WARA at Emergency Preparedness Fair

6 May

WARA attended the Emergency Preparedness Fair out in Colwood (May 6, 2018). Al Muir VE7BEU, Frank Andersen VE7GCO, and Glenn Lindsey VE7GRQ represented the club.


Probably the most important activity was the opportunity to network with other radio amateur clubs and emergency radio teams. In the photo above is Al Muir, Frank Andersen, Jay (from CVARS), John Walls (New Horizons ARC – President), Steve Bradshaw (CVARS President)

Two HF propagation websites

5 May

In these times of difficult HF conditions, it’s probably necessary to do some calculating before getting onto the rig and sending “CQ CQ CQ 20 meters.”

The Off Grid Ham website has an article detailing the VOACAP and Proppy propagation calculators. They are pretty cool.

Amateur radio & military interoperability exercises

4 May

Two local emergency operations centres, the CRD EOC (VE7CRD) and Victoria EOC (VE7VEP), participated in an amateur radio & military (RJOC Pacific – Esquimalt & EMBC) interoperability exercise (Sweeper 2018) on Thursday, May 4, 2018. The primary responsibility for the CRD EOC and the Victoria EOC was to relay of verbal messages to Esquimalt and EMBC.

Four clubs (CVARS, Strathcona, Powell River, Oceanside) in the Cowichan Valley also participated in the exercise. They were the primary clubs interfacing with a Canadian Forces aircraft (JTOC Pacific) flying over Texada Island. Messages on amateur radio bands (HF) and a commercial radio band EP1 were sent amongst the participants.

Another example of such a radio amateur & military (Iowa National Guard) interoperability exercises (Exercise Stable Mercury) took place in the USA on April 23-24 using digital modes on 60-metres.

The disaster scenario for the Iowa exercise was a very interesting one: The scenario for the drill was based on an actual severe weather event that occurred 20 years ago, and the April exercise used radar feeds and storm spotter reports taken from the June 29, 1998, Iowa Derecho to inform this training event.

This is a very interesting read and another example how WARA volunteers can help the CRD prepare for emergencies.