy the popular podcast. The inaugural episode on HF Verticals remains available. “ARRL The Doctor is In” is sponsored by DX Engineering.
“ARRL The Doctor is In” is a lively discussion of all things technical. Listen on your computer, tablet, or smartphone — whenever and wherever you like! Every 2 weeks your host, QST Editor in Chief Steve Ford, WB8IMY, and the Doctor himself, Joel Hallas, W1ZR, will discuss a broad range of technical topics. You can e-mail your questions to doctor@arrl.org, and they may be answered in a future podcast.
“Does CW Really Get Through When Nothing Else Can?” will be the topic of the “ARRL The Doctor is In” audio podcast, available on April 21.
Enjoy “ARRL The Doctor is In” on Apple iTunes or on Stitcher (sign in or use as a guest). You can also listen to the current episode on Blubrry.
Podcast episodes will be archived on the ARRL website.
After several months of no service and looking for a new home, VE7TSI, KARC's IRLP Node 1080 is finally back on the air, accessible as per normal via VE7RKA (instructions are on the Local Repeaters page).
The node has had a computer upgrade, and depending on how plans develop we may move the node again, though we would expect further downtime to be much less in the future.
For now, please feel free to make use of it and enjoy!
Emergency Management B.C. (EMBC) is in the process of developing Exercise Coastal Response, a full-scale major earthquake and tsunami response exercise which will take place in the Port Alberni region from June 7-10, 2016.
This exercise will also involve the real-time deployment of the Provincial Coordination Team (PCT), a cross-government group that can be activated to bring support to a local authority in an emergency, and the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) team from Vancouver. In addition to HUSAR and EMBC, multiple levels of government, various jurisdictions in Canada and the U.S., and a number of provincial ministries, First Nations, Crown corporations, first responders and internal and external agencies will all be invited to participate.
This exercise will enhance provincial emergency readiness and response capabilities for a catastrophic earthquake.
Local volunteers from the Kamloops Amateur Radio Club and the Provincial Emergency Radio Communications Service will be participating in Exercise Coastal Response. If you are interested in more information or would like to volunteer, please contact Bill Foster (VE7WWW) or Myles Bruns (VE7FSR).
Astronomers for the first time have detected repeating short bursts of radio waves from an enigmatic source that is likely located well beyond the edge of our Milky Way galaxy. The findings indicate that these "fast radio bursts" come from an extremely powerful object which occasionally produces multiple bursts in under a minute.
Carl Luetzelschwab (K9LA) delivered another very informative presentation to the club last night. If you weren't able to attend, the presentation is available for download below.
If you have HF propagation questions or topics you'd like to learn about, please let us know and we will arrange another webinar with Carl.
On January 10, 2016 Myles (VE7FSR) and his friend Bert made the trip up to Greenstone to make a permanent repair to the broken guy line. A new "pre-formed dead end" was installed, replacing the temporary fix undertaken last December. While we were up there we dug down through the snow and inspected all the other guy lines at the ground end of the tower -- they look OK and should last through the winter. Next summer a closer inspection should be made at both the tower and ground end of all guy lines, and any dead ends that look questionable should be replaced with new ones.
The link to the east has been turned on (*8321 ON | *8320 OFF) and is working! I spoke with Ron (VE7RLE) and Darrell (VE7IU) through the Fly Hills link this morning and they say the signal is good at their end. It's great to have the link back in operation after a long hiatus, so don't be surprised if you start hearing some "new" call signs on the VE7RKA repeater!
