We are sad to announce that a long time NORAC member Doug (Robert) Reid VE7TVT passed away in the morning hours of December 5, 2023. He would have been 84 on December 13th.
Doug is best known as the Voice of RSS: "This is VE7RSS. A NORAC Repeater".
Also as NORAC's Sunday Morning Net Controller (which he operated single handed for countless years), past NORAC President, past Editor of the RagChew, and NORAC Life Member.
Doug was a retired high school teacher specializing in all things video. He had many stories of his father who worked at CBC in the infancy of TV Broadcasting.
Doug's joy was joining HAM radio nets (both HF and VHF), collecting all kinds of audio/video recording equipment, and listening to his huge collection of vinyl records.
The Cowichan, the Fraser and the Kicking Horse have been long recognized as Canadian Heritage Rivers.
The Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS) is Canada’s national program for recognizing, celebrating and conserving the natural, cultural and recreational values of 41 rivers across Canada.
These three BC rivers have recently been added to the POTA system by the VE7 mapping lead.
This is good news for Parks On The Air operators as it means easier access to great operating locations. The increased potential for concurrent activations will make POTA Rover awards a tiny bit easier to achieve.
POTA rules state that you must be within 30.5m (100’) of the river to activate it.
Check out the new additions:
Cowichan River National Heritage Area CA-6131
Fraser River National Heritage Area CA-6132
Kicking Horse River National Heritage Area CA-6133
The Tailgate Okanagan Ham Radio Party on October 22, 2023 was a success.
It was wonderful to meet many new Hams and get some great deals.
Meeting in Peachland near the A&W, about 20-30 people attended.
The organizers say that they would like to return this to an annual event.
When working with on replacing the old Daniels repeater with the new state of the art Kenwood NXR 710 repeater, Wilf Mulder (VE7OHM), made several videos about the new hardware.
For everyone:
VE7RSS Lives! 1st live test with VA7MXY
For all VE7RSS repeater users: go ahead tones and what they mean - power states - normal / on battery / battery low
Technical Committee:
Kenwood NXR 710 repeater/controller custom cable
How to swap back to the old Daniels repeater
All videos can be found in Videos Collection - NORAC