Friday, September 26, 2003. The Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs (SONRA) operated a special event amateur radio station at the St. John’s Coast Guard Station, Southside facility, harbor side. The station used special event call sign, V01SAR.

Running concurrent to ISAR, the event consisted of both High Frequency (HF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) stations set up to demonstrate the capabilities of amateur radio to link up local emergency organizations and to communicate with other emergency agencies around the world. During the event the radio operators were continuously busy answering calls from amateur radio operators around the world. They logged calls from Great Britain, Hungary, Puerto Rico and many other far away locales.

The goal of the event is to celebrate the 64th Anniversary of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, promote the good works of the Auxiliary and demonstrate that a working radio station can be set up quickly in any location and promote the ISAR competition.

The station also celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary.