This year the club decided to gather to participate in the RAC Winter Contest on Dec 29th. For this year’s event we were hosted by Walter (VE7SM) who opened his heated garage for us and we were able to setup a portable station there. We decided to operate on his off-centre dipole for the day as it was nice and high and conveniently available for us.  Though we only spent a few hours at Walter’s we were able to make over 120 contacts, a new best for the club. We all enjoyed our time there and especially the hospitality of Walter and his wife Margaret who put on coffee and sandwiches for us over lunch.

Meanwhile Club member Fred (VE7IO) operated his high power station as the provinces VE7RAC station this year. A number of operators joined him to keep the station running 24 hours. Jay (VE7OFH) took the late night watch and when he came by the club station in the morning he was still very tired from working through the night. Stuart (VA7QB) who started at the club site wandered over to Fred’s to have a peek. He was offered a chance to try it out and intending to stay only a few minutes, club members had to drag him away from the station 1.5 hours later, he was enjoying it so much.

Here are a few photos from the two sites.