The Sept/Oct magazine for the RAC carries an ad from Coax Publications announcing that they are ceasing operations at the end of 2025. Their website claims that the online support materials have been updated to reflect the new basic exam questions from ISED.
They have supplies of the basic exam "green guide" to last through the fall season. And the advanced manual has ample stocks for those planning to do their advanced exam - no changes in the question bank are expected before late 2026 at the earliest.
In short if you want a manual order one right away. Hamstudy is another vendor providing self study materials for the Canadian exam but the club has no experience with its products.
73 Ritchie VA7RLX
Late September 2025 Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ were offroading just south of Golden BC. On the must see list was the Jubilee fire lookout atop the 1680m Jubilee Mountain.
The road to access the mountaintop lookout was in great shape but included some extremely large water bars. Of course this was nothing for Mike and Jane's Unimog, affectionately named Ellie.
Once at the summit, camp was set up, dinner cooked and eaten, and then off to bed.
The next morning Mike looked in the SOTA Goat app on his phone and found that Jubilee Mountain was in fact in the SOTA system, ready to be activated for the first time. A recent SOTA mapping update of the VE7/CP region by Paul VA6MPM Mower had added the peak with designation VE7/CP-087. Thanks Paul!
While Jane (and Tao the dog) slept in, Mike climbed the lookout tower and setup his station. For this activation he would employ his QRP Labs QMX feeding an EFHW wire antenna hung from the lookout's railing. iFTX on Mike's phone would facilitate FT8 QSOs with 11 stations across North America on the 20m band.
As the sun rose above the Eastern side of the Rocky Mountain trench, Mike had to stop operating for a bit to take some photos (only one phone to either operate with or take photos with). He then continued on as there were quite the number of chasers still waiting for QSOs.
While drive-up summits aren't really the preferred way to activate SOTA, for those with mobility issues (and a good 4x4 vehicle) summits like these are a great option. You only need to walk a short distance from your vehicle up the lookout tower or over to the viewpoint bench for some great operating positions inside the summit activation zone. Visit this one.
It was fun,
73,
Mike VE7KPZ with Jane VE7WWJ, Tao the dog and Ellie the Unimog
Field Day 2025 took place at Silver Star Mountain Resort in parking lot E at an altitude of 1,600m (about 5,200 ft). This gave great take off for our antennas in all directions except due north... and we needed all the help we could get given marginal HF propagation conditions at times during the event!
First, the club's sincere thanks to Ginny Scott, Local Sales Manager at SSMR, for pulling everything together for us and doing an excellent job of hosting the club. We had exclusive use of lot E for the club and visiting members, plus free access to the showers in the village. Very much appreciated.
Views from the location were amazing. You can find a selection of some of the photos taken at this link (hosted on the club's Google account) https://photos.app.goo.gl/cA3H5JidHte1HJPj7
Campers assembled starting as early as the Thursday evening with the majority arriving on Friday evening. Campers included Howard VA7PWF, Colin VA7EEH, Lorne VE7LWK, Simon VE7RIZ, Jerome VE7JAR. Jane VE7WWJ and Mike VE7KPZ also camped with the club for the Friday night. VA7EEH, VA7PWF and VA7RLX arrived early on the Thursday afternoon and enjoyed supper at the resort's Red Antler pub.
There were the usual ups and downs getting Cranky, the club's trailer-mounted telescopic mast, properly set up and operational. But within a couple of hours everything was working just fine although we did discover a coax cable failure as the event progressed. VE7RIZ provided wireless internet which was accessible in most of the camping area and took some wonderful photos and drone shots. Unfortunately we don't have room on our Google drive for the movies as well.
Operators included Simon VE7RIZ (a guest who lives in Merritt) , Jerome VE7JAR, Ritchie VA7RLX, Brad VE7WBM, Warren VA7WPX, Felix VA7VOL, Howard VA7PWF and Lorne VE7LWK. Day visitors who dropped in to show support and help eat the great lunch included club members Gary VE7GCP, David VA7SK, Brad VE7WBM and Doug VA7CPS. Multiple guests from OCARC arrived, which was fantastic, including former NORAC member Doug VE7VZ.
