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British Columbia Frequency Modulation Communications Association
WELCOME!
*** BCFMCA needs your ongoing support! ***
Welcome to the British Columbia Frequency Modulation Communications Association (BCFMCA). We are an Amateur Radio organization specializing in VHF, UHF, and microwave communications. We operate equipment in a variety of modes, including FM, DMR/MotoTRBO, IRLP (node 1694), and D-STAR. Please select one of the menu buttons on the left to find out more about us.
The BCFMCA is a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency. We accept all monetary and in-kind donations, and can issue tax receipts for donations over $25. We gladly accept charitable donations of estates from "silent-key" amateurs. Please see the "How to Reach Us" button on the left menu to get in touch with our Executive.
System Status
| Known issues: | None! |
| Power status: | ON AC! |
| Inside Temp: | 25.3125 |
| Outside Temp: | 26.5000 |
| Power Meter Reading: | Timestamp: Mon Aug 25 16:01:01 2025 Consumption: 79901.71kWh |
If you notice that the Power Status is "On Battery", please refrain from using the repeaters unless you have emergency or priority traffic.
More temperature telemetry is available here.
More power plant telemetry is available here.
BCFMCA AllStarLink Status
For REAL-TIME status of VE7RPT and VE7IRN (including LIVE voting receiver status), click here.
Listen live to the VE7RPT AllStarLink Hub on Broadcastify, or use the player below:
VE7RPT IRLP Status
Site Cameras
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Please see Events and News for more information.
AllStarLink Infrastructure Upgrade
2025/07/17
Please be advised that over the next month, the BCFMCA will be working on changes to the backend AllStarLink infrastructure.
The overall goal is to move our node software off HamVoIP and back on to real AllStarLink software. The release of ASL3 brings a number of security and performance benefits, along with a true open source software platform.
The first step in this process will involve moving the 435450 Hub off Mt. Seymour, and onto the BCWARN server infrastructure. This move should be relatively seamless. There will be a period of time where the Hub will be unavailable during the migration.
This will also move the http://allstar.bcfmca.bc.ca status page off Mt. Seymour, and the status page will change to run Allmon3, which is the web interface included with ASL3.
Following stages will then include updating all the node hardware that interfaces with the repeaters to migrate to ASL3.
If, during and after this migration, you find something that was working that now doesn't, please feel free to contact us.
2025/07/23 UPDATE
Last week, Node 435450 was split off the original AllStarLink server (co-located with 435451 and 435452), and moved to a virtual machine on the BCWARN server infrastucture. You can see the live connection status of all the BCFMCA nodes at https://hub.bcfmca.bc.ca.
As of last night, Nodes 435451 (RPT-VHF), 435452 (RPT-UHF), and 435453 (RPT-220) have now been upgraded to the ASL3 distribution.
Node 435454 (VE7IRN) is expected to be upgraded early in August. Nodes 521800 (VE7TEL-VHF) and 521801 (VE7TEL-UHF) are a work in progress, they're likely going to get re-built/replaced, hopefully by the end of August.
2025/08/20 UPDATE
On August 9, Node 435454 (VE7IRN) was upgraded to ASL3. In addition, the backhaul radios to Promontory Mountain and Greenstone Mountain were changed from Ubiquity to Mikrotik. The Mikrotik radios give us about 8dBm more transmit power, allowing for better fade margin.
Yesterday, Nodes 521800 (TEL-VHF) and 521801 (TEL-UHF) were upgraded to ASL3. In addition, the RF side of TEL-VHF was replaced with a Motorola Quantar (a shout out to KM6RPT for stopping by to lend a hand). This restores TEL-VHF back to full power (100W). QRM from rogue commercial fishermen using the repeater input as a simplex frequency was observed. It was also noted that TEl-UHF appears to be suffering from QRN causing it to "kerchunk" almost continuosly for hours at a time, it has since been disabled until further investigation of the source can take place.
At this time, that completes all the node upgrades to ASL3. There is still some "tweaking" to do in order to modify some of the operational parameters, but that will come in time.
BCFMCA Acquires VE7TEL and other TPARC Assets
2025/03/19
On February 23, 2025, the Telephone Pioneers Amateur Radio Club (TPARC) voted to wind up operations after more than 30 years of operation. Ongoing challenges with site retention, LOS obstructions, and declining system from technological change made it difficult to maintain a viable packet network.
As an organization that shares similar values, TPARC approached the BCFMCA with an offer to gift it some of its assests as part of the disbursement process, in accordance with the BC Society's Act.
The BCFMCA is pleased to take over the operation and maintenance of the VE7TEL VHF and UHF voice repeaters, located on the Burnaby/Vancouver border, to allow for their continued use by local amateurs. The BCFMCA will also inherit some BCWARN links that are operated in conjunction with the Kamloops Amateur Radio Club (KARC), that provides internet connectivity to our VE7IRN repeater in Merritt.
2024 BCFMCA AGM
2024/01/15
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThe British Columbia Frequency Modulation Communications Association's Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 11th 2024.
The AGM will run from 10am to 12pm as a hybrid meeting on Zoom and at the Coquitlam Amateur Radio Club facilities in Coquitlam.
Check out the BCFMCA 2024 AGM page for more information.
VE7RPT UHF Interference Resolved
2022/05/06
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAfter ongoing intermittent interference on VE7RPT-UHF, characterized by "kerchunks" or "squelch crashes", we believe the issue has finally been resolved.
The cause of the interference appears to have been due to a malfunctioning consumer OTA antenna amplifier, installed in an RV in Pitt Meadows.
You can read the full story here (.pdf download).
Many thanks to Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, for lending his expertise and knowledge to the fight to identify the source, to Ian Procyk, VE7HHS, and others that provided support.
Feel free to distribute this story to other interested parties, as it provides good awareness of a number of issues.
Are You A Member?!
Membership is open to all licensed amateur radio operators.
If you are not a member, why wait? Join NOW! See here for details.
QRM Problems?
QRM is a problem, we all know that. We will try and locate possible sources of interference on the repeaters, but we need YOUR help.
Please submit a QRM report to the Directors so that we can try and locate the source. It is important to report it EVEN IF YOU DON'T HEAR the interference from your location when it occurs. Remember to listen to the INPUT of the repeater when listening for interference.
Don't think that your report has an effect? Well, see the press release above. James Grinton was busted by the co-ordinated efforts of a number of volunteers. All information reports are useful.
Are YOU causing QRM on our repeaters? Again, be warned, you never know who is lurking around your neighbourhood gathering evidence for prosecution. We've been at this at lot longer than you, and we're not going to let you destroy our resource... and we've got the law on OUR side.
Coverage Maps
Curious as to the coverage of some of our repeaters? Please see the Equipment page for more information.
Thank you for visiting our website and 73.
This page was last updated 20 August 2025.
Donors, Sponsors and Contributors
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Space for our equipment on Mount Seymour is provided courtesy of Mount Seymour Resorts. |
The BCFMCA acknowledges the financial assistance of the Province of British Columbia. |
Bandwidth and hosting provided by the BC Wireless Amateur Radio Network. |
