November - December SEPAR Report

 The Great ShakeOut

Once again SEPAR participated in the BC Shakeout Exercise. This is an annual event to help remind people of the potential for an earthquake to impact our area of the country. Like our southern coastal neighbors in Washington, Oregon and California, Coastal BC is an area at risk to earthquakes. As a result, the annual Shakeout Exercise is designed to remind people of the risk, to provide tips on how to prepare for an earthquake and what to expect if a larger quake occurs.

Each year on the third Thursday of October at 10:17 we experience a “planned earthquake”. People are reminded to “Drop, Cover and Hold On” during an earthquake. This includes how to protect themselves from falling objects or what to do while driving. It is a good reminder on how to be prepared for family and friends. One of the components for a good plan is your personal communication plan.

This plan includes a contact list of family and friends which you will contact after an event. This will help people to know you are ok and how you plan on reunification. I.e. Where are you going to meet, and when? It might also include your expected route and when you will connect again with each other. This might be by cell phone, text, an app, or your ham radio. You should consider who will be your local contacts and your out of area contacts. Those physically in your geographic area are those you may want to check in with first and know they are ok, or what help they might need. Your out of area contact can help reach out to others for you, so you can concentrate on dealing the earthquake’s impacts. Don’t forget it is also a good idea to have the phone numbers listed on a card just in case you lose or damage your phone and have to borrow one.

As part of your plan as an amateur radio operator you should consider what frequencies/repeaters you may want to use to make contact and gather information. As part of your preparedness plan have you a spare battery or backup power plan? For handhelds do you have a better antenna than the stock antenna to help improve your signal?

Each week we have a practice SEPAR net where we do our regular check ins on the primary repeater and then move to a backup frequency test which is often via simplex. This means that participants start to understand how they are being heard from their location and how to relay a message if they are not being heard by net control. Part of our net script reminds everyone that during an emergency or disaster the repeater should be used as a primary check-in, and if the repeater is not working to move to our local simplex frequency in the plan.

So, with all of this we were able to hold a net on Thursday Oct 17 just after 10:17am. We had 27 check ins from around the city and neighboring communities. This year we also had several students who recently graduated from a summer school electronics class in which they also were taught the local Surrey Amateur Radio Club (SARC) amateur radio licensing class. https://www.surreyschools.ca/_ci/p/168383/new-radio-frequency-communications-summer-course-in-surrey.

From this, students from around the school district were licensed as Hams. SARC as well as several club members have donated both their time and radios to make this program a success. The teacher Adam Drake VE7ZAL (also a recent SARC class graduate) was the driving force to create and teach this over the summer. After the success of the summer school class, he arranged for students from some of the schools to participate in the Great Shake out Drill. The lead SARC instructor John Schouten VE7TI, who helped teach the class throughout all of July, went to the Surrey School Board Office and the participated in the Net with school board officials watching. As the net started students checked into the net and passed along an update from the school simulating what the school would be doing if the earthquake was real. The school board officials were able to hear the reports from the surrounding area and the schools where the check ins were coming from. The local media were also present and ran a story on the CityTV nightly news.

Overall, this was an excellent example to our community of the value of amateur radio and how it is a great tool to help in a disaster. The students are excited by what they have learned. Many are now participating in weekly nets and coming to Club drop in events. As the news clip indicates some are even recognizing how this could lead to future education plans and a potential career.

At SEPAR we encourage licensed amateurs to get involved, know the local area emergency communications plan and test out your equipment. We often run across individuals who have their license and even a radio but have not used it. They believe this will provide them their “emergency radio/communications” during a disaster. We encourage and help them to get their radio programmed, and teach them how to use it with “Get on the Air” classes and nets. SARC includes as part of the radio licensing class an antenna workshop. This teaches theory and has the students finish with their own roll up J-Pole antenna which will help improve their handhelds signal when needed. Unless a class is using the facility on Saturday morning, we host a weekly drop in to visit, work on projects and help those with questions, radio programming, radio installations etc. This helps with our community being better prepared and makes our radio “hobby” a very enjoyable one.

As always if you want more information on SEPAR please reach out. Our website is www.SEPAR.ca

~ Gord Kirk VA7GK
   SEPAR Coordinator

 

March - April 2024 SEPAR Report

More updates at firehall one

In the last update we talked about the ongoing work updating our radio room at Surrey Fire Hall #1. Again our amazing team has continued to work on small but important tasks. We have all of the VHF/UHF and 220 radios functional and reprogrammed. Our computer is updated and working. There are still a couple of remaining tasks. Our HF radio still needs the roof top antenna serviced. We have permission to go to the roof top to to make the necessary repairs. This does need to be done during business hours and we are waiting for some improvement in the weather to get this task completed.

The other large project is to get our Digital communications updated and working. Fire Hall #1, our SEPAR trailer and the Grab and Go Kits all have SCS Pactor modems installed. This part of our renewal will see the computers updated and our Winlink stations revitalized.

This will also lead to a training focus to ensure our members are able to work with Winlink and are confident in using the program to pass messages.

