Salt Spring Island Amateur Radio Society

The Salt Spring Island Amateur Radio Society is an active group of ham radio operators on Salt Spring Island, the largest of the Southern Gulf Islands. As well as the social aspect, the SSIARS helps maintain the readiness of amateur radio operators to help out with emergencies. The weekly SSIARS net is held on Wednesdays at 7 pm. There is an informal get-together every day at 8 am, usually on 146.595 MHz simplex. There are training exercises and several fox hunts each year all help maintain that readiness. There is usually a barbecue each summer and a Christmas luncheon. We maintain three voice repeaters and three packet nodes for the use of all. All are dual-mode repeaters that handle both traditional FM and digital C4FM. VE7RSI was the first C4FM repeater in the area, changing over in April of 2014. VE7RGP was upgraded in October of 2015. VE7EMG was activated in October of 2017. While VE7RSI was the first C4FM repeater anywhere around here, there are now dozens of of them all around us.