We’re retiring VE7RPQ :-( at the end of March, 2026

It is indeed with a heavy heart that the decision has been made to retire the repeater located at the top of Mt. Cokely — VE7RPQ. This will happen at the end of this month, March 2026.

Unfortunately, it’s due to circumstances beyond our control. The owner/leasee of the site (Cercomm/Island Communications) notified us a month or so ago that it can no longer financially sustain operations at the site. There’s just not enough revenue coming in to keep the generators going and the building intact. Accessibility to the site is limited to helicopters for most of the year and getting a flight up there is very expensive! The final workparty is scheduled to head up to the site the last week in March 2026 and our equipment will come down off the mountain with it.

The VE7RPQ repeater system as been a mainstay of the club — providing excellent coverage over a large part of the Oceanside/Mid-Island geography through the main repeater on Mt. Cokely and its remote bases on Mt. Benson in Nanaimo and the 6m base on the Water Tower in Qualicum Beach.

A multi-club committee (including Arrowsmith, Nanaimo, MIRA, and Comox) was struck to look at various options and, with the very kind offer from the Arrowsmith club, the recommendation presented to the Board (and then ratified by the membership) was to retire the VE7RPQ repeater, and reconfigure the repeater network to have our remote bases in Nanaimo and Qualicum Beach connect with VE7RBB at the Errington Fire Hall, then add a new link to RBB to have it interconnect with the VE7KU repeater. This is what it will look like after reconfiguration:

The VE7KU site is also located on Mt. Cokely, just a little bit further down the mountain so we will lose something in terms of height. However, what we gain is much easier accessibility (you can drive up there!) and interconnection with KU’s network, which includes a link via Mt. Ozard to the west coast of the Island — think Tofino and Ucluelet. It also will encourage more cooperation and work between the various amateur clubs in the area and opens up a host of other capabilities and services.

So.. start re-programming your radios to include the VE7KU repeater, as that will become our new ‘hub’ in the near future.

VE7KU is on VHF: 147.240 MHz +0.6MHz and a 141.3Hz tone;

UHF: 444.450 MHz +5Mhz also with a 141.3Hz tone.

See/Hear you there!