In SEPAR we also are part of the BC Wireless Amateur Radio Network -BCWARN (https://bcwarn.net/). Our primary repeater site hosts a link to form part of the regions network. This allows us to connect Fire Hall #1 and our trailer to this network. From this we have a phone system to other EOC’s and a connection to the internet outside of our local area. Again with the help of the BCWARN technical team and our SEPAR Team led by Reg VE7ZEB the switches for this system have been replaced and upgraded, our phone and the data via BCWARN network is once again tested and functional.

We have both primary and back up switches installed and tested. The Yeasu Fusion repeater with Wires-X is also now using the internet via BCWARN. We hopefully will see further expansion of our use of this system within Surrey and the surrounding areas.

BCWARN

“From the BCWARN website here is the description of what this network is designed for.

BCWARN is an association of amateur radio groups sharing the common goal of building a high-speed data network, capable of operating independent of commercial "internet" providers.

One of the goals of BCWARN participating groups is to assist in connecting Emergency Operations assets (EOC's, PEP HQ's, reception centers, etc) together with a common, independent network.

The BCWARN network allows its users to exchange information between the connected sites such as email, internet-chat, remote printing, VoIP telephone and fax calls, and virtually anything else that you would use the "internet" for, but without having to rely on commercial network infrastructure.

Note however, that during the majority of the time, there are gateways to the "internet" that allow traffic from BCWARN sites to communicate all over the world. However, should a major incident cause those gateways to fail, the BCWARN sites will still be able to communicate with each other and exchange their information.”

SARC VE7RSC Repeater Site

Next Steps

As the weather begins to improve we look forward to completing the rooftop antenna work. We will also continue on the SEPAR Trailer work we began last year. This will include updating the BCWARN equipment in the trailer, updating the radios and computers. This will also see the digital equipment upgraded.

Our weekly nets, and Saturday drop in sessions continue to be well attended. We continue to see membership growth and interest from our program volunteers.

Kjeld Frederiksen VE7GP SK

It is with sadness we mourn the passing of one of our oldest SEPAR and SARC members.

Kjeld Frederikson VE7GP joined SEPAR prior to Oct 2007. He was a very active participant and in earlier years hosted one of the original club repeaters at his home. He also helped with the build out of our SEPAR trailer. It was an honour to have him spend his time with us and to help build a safer community. He will be missed.

If you would like more information on the Surrey Emergency Program please reach out.

~ Gord Kirk VA7GK
   SEPAR Coordinator.

 

January - February SEPAR Report

Winter happenings

It is time again to look forward to a new year and also to look back at our learnings and successes in 2023.

What a good year 2023 was for renewing our SEPAR program.

Our radio community in both our Club (Surrey Amateur Radio Communications -SARC) and emergency program (Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio -SEPAR) have grown. We have had so many new ideas and opportunities we haven’t been able to get to all of them.

Relationships and Community

Many of the areas of success an outside observer would say have nothing to do with the emergency program. Some of the activities by design are just fun. (Annual Foxhunt, Parks on the Air, Christmas Potluck etc.) However, one of our biggest successes is the growing community of amateur radio operators.

In emergency management it is often said “relationships are key”, “it is not what you know but who you know”. We are seeing that many individuals with diverse backgrounds being willing to help and contribute to SEPAR. This ensures we have a successful core group to work in and on the Emergency Program.

I have heard comments from many of our people about how happy they are to have found our radio group in Surrey. They have found a community.

Regular Meetings

Weekly we meet for Breakfast at a local Denny’s restaurant. Each week there are between 15-20 individuals coming with a core attendance of about 12 every week. After this we move over to the OTC (Operations and Training Center) with many other different individuals coming there. Some weeks we run a class, others we build a project (thanks Dino VE7NX for leading this) while at the same time having some participate in contest using the radio stations.

We are very fortunate to be able to offer licensing classes throughout the year. The students also get a one-year membership in the club to participate in the activities. This helps bring them into our community building relationships, introducing them to the SEPAR program. It also helps them get on the air. We are seeing volunteer numbers in the Emergency Program increasing almost monthly.

At our breakfast often the emergency program is discussed and what we need to work on next is planned. At breakfast about 6 weeks ago we talked about the Radio Room we have at Fire Hall 1 (where the cities EOC is located). Since COVID it has only been active about once per month to test the Inter-Municipal Emergency Radio System (IMERS). This has been led by Ron VE7VTA for the last couple of years. The Winlink Station was very old and some of the radios had been disconnected, with the HF station to have a known issue with the HF antenna.

Another couple of SEPAR members, Ion (VE7NL) and his son Jean Luc (VA7JLU) have also give their time to try and keep our Winlink stations active and support our documentation plans. Ion has spent hundreds of hours working on a documentation manual and with renewed support from others we hope that this can be expanded and completed.

So, a few weeks back a group went over for a visit and things then really began to move along. A list was made, and whirlwind of activity began. It started with checking which radios would work, connecting antennas etc. and trying to rebuild an accurate list of frequencies that would be programmed into all the radios. Horace VA7XHB took the lead on this. (He also is the person who helps program radios with the same list on Saturday mornings for people who come to the OTC). This frequency list is coordinated with surrounding municipalities and has many of the area repeaters and simplex frequencies. Reg VE7ZEB set up a Trello group to communicate tasks and their status.

