As I write this, we are approaching Christmas and the end of another year. What a busy year it has been. We are fortunate to have a very active group of amateur radio operators (and their families) supporting the radio community within Surrey.
As the Emergency Radio Coordinator (ERC) for the city’s SEPAR program it has been my goal to increase the awareness for the SEPAR program. This includes helping with individuals’ capabilities and getting them on the air, helping with digital capabilities with Winlink and overall increasing involvement by hams in our activities.
Many if not all of these goals for the emergency program also work well within a club and those not yet ready to officially volunteer with SEPAR. For example, those who help provide licensing classes in Surrey do it under the Surrey Amateur Radio Club (SARC) but SEPAR benefits with having increased new amateurs participating in nets and becoming aware of how SEPAR works within Surrey.
Below is a list of various activities we (SEPAR/SARC) have held/participated in this year:
Attending the “Communications Academy” (online) for classes one of the Saturdays in April. This is an event focusing on amateur radio in emergency/disaster communications. Until COVID it was an in-person weekend, but it has moved to an online format. The previous year’s sessions are recorded and available online at: https://www.commacademy.org/archives.
Several local amateurs travelled to Seaside Oregon to participate in the SEAPAC hamfest. One of the “streams” available during this weekend was an entire Friday Session on Emergency Preparedness for Amateur Radio Operators. It also allowed for some very enjoyable meals with others discussing our “hobby”.
Organizing and participating in our local Field Day. This year we chose to hold our event at our Operations and Training Center (OTC). With the assistance of the city providing some very heavy concrete blocks to provide anchors for the tower guy ropes we set up our portable tower nicknamed “Bigfoot” to add another antenna to our site. We brought in and set up our SEPAR trailer as part of a public display of our local capabilities. We included operating on emergency power. We invited our local officials, and we did have some city councillors show up. We also had a great score with VE7SAR/VE7HME coming in 9th overall in field day for 2F, top in Canada.
One of the benefits of our OTC is the ability to have space not too far from the cities EOC (located at Fire Hall 1), which allows us to expand our communications abilities and relay to the Fire Hall without adding more people to a very busy EOC during an emergency.
Maintaining and fixing “BigFoot” our 110-foot radio tower trailer. During field day set up the generator stopped working. The generator provides power to the electric motors which run the hydraulics to lift the tower up and down. We were able to figure out a temporary fix to ensure the tower was usable for field day and then repair it afterwards. (It was the voltage regulator). It was also time to have the trailer serviced and government inspected for safety. With new tires, brakes services and the inspection complete we should be set for several years to come. Making sure your equipment is safe will ensure you can help out in during a deployment rather than becoming another “emergency” for the responders to deal with.
Volunteering for a local community run called “Run Surrey Run”. This was a first for SEPAR/SARC. It was also the first large event in Surrey to be organized with input from the amateur community and supported by volunteers providing event communications. It was very successful and sets up a model to support other large community parades and events in the future. This also allowed for us to use our training outside of our regular weekly nets.
The SEPAR Cruise In. This event was set up mid-August at a local A&W parking lot. We opened it up to amateurs from the entire area to come and show off their vehicle radio installation or grab and go kits. We invited the Fire and Police to come and help judge the installations and kits. This was a very successful event with so many in attendance it was hard to select prize winners. It helped demonstrate to the agencies we serve the capabilities within the local amateur radio community. One other benefit was it allowed for discussions on why and how kits or vehicle installations were done, providing new amateurs (or those working on a new install) lots of creative ideas on how to set up their own station.
Throughout the year our station at the OTC is used for Multiple contests. This helps get newly licensed amateurs practice on the air and ensures we are constantly identifying areas to improve our stations. Ultimately those participating in a contest become better and more capable radio operators we can count on during a disaster.
We are truly fortunate to have a dedicated group of instructors who take the time to lead multiple amateur licensing classes each year. From these classes we get new, enthusiastic, and keen individuals wanting to get involved. While not every newly licensed person joins the club or SEPAR we do have many who do get involved and help grow our community.
As part of the licensing class, we offer an antenna building workshop. A simple ladder line J-pole is the result each participant gets to take home. Besides the fun of building and seeing how to tune an antenna the participants also come away with an easy way to improve a portable radio signal. This is often noticed on the weekly nets when someone’s signal improves.
The annual fox hunt. This family event introduces a fun side of the hobby to younger kids and non licensed friends and family members. This is good training on direction finding and understanding on how to locate a weak signal.
Our weekly breakfasts and drop in’s at the OTC help build community. Each week we see 10-15 (or more) people come for breakfast at the local Denny’s and then many move over to the OTC to continue discussions or help with maintenance, fix a problem, or get some coaching on working with radios. This simple drop in has been one of the best program builders we have.
One of the results of our weekly drop in’s have been the updating of our computers for the Winlink RMS stations, our computers in our communication trailer and at the radio room at the Fire Hall. It also has had individual members getting their personal Winlink stations working.
We have also had a couple of members working on developing a plan for AREDN mesh type network around Surrey.
This year has also seen the repeaters being worked on. Our south repeater was upgraded from an old GE Master ll to a more current Quantar commercial unit. The North Site also has one of our members working on getting the 440 unit upgraded to a Yeasu Repeater with Fusion and an active Wires X node.
In November we once again participated in the Great Shake Out 2022 exercise. This is a great reminder of how amateur radio could possibly support local communications after an earthquake.
Last we continue to hold our weekly 2m SEPAR Emergency Net. This is open to all amateurs and check ins are conducted from the various districts of Surrey and then from surrounding areas. It then moves to a short simplex checkin on a different frequency. This is usually well attended. During this year we also had new net control operators join us, adding to our pool of capable operators.
This is not an exhaustive list but rather a quick look at some of the highlights of 2022. While a very short read it does include hundreds of hours of volunteer time by the amateurs in the Surrey area. Our Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio is made up by a very diverse community of amateur radio operators. Looking back, we can see how much has been done to provide the backbone of communications portion of our SEPAR Program.
We are looking forward to building on the lessons and work done in 2022 in the coming year. Please take our encouragement for you to come and join us, or join your local group of amateur radio operators to make you community better next year.
We wish everyone a very Happy New Year.
If you are interested in the SEPAR program and wish to become more involved, please let us know. Our website is www.separ.ca and there is a contact form to contact us.
Our weekly nets are every Tuesday night on the SARC repeater on 147.360 + T110.9 at 07:30 pm PST. All are welcome to check in.
~ Gord Kirk VA7GK
SEPAR Coordinator