Website of the Westcoast Amateur Radio Association, Victoria BC
Did you miss attending this year’s WARA Swap Meet? Want to relive the action?
Click here to view the photos taken by Paul Austin VE7IOR.
Huge thanks to everyone who came out to support the first WARA Swap Meet in quite some time and in particular those who participated in the raffle, where 100% of the proceeds will go back to supporting club activities.
Massive shout out to our prize donors Alpha Antenna, Icom, Radio World, Ham Radio Deluxe, Radio Amateurs of Canada, and Hamshack for their generosity in donating these prizes at no cost to WARA.
| Gerry Trueman | 2023 WARA Membership |
| Matt King | Radio World $50 Gift Certificate |
| Darryl Downey | Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate |
| Joe Savoy | 2023 WARA Membership |
| Andrea Goodman | Radio World $50 Gift Certificate |
| Robert Crouch | Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate |
| Rick Chan | 2023 WARA Membership |
| Dom Kapac | Hamshack Custom Callsign |
| William Freeman | RAC Membership |
| William Freeman | Ham Radio Deluxe Software License |
| Daryl Cowden | Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate |
| Andrew Macaulay | Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate |
| John Walls | Alpha Antenna $100 Gift Certificate |
| Dom Kapac | Icom IC-V86 Handheld VHF Radio |
The raffles were held at Da Vinci Centre on Sunday, September 25, 2022.
If the prognosticators for increasing numbers of sunspots and the ramp up of the new sunspot cycle are correct, then those radio amateurs who enjoy HF will be dusting off their rigs, keys and microphones in anticipation of good DX. 
Here’s a link to the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations which gives us a taste of what’s to come for sunspot numbers. Today’s numbers can be found at Space Weather Live.
There’s always a possible fly in the sunspot ointment and they’re called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which can disrupt communications. A nice CME was observed on Tuesday August 4th. Check out this GIF.