He recently sent out a couple of email detailing the work by so many individuals and has given me permission to share (edited versions) as part of the report:

Fire Hall 1 Radio Room

Email #1:

Everyone,

I'm sending this email out after having a chat with Gord at the SARC meeting tonight.  The topic is the SEPAR radio room at Firehall 1 which has fallen into a state where it could use some attention.  The immediate goal is to get everything in that room working.

Gord, as discussed, I've sent this to the people I thought appropriate, but if others should be included, please reply to all and add them to the list.

Computer

Status:

The new video cable was deployed, and the computer now boots, and one can log in correctly.

Radios

Status:

· Radio 1: Powers on, no tail on the repeater, no response to radio checks.  Unknown if this is functional.

· Radio 2: Does not power on.

· Radio 3: Powers on but is not set up for regular repeaters.  Marked digital.

· Radio 4: Working and tested.

· HF Radio: not tested but it does power up.

Tasks:

1. We need to get all five radios working.

Misc

Erika fixed the clocks.  She put a new battery in each and correctly set the UTC and Local times.

This is an amazing radio room, and we are lucky to have it.  Horace is already working on programming the Icoms.  If anyone else wants to play a more active role in getting this facility more functional, please let Gord know and/or reply to all in this email.

Several of us (Gord, Erika, and myself for now) are tentatively planning to visit Firehall 1 after breakfast every Saturday for the foreseeable future.  Everyone is welcome to join us and I would be happy if you do.  This should happen at approximately 9:30 a.m. and the goal of these informal meetings will be to do small tasks right then and there, and to set out a handful of tasks for the coming week.  If a few people give the room half an hour now and then, this will become one of the best radio rooms in the city.

If you can, make it on Saturday after breakfast, that's great and I look forward to seeing you there.  If not, expect another email after Saturday, at which point I should have more detail on exactly what needs to be done to get the radios working.

Best,

Reg VA7ZEB

 

Email #2

Everyone,

It's hard to believe my first email to the group was only 2 and a half weeks ago.  Much has been done.  Trello is our place to participate in the ongoing discussion on this, but I'm sending out this email update as I know some of you aren't following the Trello yet.

I got the Windows 11 computer working and on the Internet.  Feel free to use it as needed for SEPAR matters.

 

Horace got all the Icom 2820 radios programmed.  We called out on every single repeater and asked for signal reports.  Every repeater that didn't at least trigger was dumped from the list, as there's no reason to have repeaters programmed in that you can't reach.  Some repeaters had users report that we were unreadable, and those repeaters were dumped, too.  At some point I would like to get a mobile radio programmed in with all those frequencies and take it out of the firehall to test if we are getting a clean signal in.  Again, there's no point in having repeaters programmed which we can't communicate on.

Manvir (VA7BKI) installed the shelf and cleaned up the HT situation totally.  He really did a clean job of it, and it looks great.  At some point, we need to figure out what we're doing with all those HTs, but that can wait for now. Erika (VA7ISI) got the whiteboard looking new and we put up a little shelf for the markers, eraser and fluid.

Mike (VE7YEG) bought RT Systems for us at his own expense and is working on installing that and testing the antennas on each radio.   He's also working with Rob (VE7CZV) to install software for the visually impaired, which I think is amazing.

I will leave the remaining to-do list on Trello, but I just wanted to acknowledge the great work people have done so far.  The radio room is already usable in emergencies, which is a great accomplishment.

Best,

Reg VA7ZEB

 

Email #3

Everyone,

We had another great meeting at Hall 1 today. Erika (VA7ISI) and Adrian (VE7YEP) are heroes for doing a serious cleaning.  There was a thick layer of dust on the top of the cabinets. It's gone. You can run your finger on the top of the cabinets now and it will come back clean.  Every surface has been dusted and then wiped down with water and cleaner. They also spent a ton of time piling up candidates for storage/recycling which were taken to the OTC today.  The room is spotless now, and no longer looks like a storage room.  I might note that Erika has more energy than Adrian and I have combined.

Even the (previously) totally disgusting air vent has been cleaned and looks great now.

Jaspal's (VE7JB) donation of an air purifier should help to keep things cleaner in the future.

Jeannie (VA7QLT) and Erika also spent a lot of time pruning some of the papers for either retention, review, or disposal.

Rob has tested his braille reader and that's working perfectly.  Mike was invaluable in setting that up, too.  I think it's amazing that we have an emergency radio room that is accessible to the visually impaired.

The Winlink station on the Toughbook has been taken down and Station A is now fully open for general use.  All the junk equipment above the cupboards has been taken down and either moved to the OTC for storage or has been placed somewhere accessible.

Erika really wants an electronic sign on the door.  Doug (VA7JDJ) has agreed to investigate that and possibly take on the project if his investigation deems it feasible.  Both Mike and Erika have ideas on the sign so I would suggest you communicate with them before starting anything, Doug. 