Colin VA7EEH and Howard VA7PWF were the stars of the show and planned and organized pretty much everything for the club. Howard provided a great operations tent and Colin did a lot of work getting the laptops and N3FJP logging software working through the event. THANK YOU BOTH VERY MUCH.
Jerome VE7JAR and family enjoyed some mountain biking and Jerome tackled and survived the challenging Beowulf trail. Ritchie VA7RLX enjoyed a couple of hikes and only had one wildlife encounter with a very friendly golden retriever and its owner. However early on the Sunday morning a large black bear did wander across the campsite and disembowelled the garbage can pretty effectively. That bear knew how to take apart so-called bearproof garbage cans!
The club had decided this would be a fun event but for those interested we completed 394 contacts in total. 4 CW, 28 FT8 and 362 SSB. We operated on 80 through 10m. CQs were sent out on 6m but no contacts resulted. All those who attended thoroughly enjoyed the mountain location and low noise operating conditions.
July 1, 2025 - Central Okanagan, BC
The Orchard City Amateur Radio Club had plans to do some maintenance on the Little White VE7ROC repeater (146.82- T88.5). Mike VE7KPZ joined in on the fun - a 6 km return, 400 m elevation gain hike. The plan was to assist as a pack mule and then activate for both SOTA and POTA while at the summit. Little White mountain, SOTA reference VE7/OK-001, is located in Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park, POTA reference CA-3863.
The group gets ready at the trailhead cut block parking.
Following Gary Cooper VE7GCP's great instructions, Mike drove to the trailhead the day before and camped out. At 8:30 AM the main group arrived and hiking commenced 9 AM.
The group stopping for a break just exiting the forest section.
Continuing up to the col.
A lovely trail.
Along the ridge to the summit top right.
Sandra packed the two new solar panels all the way to the top like a Nepalese sherpa.
Bug-covered Mike happy to arrive.
The group gained the summit just after 11 AM. The maintenance team, led by Chris Walter VE7EQN, got to work while Mike set up for both VHF and 20/40m HF operation.
Mike's operating position.
This was the first field test of Mike's new QRPLabs QMX. Mike had forgotten to bring headphones/speaker so HF operation could only be via FT8 using iFTx on his phone. 40m FT8 gave only one QSO with Steve Maidment VE7DBS in nearby Kelowna. Conversely, 20m FT8 was jam packed and a bit of a challenge to get heard at QRP power level. Over the next hour the QMX's 5 watts of RF power was able to make 8 more contacts with folks all over North America plus one notable contact in Japan, Kazuhiro "Kaz" Idenuma 7N1FRE.
Mike operating in the shade.
VHF FM operation yielded 11 contacts. Wilf Mulder VE7OHM was the farthest QSO north in Vernon while Orin Beebe VE7BEE was the farthest south in Keremeos. Many Kelowna locals were also added to the log.
SOTA Goat app confirmed the SOTA activation zone.
With a total of 20 QSOs the activations were sufficiently complete so Mike tore down the station and headed over to other repeater site to see if any assistance could be rendered. Mike assisted with a bit of fibreglass work on the comm shell before loading up some of the maintenance supplies to carry for the trip down.
The group heads down.
The group made it back to the vehicles at the trailhead in just over an hour. Down is always easier than up, especially for Mike as he was 4.5 litres of water lighter for the return trip. Mike decided to camp out at the trailhead another night before heading home to Vernon the next day.
July 2 sunrise heading home.
You can see the official OCARC report (with more details of the service work done) for this event here: https://www.ocarc.ca/node/624
It was a great hike with a great group,
Mike VE7KPZ
Ps: if you are interested in mixing amateur radio with hiking, shoot Mike an email via his QRZ email address.
Pps: big thanks to Rob Smith VA7MF and Anton North VE7NRT for picture contributions.