On Saturday June 28th amateur radio volunteers from Emergency Management BC’s  (EMBC) Central Region facility located in Kamloops deployed for Field Day 2014.

Kamloops Amateur Radio Club trailer

EMBC volunteers travelled with members of the Kamloops Amateur Radio Club  to a remote location and established a joint station for participation in Field Day activities.

While EMBC volunteers operated VE7VIZ, their portable radio communications kit the Kamloops Amateur Radio Club setup for operation in their club owned trailer.

Setup of EMBC’s portable kit involved erecting a 32 ft fibreglass pole needed for the Buckmaster inverted “V” HF  dipole antenna. In lieu of a trailer the tailgate of a pickup truck provided an excellent base for operation of EMBC’s portable radio kit.

The tricky setup of the mast required the efforts of 6 volunteers to both stabilize the fibreglass mast while adding additional 4 ft. segments to the bottom of the pole. Once established, the Buckmaster dipole provides low SWR and a good signal on 80, 40 and 20 meters.

EMBC has three deployable radio kits currently located in Victoria, Kamloops and Terrace. Developed with funding allocated by EMBC to enhance volunteers programs the kits are equipped with:

• Medium/long range High Frequency radio;
• Commercial VHF radio;
• Dual-band amateur VHF/UHF;
• Laptop and printer with HF Pactor and VHF/UHF Packet digital communication;
• Commercial and amateur hand-held radios;
• 12 volt AGM deep-cycle marine battery.

The following EMBC volunteers took part in the 2014 Field Day deployment:

• Rodger Scoular, VA7ROD
• Gina Charlesworth,  VA7AIR
• Brady Conroy, VE7TAX
• Ken McEachern, VE7EFL
• Philip Conroy

A special thank you goes to Ken McEachern, VE7EFL  for coordinating this joint Field Day operation.

VE7VIZ ready for Field Day operation