Gord and Stan are going to try to get the HF radio functional.  That's the last non-functional radio in the room and I would absolutely love to get it functional so I hope this can become a priority. Gentlemen, I'm happy to help where I can, and I'd like to join you for the trip to the roof if possible as I have never been up there.  When we're up there, I'd really like to document which VHF antennas belong to which radio.

Mike has done his Nano VNA testing. Mike’s exact data will be up on our Trello shortly so if anyone sees any points of concern there, please let the group know.

Very importantly, after today, the vibe in the radio room has totally changed from being a storage room a couple of months ago to being a vibrant, active radio room in which everything (except the HF rig which we're working on) is fully functional and where a radio operator could work for many hours comfortably.

I doubt there will be another update until next year.  I also don't expect any more Saturday meetings at Hall 1 until next year.  Thank you all so much for the work you've put in.   This is now one of the best radio rooms in the city.  Next year, we'll update our procedures for the rooms use, so keep ideas on that flowing.  Merry Christmas if I don't see you before then.

Best,

Reg VA7ZEB

 

We will continue to keep you updated on the work done as there is still much work to be done.

Over the past year there have been so many other things done by many not mentioned in this Hall 1 review. Steve (VE7SXM - President of SARC) and John (VA7XB SARC Vice President) both spent hours working on updating the SEPAR Trailer. John also one through each of the grab and go kits to ensure they were complete and note any deficiencies requiring repair.

John VE7TI and Stan VE7NF both spent countless hours teaching the radio licensing course and subsequent workshops to assist students get licensed.

Larry VE7LXB has been tireless in supporting the newly licensed with the Get on the Air (GOTA) Net and fielding so many questions from the newly licensed and asking for further help from the “Elmers” group when needed.

In the background we have Jeremy VE7TMY our Secretary who does such a great job with the paperwork and website maintenance, and Scott VE7HA our treasurer who so carefully looks after finances.

Lastly there are too many to call out regarding the OTC. We have help cleaning leaves off the roof, cleaning bathrooms, maintaining radio stations and antennas and so many little items.

As I started describing earlier it is the relationship and the community with regular meetings that have given the support for the SEPAR program to ensure a healthy vibrant volunteer program for the city.

I look forward to sharing what we will do in 2024.

I wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

~ Gord Kirk VA7GK
SEPAR Coordinator

 

November - December SEPAR report

 Fall happenings

Fall has finally arrived. The long very dry summer has ended, and the fall winds and rain have started. For many of us it is time to put away the summer garden and prepare the outside for winter. For many amateurs, the time to do any outside antenna work etc. is rapidly disappearing. Our work at the Operations and Training Center (OTC) this last weekend involved blowing the leaves off the building roof and checking that the downspouts were not plugged. In the past, lack of this maintenance has caused leaks inside the building. This is now a planned fall work activity we do as part of the building maintenance.

We also spent some time moving our wire dipole antenna up higher. One of the group brought his arborist throw line air cannon and helped “shoot” a pull line about sixty feet up a nearby tree. With a new line in the middle of the antenna (near the balun) we were able with a bit of work pull the middle of the antenna up higher.

One other area of unanticipated work was moving one of the guy lines off our trailer tower to a new concrete block location. The original location was anchored to the corner of a nearby shipping container. However, the container owner was removing the container, so we had to temporarily remove the line and crank down the tower until a new anchor location was decided and set up. With the work all done for the day our antennas were back in service, hopefully for the coming fall and winter.

SEPAR also participated in the annual Great Shakeout Earthquake exercise. Like previous year’s we “dropped, covered, and held on” wherever we were at. After doing what we have planned to do (check our family for injuries, home or business for damage etc.) our plan is to go to the VE7RSC repeater. If this fails, we go to the Surrey primary simplex frequency we would use.

While this is the plan for SEPAR it is open to any amateur radio operator. We start a net and ask those checking in for some basic information:

· call sign

· location

· injuries or immediate assistance required

· obvious visible damage or location report

· and the amateurs' capabilities:

◦ do they have power,

◦ internet,

◦ phone,

◦ what type of radio do they have available with them (VHF/UHF/HF/Digital),

◦ and also backup power, and

◦ If the person checking in is mobile, what have they seen during their drive.

Net control will gather this information and pass this “picture” on to the city or to another amateur who will take over the net.

So like previous years this is what was done this year. We had approximately 25 check-ins from around both the city and neighbouring areas. We also reached out to Whatcom County EOC in Washington State. They are the immediate southern border county to Surrey.

Prior to this exercise we had quite a discussion surrounding what a Volunteer was to do during an unplanned event. We discussed the plan about starting a net and who was to do it? The answer is the first person on the air. So, we explained how our weekly net is a good example of how to run it. We also practice a simplex portion of the net weekly. This should help members understand who they can normally “hear” and how to use a “relay station” to communicate with those who you cannot reach directly (or without a repeater in the middle). This is also a good lesson for many to help them understand that a good antenna and a mobile/base radio is better than having just a handheld with the stock antenna. Of course, a handheld with a good antenna is also a great tool to have with you. As part of the radio licensing classes offered, we hold a workshop and have the students make a roll-up j-pole. This helps make a small portable radio kit that you can keep with you in a bag at work, or your pack you take to work regularly etc. Regardless of the radio used, those who are regular participants in nets with their equipment quickly understand their limitations of their equipment.

