On a chilly -10C Saturday morning, three brave souls set out to Kin Park in Vernon to set up for Winter Field Day 2026. At 9am, Howard VA7PWF, Colin VA7EEH and Warren VA7WPX began the process of setting up the tents and arranging the radio equipment. Wilf VE7OHM and Alex VE7NOC arrived shortly after to erect the Cushcraft R5 which would be our main antenna. The new arrangement of putting two pop-up tents together and completely closing them in, then combined with a couple of heaters offered by Jerome VE7JAR and Paul VE7PDE, did the trick to keeping us warm and toasty. It wasn't long before all of us started peeling off our heavy winter coats allowing us to operate comfortably in hoodies and sweaters.
The turnout from our members was great with even a visit from the City of Vernon Councilor Teresa Ann Durning Harker who stopped in to see what NORAC was all about. The beautiful clear skies also brought out lots of passersby, many who stopped to ask what on earth are were doing!
Although band conditions started off poorly, they gradually improved as the day went on. Operating under VE7NOR, we managed to make 113 contacts.
For more images of the event, please check out the 2026 Winter Field Day gallery.
NORAC member Peter VE7PAE did this year's Winter Field Day on his own and wrote a report to document the exercise.
Please check out the report published on Peter's other radio club's website: https://sarc.ca/winter-field-day-wfd-january-24-25-2026/
JOTA/JOTI 2025
This year, over 200 Scouts and Leaders gathered together in the Joe Rich area for the annual JOTA/JOTI (Jamboree on the Air/Jamboree on the Internet). This weekend's world wide event, held every year on the third week of October, is the largest digital and radio event for Scouting, promoting friendship and global citizenship. Once again, Howard VA7PWF, Lorne VE7LWK and Mike VE7KPZ volunteered to help with the Ham radio demonstration. Unfortunately Mike had to leave early for a medical situation so Lorne moved over to help with HF. Howard, as in previous years, worked C4FM/WIRES-X making contacts as far away Great Britain and Alaska. This years connection to the WIRES-X network via Okanagan Mountain worked flawlessly thanks to Fred VA7UN from OCARC. The highlights for Lorne on HF was contacting the Battleship Missouri on 17m stationed at Pearl Harbour and chatting with a couple on a SOTA mountain top in Northern California. The weather was so so but the food was great and fun was had all. In total, approximately 60 hours of service rendered.
223 Red Lion Squadron Royal Canadian Air Cadets
In October, NORAC was contacted by the Air Cadets asking for a demonstration for those Cadets interested in obtaining their Amateur Radio license. On December 4th 2025, Howard VA7PWF and Colin VA7EEH set up a number of radios at the DND G20 building in Vernon. The building is a large metal structure, so to help with making contacts, Colin set up his DX Commander Expedition antenna outside. There were approximately 50 Cadets in attendance. Topics covered were various types of radios and antennas. NVIS was also discussed for military applications. In total, approximately 8 hours of service rendered.