Activities We Offer
At its heart, MIRA is a social/community support club composed of people who enjoy each other’s company and enjoy radio technology. As a group, we gather together at various times of the year and the following are some of our events:
Radio Nets
The club’s “Breakfast Bunch” net is conducted Sunday through Friday at 0845 local time on the VE7RPQ repeater system. Frequency options are available on our repeater page here.

Technical/Special Interest Groups
MIRA proudly sponsors a number of ‘special interest groups’ which meet weekly on our Zoom account to talk about and share new ideas in particular areas of interest. Currently, the following groups are meeting:
LAMP/Digital Group | Monday Nights @ 7pm via Zoom |
Packeteers | Thursday Nights @ 7pm via Zoom and 144.970 MHz |

Coffee Clatch get-togethers
Most Saturday mornings, we get together for coffee and conversation. These are usually held @ Quality Foods in Qualicum Beach starting around 10am.
The exception is the 3rd Saturday of the month when MIRA holds its monthly General Meeting. To support increased #’s and Zoom simul-cast technology (:-)) these are held at the Quality Foods in Parksville instead. Times and dates for General Meetings are on our Events page.

Emergency Communications
Some Members of our club are also members of the Oceanside Emergency Communications Team (OECT). OECT “radio operators provide communications within the region, throughout the province and around the world using voice and digital radio equipment. Messages can be passed along regarding the welfare of residents to loved ones outside of the region and the needs of the region in an emergency.”*
* source: http://emergencyoceanside.ca/

Amateur Radio Basic Course
MIRA offers a Basic Amateur Radio certification course in the autumn. Whereas other clubs offer a fast-paced course geared solely to passing the ISED examination, MIRA’s philosophy is geared to graduating well-rounded operators familiar with an overall grasp of the technical and operational aspects of the hobby. MIRA’s course usually runs about 3 hours once a week for ten weeks and also provides additional ‘tutorial’ sessions in the evenings. Currently our course is provided via Zoom to accomodate students outside the Oceanside/Parksville area.

Summer BBQ
As a social group, we get together during August to enjoy good food, friendship and fellowship on the shores of our beloved Salish Sea.

Christmas Get Together
One of the great joys of Amateur Radio is the fellowship and Christmas is another opportunity for us to gather together for good food and fun times, to reflect on the year behind and year ahead.

Updated November, 2024 by Don T.