Our discussion also led to a plan to create an emergency preamble to the net that can be used in place of the weekly “practice” net. The regular net script was sent out to a group for feedback to update it if needed. During the net the “new” net control made a sheet to help remind him of the information that would be important to gather. It will become the start of a template others can use moving forward.

As a follow up we will map out the approximate locations of each check in to show the capabilities of the amateur community to provide within 30 minutes or so of an earthquake.

We will also be looking at how we can get this information into the EOC prior to moving our net control to the radio room there.

We also had the local frequency plan which is agreed upon by the Greater Vancouver Area Municipalities’ volunteer groups refreshed and it was sent out to the new amateurs who have been participating in the local GOTA net.

As we meet and debrief from the exercise there will no doubt be other learnings and outcomes we have not yet identified.

As I started this article talking about fall activities around the house there are some other personal things everyone should consider as personal preparedness items as winter approaches.

Winter Storms often impact power and the ability to travel.

Have you a plan for backup power and tested your plan? e.g. run the generator and make sure it starts. Do you have fuel? Are your radio batteries charged?

If your power goes out, will you lose your heat? How about your internet and communications?

Do you have your vehicle prepared for winter with appropriate tires? What about winter supplies if you get stuck?

Have you changed out the summer clothing to winter clothing in your 72-hour kit?

Now is the time to gather those extra supplies and think through what you learned last winter.

One last area is make sure you sign up for your local area alerts. In Surrey we use the Alertable App for emergency communications. You can define the alerts you will receive and be aware of storms or other emergencies that could impact you.

We received a very nice letter from the RunSurreyRun organizers complimenting SEPAR on our communications for the event.

If you are interested in the SEPAR program and wish to become more involved, please let us know. Our website is www.ve7sar.net and there is a contact information to contact us.

You can also check out the blog at www.SEPAR.ca

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

 

The September - October SEPAR Report

Trailer Update

Since our last issue SEPAR has continued with our weekly nets and weekly Saturday drop ins at the Operations and Training Center (OTC). Prior to going to the OTC many attend the local Denny’s for breakfast. Each week we see between 10-20 individuals often with some new first time attendees as well. Along with SARC we have also had a couple of summertime social events to keep the friendships going strong. We have also seen several new “on the air” individuals move from the Get on the Air (GOTA) net to now start joining the regular nets. The GOTA net helps with practical issues including “mic fright” to have those recently licensed actually be comfortable with using their radios.

Work by a couple of our SEPAR members (John VA7XB and Steve VE7SXM) on the SEPAR trailer was also done. John completed the work of moving the inside lights and rewiring them, did some further work on the new outside front storage box as well as installed new rear stabilizer jacks. These help maintain the stability of the trailer when deployed and with the low ground clearance of the trailer took some work to get a workable solution.

Along with the installation of the storage box a couple of stabilizer arms were also installed to help with vibration on the Hi-Q screw driver antenna also on the front.

Steve helped on the inside of the trailer with removal of an existing rack and remounting the radios on the front wall. He also rewired the radios and created a new battery power solution inside. This now allows for the radios to be activated prior to generator or shore power being used. It is great to see the trailer refresh work being completed.

Work has also been ongoing by John VE7TI with the now second annual Run Surrey Run race being scheduled for September 10th. (We are looking for volunteers still to help with this event).  John has been working with both the City and Race Organizers on the event plan to ensure that the communications component is well set up and full communications throughout the events course is available and covered by volunteer amateur radio operators. This is a great learning opportunity to work with the city and help those involved understand how communications may be run during an emergency instead of a fun event. More information about the event will come in a future issue.

The personal communications plan

This issue we want to continue with the personal communications plan theme. Last issue we explored your family communications PACE plan. This issue we want to start expanding to work with your neighbours.

Today as this is being written our Province (BC) is in the midst of the worst even recorded wild fire season. Hundreds of homes and commercial properties have been destroyed by fire and thousands have been forced to flee these terrible fires. More than 67,500 people are on evaluation alert with many fires being fought hard for multiple days and are still out of control. As these fires go through the power and communications infrastructure are also impacted. This can mean that even though your home is safe from the fire you can still be without power and communications. The ability to gather up-to-date and accurate information via the internet can be very difficult in these conditions.

In SEPAR we have been working on developing a plan to help non-amateurs communicate with each other within their immediate neighbourhood. In conjunction with the local Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program we have been working on a plan to use FRS/GMRS (non licensed) radios in the local area. Even though these radios are marketed on the package saying they will work up to 20-35km the reality is these are good for approximately 1 km if you are outside. If you are talking from inside a building the range will be that much less. This range will allow neighbours to talk with each other.

If there is a single amateur in the community that person can act a relay station to move the messages outside and back into the community. We have been working with the NEPP program and will provide a class on communications and also offer licensing classes to help get someone in the neighbourhood licensed for amateur radio. This is an excellent strategy to use in your strata community/townhouse group.

