SARC (Surrey Amateur Radio Communications – formerly “Club”), with 140+ members, is one of the largest and most active amateur radio organizations in Canada, offering a wide variety of ham-related activities, training opportunities and mentoring, all by volunteers dedicated to technical proficiency and service to the community.
Leadership comes from its diverse membership with backgrounds in science, engineering, electronics and information technology, and also from professions unrelated to radio. Through its various programs, SARC actively promotes growth for all members who wish to expand their interest base and proficiency.
SARC serves as a technical and human resource for its partner organization, SEPAR (Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio), a volunteer group supported by the City of Surrey under the sponsorship of Surrey Fire Services. Many members of SARC are members of SEPAR and vice versa.
Described below are some of the activities which may be of interest to prospective members:
Basic Ham Certification
Three or four 7-week on-line courses, including exams, are conducted each year with 100-200 students registered annually. Each student receives a 1-year free provisional membership in SARC to encourage participation and growth. Several followup orientation and training events are hosted to take graduates to the next level. Course information can be found at https://bit.ly/RadioCourses
Saturday Morning Social
Members of SARC and SEPAR meet every Saturday morning from 7 to 9:30 am (except when other events take priority) for breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant 6850 King George Blvd in Surrey. Typically 20+ members attend – and spouses are welcome.
Monthly Meetings
Monthly meetings are held either on-line or in-person during non-winter seasons, featuring technical presentations to supplement the business agenda. For the in-person meetings, Surrey Fire Services provides use of their modern fire training facility located at 14923 64th Ave in Surrey.
Operations and Training Centre (OTC)
The City of Surrey has provided SARC and SEPAR with the use of an Operations and Training Centre at 5756 142 St.– shared with South Fraser Search and Rescue Society – which includes a radio room, 15-seat classroom and social area as well as storage facilities for gear.
Regular Saturday morning meetings take place at the OTC between 9:30 and 12 pm for training, mentoring, contesting, project building and examinations.
Radio Equipment
SARC has a secure radio room fully equipped with two state-of-the-art HF transceivers and two VHF/UHF transceivers, plus tower, beam and wire antennas capable of world-wide communication. Two radio towers are available, one permanently located at the OTC and the other, a 100 ft. mobile tower which is used for field events. A satellite communication station, now under construction, will be operational by late Spring 2024.
Repeaters
SARC has two high elevation facilities serving north and south Surrey respectively, equipped with conventional analog 2m, 220 MHz and 70 cm voice repeaters supplemented (at the N site) by Echolink, IRLP and digital voice (Wires-X).
Nets
SEPAR and SARC operate their respective nets once a week on Tuesday evenings for member check-ins to promote proficiency in radio use, awareness of propagation conditions, and formal messaging practice. In addition, a Thursday evening (GOTA – “Get-on-the-Air”) net is focused on new members to encourage participation and discuss common beginner issues in a friendly, informal manner.
Training for New and Experienced Hams
The real learning starts after completion of the basic certification course. Therefore training events are scheduled periodically to acquaint new hams (“GOTAs”) with their newly-acquired radios, discuss various common issues and introduce them to facets of amateur radio which require a more advanced level of knowledge than is provided by the course.
A Morse Code (CW) training course is also held once a year, and examinations are followed up with practical tutorials on how to make live CW contacts.
Special Interest Groups (“SIGs”)
Ad hoc topic-specific forums and special interest groups (“SIGs”) are created from time to time. Recent topics include IC-7300 SIG, Satellite Forum, GNU Radio Forum, TX/RX Remote Operation Forum, and Advanced Certification Study Group.
Projects Group
SARC has a specialized group of members interested in electronics building projects to encourage understanding of electronic circuitry, enhance construction skills and create useful devices in the spirit of traditional ham radio.
Foxhunt
Foxhunts (aka “amateur radio direction finding or ARDF”) are an annual event in May, where both members and family as well as the public are invited to participate in this competitive and social occasion at a South Surrey park.
Field Day
The most important emergency response exercise of the year takes place on the fourth weekend of June, when the SARC/SEPAR team competes with hundreds of amateur radio operators and clubs across North America to showcase their capability to the public, other emergency organizations and to political leaders. SARC typically scores amongst the top winners in Canada.
Radio Contesting
Radio contests, held 10 or more times a year at the OTC, provide an opportunity to develop skills in operating radios in a competitive environment and ensure the readiness of radios and antennas in the event of a disaster.
Public Service Events
Many non-governmental and charity organizations, such as The Red Cross, The Salvation Army and hospitals do not have radio systems of their own. Several events a year such as the New Westminster Hyack Parade, Vancouver Sun Run, “Run Surrey Run”, Bikathons etc. deploy amateur radio operators to assist in monitoring participant safety and provide communication for event organizers and emergency personnel. SARC and SEPAR members routinely assist.
Communicator
The Communicator is SARC’s free 120+ pp bi-monthly digital publication read by thousands in 150 countries around the world. Its content encompasses historical and technical articles, amateur radio events and announcements, and reports on SARC and SEPAR activities. Past issues can be found at https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/SARC%20Communicator
POTA, SOTA IOTA
Several of our members are active participants in “Parks on the Air – POTA”, “Summits on the Air – SOTA” and “Islands on the Air – IOTA” and can offer coaching and instruction to beginners who wish to pursue these popular outdoor activities.
Website and Blog
SARC and SEPAR host several websites and blog sites. Links can be found on SARC’s home page at www.ve7sar.net