The annual Steveston Festival of Trees, organized by Gulf of Georgia Cannery (GOG), features holiday trees decorated by local community organizations and merchants on display at the GOG Cannery museum throughout December. RARC has been an ongoing participant of the Festival since 2020.

Each tree has ornaments designed to reflect the theme of the respective organizations and visitors are invitd to vote for their favourie tree. Voting ends on January 5th, 2025.

RARC's mostly hand-crafted ornaments followed its 'Communicating To One World' theme with information and educational content about Amateur radio in communication technologies using QR codes to quickly reference the related orgnization or activity represented by each ornament.

RARC has three objectives in this non-radio, community outreach project:
    - Promote RARC and Amateur radio to the local community
    - Inform and educate the public about Amateur radio communications
    - Support GOG Cannery events and build relations with GOG Cannery and the local community

RARC's initial participation in the GOG Cannery event in 2020 received special mention for its unique theme and supporting blogpage to provide background information about its Amateur radio themed and satellite cube ornaments, as well as attracting the most online Web poll votes.

You can view this year's RARC tree and vote in person at the GOG Cannery museum, or vote online by 'liking' (photo of) the RARC tree on the GOG Cannery Facebook page. (Current link to be updated).

Choosing 'Communicating to One World' as the name for RARC's tree is well suited to portraying Amateur radio's ongoing involvement with current communications technologies. While Morse Code and other traditional radio communication practices are still in use, Amateur radio has a presence in today's aerospace technologies and STEM programs through organizations such as Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) and Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR). Using voice operation, Morse code and other modes of transmission with Amateur radio protocols, operators enhanced by modern tech-nologies can now communicate more effectively and efficiently with one another around the world.

This year's ornaments continued to improve on what was completed in previous yeas, with content and messaging representing the three key components of Amateur radio activity: equipment (rig), transmitted message (traffic), and operator (ham). This year additions included a group of stuffed 'friends' all equipped with handheld (HT) radios. All ornaments are custom designed or modified by RARC members.

Hand-made and modified ornaments are created in five groups:
    - Cube satellite models with info about Amateur radio related organizations
    - Coasters displaying messages and organizations involving Amateur radio
    - Miniature figures (with personal call signs) representing RARC member radio operators
    - Stuffed animal and 'things' with handheld radios
    - Silver baubles (to be modified) used as filler for dead space on the tree

We've got 20+ (stuffed) characters of all sorts to help contrast (soften) the geometric patterns of the cube and square ornaments designed to portray the cubesats involved in communications. Conforming with the tree's theme, the stuffed characters have all been modified to carry handheld radios (all tuned to the RARC repeater frequency of 147.140 MHz, if you look closely enough). The miniature radios are created using face images of Kenwood TH-D74 and Baofeng UV-5R HT transceivers, which are very common handheld units used by Amateur radio operators.

There are more than 40 operating satellites capable of or designated for Amateur radio operations presently in orbit, most of which are cube satellites (generally referred as CubeSats) measuring 10 cm. cubed in actual size. To portray Amateur radio in satellite communicaions, cubes representing CubeSats are scratch-built in three-quarters scale and half-size scale of the actual size.

Coasters covered by printed designs display abbreviations and codes commonly used in Amateur radio traffic along with words and phrases of the season. Also displayed are accronyms of local and international organizations representing Amateur radio as a global activity. There is Morse code translation on the Q-codes and abbreviations.

Common Q-codes (for Morse code) and other abbrevationss used for Amateur radio traffic:

CQ - Open call for other operators, usually repeated 3 times (to sound like 'seek you')
QSO - A commonly used Q-code to indicate or confirm a radio contact
QTH - Q-code for location
RST - Accronym for signal report to indicate: readability, strength and tone (of what's heard)
WX - Symbol for weather - any radio traffic concerning the weather begins with WX
CN89 - Maidenhead grid square geographic locator used in Amateur radio for station VE7GOG
73 - Numeric code meaning best regards or my compliments from telegraph era Phillips code
88 - Means love and kisses also from the Phillips code
GOG - Refers to the club station, call sign VE7GOG, situated on the GOG Cannery site

Accronyms of Amateur radio organizations with full name and description:

AMSAT - Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, international educational organization fostering Amateur radio participation in space research and communication
ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, program supported by space agencies and Amateur radio organizations inspiring students to pursue interests in careers in STEM through Amateur radio
OSCAR - Designation by AMSAT for 'orbiting sattelite carrying Amateur radio'
IARU - International Amateur Radio Union, worldwide federation of Amateur radio organizations providing an international voice
RAC - Radio Amateurs of Canada, national organization representing Amateur radio in Canada, a member of IARU
ARES - Amateur Radio Emergency Service, program coordinating Amateur radio operators in emergency communications

Using plastic two-inch 'minifigures' from popular building sets bring contrast to the geometric and technical composition of the CubeSats and also add a playful element to the ornaments reflecting the spirit of the season. The figures repreent Amateur radio operaors and club members, each figure bearing a personal call signs on the vest. The 20+ figures are further personalized with scratch-built handheld radios, each with antennas of varying lengths and detailed with the RARC VHF repeater frequency on the dsplay. The radios are held by the hand and some are attached to the vest of the figures.

Photo shows 'minifigs' at slightly larger than actual size with personal call sign of RARC members on (paper) safety vests and radio frequency of club repeater 147.140 MHz on the display of custom made radios.

Cube satellite models are in 2.5, 3.0 and 3.75-inch squares built from corners of cereal boxes and then wrapped with printouts of the logo and QR code for each Amateur radio related organization. Some larger (3.75-in.) cubes are decorated with printed panels to represent components of actual cubesats which are actually only 4x4x4 inches (or 10cm cube) in size.

Some cubes are constructed with a whimsical composition of pieces from popular building sets and other repurposed items from around the home including old computer equipment.

VOTE FOR OUR RARC TREE. THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO CAST YOUR BALLOT:
    - In person by visiting the Cannery museum,
    - or on the GOG Cannery Facebook page

Thank you to our team of RARC members involved in the 2023 project:
- Carole, VA7QCE
- Urey, VE7URE (also credited for photos on this page)
- Evaristo, VA7BZE

Canada Space Agency - What is a CubeSat

NASA - CubeSats Overview

AMSAT For Beginners - Getting Started on Amateur Radio Satellites

AMSAT Live OSCAR - Satellite Status Page

ARISS in Canada