When explaining how the radios work we advise users to pick a channel and not to use any privacy tones on the radios. These actually make the radio “deaf” to anyone without the correct tone and you may miss that someone is on the channel if these are in use. These low power radios will work well in a small area and if the next street over wants they can select a different channel to make sure they don’t interfere with one another. This can be repeated throughout the larger community and you can basically hopscotch the FRS/GMRS channels through out the area (or city) reusing channels when they get too far away to cause interference with someone else using the same channel.

This idea is not new and many communities have started some form of this in their area. In our region one of the best examples for this is the plan in use on Saltspring Island. They have the entire island mapped out with neighbourhood channels and can actually relay a message via each neighbourhood if needed. Now they also have several strong amateur radio operators in the community that can relay over much longer distances.

The draft plan in Surrey for channel use does have some specific channels identified for other uses based on some of the best practices we have been able to identify in our research. Our sample plan also takes into account the radio channels 8-14 are low power and are good to use only within a neighbourhood. Channels 1-7 and 15-22 are high power and are best used to reach the entire neighbourhood or a surrounding area. Channel 1 is often taught to be used for distress calling and in the US the “Channel 3 Project” also recommends using channel 3 for calling others so we have designated this for general calling outside of the neighbourhood.

This means that we will recommend channels 2, 4-7 and 15-22 for various neighbourhoods as the dispatch channel and 8-14 within a neighbourhood to be used as needed.

Regardless of how you work the assignment of channels a plan on how to get information from within an area to the outside must be created. The plan is to select a primary high power channel for your street and use it to help coordinate your plan.

Neighbourhood Dispatch Channel:

To communicate with a) Block Captain or b) Team Leader or c) Incident Commander or d) local ham for external communication.

THIS IS THE INITIAL GO-TO AND MONITORING CHANNEL

Often it is you immediate neighbours that you are going to get help from in an emergency and working with them to find a way to communicate when regular communications fail should be part of you planning process. These local FRS channels can be used to check in with your neighbours and if you are the local amateur, you can put together a report on the condition of your community and any needs etc. that exist. You can use your amateur radio to get this information onto your local emergency responders or EOC to help in the local response to the ongoing emergency.

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 get in touch with 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

The July - August SEPAR Report

 

 The Summer report

The lead up to field day is always a very busy time for the amateur community as SEPAR members can attest. We had several areas to look at in preparation for two events. Two weeks prior to field day SEPAR attended an Emergency Preparedness Fair along side the Langley Amateur Radio Association. This was a 4 hour event for the public to attend and see various booths promoting Neighborhood Preparedness, Earthquake Preparedness, First Aid, Water Storage and Filters, Food Storage, Cooking without Power, How to Build an Evacuation (bug out) Kit, Building a Documentation Binder, as well as discussing Fire Safety.

SEPAR was asked to present on Family and Neighborhood Emergency Communication plans. We had 10 volunteers show up to help with our set up and to demonstrate various equipment to the attendees. One part of our focus was to discuss with already licensed but inactive amateurs how to get on the air and help with understanding that a simple inexpensive handheld radio with the stock antenna may not meet their needs for communications if they have not tested it.

We had various member’s grab and go kits, example antennas ranging from home build, to purchased Buddipole antennas. One of our members Larry (VE7LXB who runs the GOTA net) showed how to set up HF from the back of your car if you live in a townhome where larger antennas are not possible.

Our presentation session focussed on some of the areas we covered in previous issues of the Communicator, including how to get situational awareness, using phones and internet for planned communications moving to satellite texting devices like the Garmin inReach Mini, and of course amateur radio. Overall this was a successful and fun day despite the rain which came down most of the time.

These types of activity are always good to confirm our equipment is working. We have a small cargo trailer set up with three radio positions and there are always improvements and maintenance that can be done. One of our members (John VA7XB) is helping design a new cabinet to help store the folding tables and pop up canopies. He also helped with repositioning the chair storage to hangers on the rear door. He mounted a new box to the front tongue area of the trailer for miscellaneous equipment, helping to clear up some clutter. We also discovered what looked like an attempted break in to the rear doors and the part was repaired.

We also installed a 12 Volt Battery Box with battery to run the equipment inside. Previously it only ran from 110V through either shore or generator power.

With this equipment in place the next setup was our club’s Field Day. The focus this year was to place the GOTA station in the trailer and have it running the entire time with newly licensed hams (or unlicensed visitors) under supervision. This helped the new people to spend some time in the trailer and see what was there and also get the support to try HF which most had not previously used. The biggest challenge of the day or Larry the GOTA coordinator was getting the operators to give up the radio to allow others to try. The end result was many newly licensed amateurs now excited to move into HF on top of being active on the VHF and UHF bands.

During field day we also set up our portable 100 foot tower and tested everything out on it. The HF antenna was assembled and the tower raised. Last year at field day we had identified work needing to be done on the trailer and over the year most was completed. This included new tires, brakes and an inspection to certify its safety under the BC Motor Vehicle Act. We also repaired our generator which failed last year, and we did some rewiring to allow the tower hydraulic system to work both from generator or shore power. The generator also had a 220V outlet installed to make it useful for move than tilting and raising the tower. From the 220V outlet an extension cord is available to split power to two 110 volt outlets for powering other items as required.

After a fabulous BBQ dinner during field day, I had a conversation that amateur radio is often seen as a solitary hobby. But with an active club it is far from a lonely time. We meet for breakfast/coffee weekly, have a weekly drop in, three nets during the week and a monthly meeting. In the summer the monthly meetings become an evening get together to visit in our lawn chairs and just have some food and fellowship. In reflecting on the conversation I was reminded that it also allows for some of our members to check in everyday on some of the nets just to keep connected with our friends. Becoming connected to a volunteer organization provides so many benefits to so many of our members.

As mentioned in our last article we will be continuing our look at communications plans. The last issue you were encouraged to write down the answers to four questions. This included who you wanted to talk to (don’t forget work contacts), why, how you would do so and when. Also note this is being build to communicate with family and friends and many of these significant individuals in your life may not be amateur radio licensed.

With that information collected it is time to lay out a plan. So many individuals and groups are promoting the use of a PACE plan. This is an acronym which stands to Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency plan.

In building your PACE plan, start with the first person you want to connect with in an emergency or communications outage and write out that persons name, phone number (work numbers too), email, what social media or communication platform (i.e. Telegram, Messenger, Instagram) you could use to reach them, Satellite phone number or if they have a satellite message device and what type of radio they may have. This may be other than a Ham radio, it may be FRS/GMRS, CB, commercial radio and don’t forget marine radios. Last  with the answer to the four questions and the list of information about each start creating your communications plan.

Primary: what do you normally use to communicate with that person, how often and when will you try. (e.g. do you call your spouse as you’re leaving work and on the way home each day - note this is a predicable time).

Alternate: If the phone system (including regular text messaging) fails try an internet based messaging app.

Contingency: Send a text via a satellite messenger or now try on the prearranged radio frequency.

Emergency: This may be your out of town contact and or a prearranged meeting place.

The Primary and Alternate are easy to start with and the Contingency and Emergency plans may only be tried by the other if a regular communication window is missed or if a known emergency/disaster is happening (i.e. you just felt an earthquake).

Having situational awareness of coming weather or incidents (Wind storm, snow storm, wildfires or flooding) you can prearrange and remind others to be prepared to use the PACE Plan. With prearranged times and a plan written out for each person you want to contact. You may find  that most of you will use the same method to contact others, and that it will be very easy (think group text or chat). Others may only  be contacted with a specific plan for them. In all cases both parties will need to have a copy of the plan and have tested all of the component systems you choose to use.

I hope this helps with your building an initial communication plan. In the next issue we will look at communications in our neighborhood.

Until next time, enjoy your summer and get on the air!

~ Gord VA7GK

 

May - June 2023 SEPAR Report

 

Work ahead heading into spring

Over the last several weeks we have had multiple global events which have reminded us with the need to be prepared. Watching video of the earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria and the subsequent response of nations to come to their aid has been another reminder that we too live in a very active seismic zone.

Often when we think of needs to prepare, the first thoughts of people in our region is that of an earthquake. We have also seen the consequences related to snow and the gridlock traffic in December that led to people being stuck for 8-10 hours in their cars when they should have arrived at home in 45 minutes to an hour. The previous year our neighbors just a few kilometers away experienced flooding that destroyed highways and led to many people coming to realize how quickly impassable roads led to supply chain challenges and limits on gas purchases. But in the local events we still had the ability to communicate. Other than perhaps some busy delays on the cell phone networks our communications still worked. Thankfully we haven’t had large damaging earthquakes in the area so we don’t really know what our communications will look like until (not if) the earthquake happens.

This has led to discussion amongst our local amateur radio community. We practice weekly with our nets, some area nets happen daily. The weekly SEPAR net starts on the repeater and then moves to an alternate frequency. This over the last couple of years has been on either of our planned/coordinated alternate simplex frequencies. This allows each of us to practice and try and improve our simplex communications throughout the entire City of Surrey. A city with 568,322 people as of the 2021 census covering 317.4 square km. We have valleys, rivers, agricultural areas, dense population areas with high rise towers etc. This can make communications challenging. We have north and a south repeaters available to use, but the weekly simplex portion of the net is a reminder of how we may require relay stations to ensure all of the hams can communicate if these two repeaters are no longer available.

Each year we discuss maintenance and plans of what to work on next. One of our members has started going through the City owned Radio Kits and checking coax, connectors, and ensuring the contents are in the correct boxes. We have some major updates to do on the SEPAR trailer and a couple of HF antennas that need maintenance to ensure they work properly. We have many new members and it is time to review our kits, programming and plans.

We have discussed expanding APRS availability at our repeaters, adding Winlink RMS stations to several locations in the city and one of our members is working on how we can add AREDN (Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network) mesh equipment. It is these digital improvements that will required more work. Whether it is securing a location for antennas, internet, backup power etc. each of these provides their own challenges. We do have a very supportive relationship with our city and want to make sure as we develop these plans that they can be maintained.

As a result of the city’s support we have a shared facility we can use and have a radio room with equipment always set up to use. Each week several of us (15-20) meet for breakfast at a local Denny’s restaurant and then go over to our OTC (Operations and Training Center) to work on projects, some to participate in contests, and of course to improve and maintain our equipment. New hams come to get advice on how to get stations set up in their apartment or strata unit, or how to tune an antenna etc.

One of the most recent topics is getting newly licensed hams over mic fright and active on the air. A newby net is being discussed and a seminar after the class licensing exam on “what is next now that you’re licensed?” It has been one of the most rewarding things to meet new people and see them become active participants on the air. We are seeing our volunteer numbers in the SEPAR program growing as well.

As we come out of winter and see some improved weather we are looking forward to kick staring several of these projects. Watch in the upcoming editions of the Communicator as we tackle some of them.

If you want further information on SEPAR please reach out.

~ Gord Kirk VA7GK
  SEPAR Coordinator

 

March - April 2023 SEPAR Report

 

What seems like a very long winter finally seems to be over. 

It feels like we have had weeks of rain which impacts our outside activities. But as I write this report the sun is shining and the trees around me are all covered in blossoms. This means it is time to get busy with annual outdoor maintenance. Radio antenna’s, and all of the outdoor equipment we have, as well as doing some portable operating. In this issue of the communicator if you check out the SARC Monthly Meeting Minutes, or the the Report from Larry about the GOTA activities, the number of students graduating licensing classes and the participation of those in contesting you will see so much has been happening to get those newly licensed involved.

As with any program which relies on volunteers it is always exciting to see newcomers join us and grow both in their personal abilities but also assist with the program for emergency communications. We have recently had requests from NEPP (Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Program) groups to talk about emergency communications. We are also participating in a local Emergency Preparedness Fair on June 10th with the ask that we talk about how local groups/ individuals can communicate during an emergency. We have been requested to show radio options and discuss these. This will be so much easier with some of the lessons learned helping with the newly licensed Hams, the GOTA class and net. In fact on the GOTA net one of the participants asked about using 440mhz as the nets are typically done on 2m. So instead of the simplex portion of the SEPAR net (where we move to a simplex frequency and then return to the repeater) we chose to have the net participants move to the 440 repeater and then return to the 2m one. This allowed the newer members to program the repeater frequencies into their radios and try it out. Even though the repeaters are side by site at the rooftop location some discovered they had a cleaner signal on 440 rather than 2m. The benefit of this is we expanded the knowledge of the group, tested the repeater equipment and increased those who can support emergency communications now on another band they hadn’t used.

The new hams often start with a simple handheld radio like the Baofengs as they purchase their first radio. As part of the licensing class we also provide a hands on antenna workshop where students build a roll-up J-Pole antenna and hopefully come away with a better practical understanding of antenna theory. As I have previously mentioned it is really quite noticeable the improvements on signals both in strength and clarity when the antenna which comes with a handheld is replaced with a gain antenna. Again this is a win to have hams understand and have the ability to improve their signal and help them get “connected” from their homes.

So, as we talk about the use of amateur radio in a disaster often we prepare but are not needed as normal communications often still work. This is a good thing, the reliability of our communications systems is so important in our daily lives we really don’t want failures. That said often the failures are small and limited in scope. It can simply be an overloaded area due to abnormal congestion, or a localized power outage, or perhaps a vehicle incident has caused a communications pole and line to be damaged. In our area it is often vehicle incidents or natural caused interruptions eg. windstorms impacting local areas.

So, that leads to the question: What is your personal communications plan? Lets start with identifying the answers to these 4 questions:

1. Who do you want to communicate with? (spouse, family, friends, employer/ coworkers)
2. Why do you want to communicate with them? (What do they need from you or what do you need from them, is it communications to let them know you are safe?)
3. How will you talk with them? This is where most people expect me to start talking about amateur radio, frequencies etc. However, in emergency communications I would recommend you start with more traditional means of communication. At least identify which of these are options you should consider:

• cell phone
• texting
• messaging app
• social media, and
• satellite communicators

are all examples of technology which might be better to start off with.

4. When will you communicate with them. Have you discussed how one person might get in touch with the other when one of the parties may be outside of any area experiencing challenges and be completely unaware of the issue.

Cell phones, texts, apps etc. allow to you to get in contact but if you are using radios how will the other person know to turn it on and start following your plan? Use of calling clocks can help with this. There is a protocol called the Wilderness Protocol and frequencies recommended to monitor. “The Wilderness Protocol” (ref. June 1996 QST, page 85), recommends that stations (fixed, portable or mobile) monitor the primary (and secondary if possible) frequency(s) every three hours starting at 7 AM local time, for five minutes (7:00-7:05 AM, 10:00-10:05 AM, etc.) Additionally, stations that have sufficient power resources should monitor for five minutes starting at the top of every hour, or even continuously.” The primary frequency is the National Simplex Calling Frequency… 146.52 MHz. The secondary frequencies are 446.0, 223.5, 52.525 and 1294.5 MHz.

Again, without a prior discussion (a plan) you might not establish the communications you think you will have.

Next month we will continue with developing our plan. For this month I ask you to spend a few minutes and write down the answers to the above questions as a start.

I hope everyone stays safe as we move into our spring and summer activities. 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 get in touch with 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