Radio Amateurs of Canada applauds 60 metre band frequency allocations! Radio Amateurs du Canada se réjouit de l’allocation de fréquences sur la bande du 60 mètres! MARCH / APRIL 2014 – MARS / AVRIL 2014 Dave Snydal, VE4XN (left) and Bill Karle, VE4KZ, discuss one of the TCA documents at the Manitoba Museum. The Canadian Amateur

VE7RC Copper Island Activation George Hrischenko, VE3DGX, on his “One and Only DXpedition”. Publications Mail Agreement # 40028682 Registration 09866 John (Jack) S. Belrose, VE2CV/VE3CVV, on the EH Antenna Systems

RAC Canada Day Contest 2013 Results 1 A VISIT TO THE MANITOBA AMATEUR RADIO MUSEUM Bill Karle, VE4KZ dusty tubes and, one imagines, a trace of ozone. And no wonder INTRODUCTION since you are greeted by floor to ceiling You know how you intend to do something shelves of electronic but it repeatedly gets put off? That was gear plus map file the case with my oft-intended but drawers of interesting oft-postponed trip to the Manitoba documents. Amateur Radio Museum (MARM). The XYL and I figured it was about time to take a The second impression trip to central Manitoba and see MARM, is how well organized located on the grounds of the Manitoba everything is. Each item Agricultural Museum. has a label naming the hardware and giving a The founder is Dave Snydal, VE4XN, little added information well-known Manitoba Amateur. When the such as the era from XYL and I arrived, after a couple hours which it is drawn. The XYL and I both drive from our home, Dave toured us in the post World War Two receivers. At remarked at how clean everything was; around. We had a grand time looking at the same time, the first single nary a dust bunny in sight. the hardware, learning facts that we did transmitters began to become not know, and visiting with Dave. The museum includes equipment and commonplace. Another twirl of the accessories that are commercially MARM time machine and you see rigs MARM is a living museum in that the manufactured, constructed from kits and reaching into the VHF and UHF spectra. collection continues to grow with additions homebrewed. I drifted down memory One more turn of the time dial and of vintage and modern equipment while lane picking out my first homebrew observe our modern solid-state including a functioning Amateur Radio transmitter, first kit transmitter, first “good” integrated circuit rigs. station, a repeater and . receiver, and on and on. It is not only hardware on view. Those PUBLIC PART OF MUSEUM The displayed items cover much of map drawers hold paper documents and When Dave and his colleagues started Amateur Radio’s history. For example, photographs that will, in my case, require working on the project, the vision was to there is a serviceable spark gap more time to appreciate. For example, show ham radio through the decades. As transmitter and a long wave crystal there is a “cease operation notice” that a base, there already was an Amateur receiver from the 1910-19 decade. Jump went out to the Canadian on the Agricultural Museum’s forward a few years and lay your hands population within days of the September grounds, established in 1980. By 1984, on a Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) 1939 declaration of war on Hitler’s MARM was born and began operating out receiver with its manifold knobs and low Germany by the British Empire, of which of a part of a refurbished train station on voltage vacuum tubes designed to run Canada was a part. the grounds. from batteries. Should you go to MARM with family As the years went by, it became clear that Turn the clock forward some more and members not interested Amateur history, proper space was necessary. Gumption, marvel how the basic five-tube know that access via Wi-Fi is and no small amounts of arm-twisting and superheterodyne receiver – that brought available. How considerate! grant seeking, eventually resulted in the radio to the millions – after being gussied AMATEUR RADIO STATION construction of the MARM display up with a beat frequency oscillator made building in 1991. a functional receiver. Skip forward some Amateur Radio Station, VE4ARM, is in a more and witness the quest for sensitivity, room lined with glass windows immediately The first impression upon entering this selectivity, dynamic range and low noise adjacent to the display area. building is the odour of pre-modern electronics! You know, that smell of The public can cotton covered wire, beeswax, shellac, observe hams operating the modern Note: Dave Snydal, VE4XN, licensed in 1962, and/or vintage has distinguished himself in many ways. In stations or toiling at addition to being an inductee of the Canadian the well-equipped Amateur Radio Hall of Fame (2000), he also workbench. served as Mid-west Director of the Canadian Radio Relay League (1990-1993); served in The station includes a various capacities with the International Ham rotating Yagi-Uda Fest, Brandon Amateur Radio Club, the beam up 15 metres Canadian-American Repeater Council, the Amateur Radio League of Manitoba, and more. (50 feet) as well as He was behind establishment of repeaters dipole antennas. VE4BDN, VE4CTY, VE4IHF, VE4MTR and VE4TED. He is a trustee of RAC’s Defence of Amateur Floor to ceiling shelving, Radio Fund. While being of great service to the of which this is only amateur and other communities, he also has one section, displays racked up over 220 DXCC entities and has equipment for all completed working all US counties. Amateur Radio eras. 40 One of two operating positions in the ham SPARK PLUGS station part of the Clearly this enterprise, for MARM is nothing museum. less, did not spring forth overnight. There is a two-metre In addition to Dave, the visionary and FM repeater, VE4MTR, main-man, three hams are recognized in with its antenna up 30 the Museum as having created the facility. metres (100 feet). All now Silent Keys, they are Bill Williams, The design is thorough. VE4IW, Bob Bryan, VE4RO and Bill Panting, For example, the VE4KX. I noticed that Murray Ronald, VE4RE, observant will notice a well known Winnipeg entrepreneur, also AC outlets in the has made significant contributions toward ham station, with a building and towers. red-coloured Hundreds of others have made donations faceplates denoting of time and money as Founders, that these outlets are Life Members and Friends. supplied by one of the three generators that For example, there MARM maintains. are many boxes of Near the entry door is a master switch: tubes. These are a one pull and the entire station is resource not only for disconnected implementing the adage MARM efforts, but “switch to safety”. As a side note, each also for radio building similarly is protected: no leaving restorers who the MARM workshop, located elsewhere regularly visit in on the grounds, with a soldering iron order to find parts smouldering on the bench. for their work. Dave comments that these NON-PUBLIC PARTS OF MUSEUM and others, such as Far from public areas are two buildings the fleamarket owned by MARM: one serves as a buyers, contribute workshop and the other as a store of funds to support the equipment and materials not on display. museum. A third structure owned by the The garage building Agricultural Museum garages MARM’s covers MARM’s vehicles. wheeled vehicles A view of a portion of the Shop Building. The workshop is used to catalogue, including its float. Float? Yes. With high evaluate and refurbish newly arrived profile events happening at the Manitoba CONCLUSION acquisitions. There are workbenches, Agricultural Museum, such as the cabinets of large and small parts, and Threshermen’s Reunion, MARM likes to The Manitoba Agricultural Museum is necessary hand and power tools. In short, show off its contributions and one way is located just off of the Trans-Canada it is shop to die for! It is encouraging to to join the parade. MARM also has golf Highway, near the town of Austin. It is know that a cigarette-smoke encrusted carts helping folks get around. The wheeled about two hours west of Winnipeg and Collins S-Line ensemble, resting on the generators are stored here. one hour east of Brandon. floor, will be The Museum’s website has a map as well resurrected to as pictures and information to whet your presentable condition appetite. It can be found at: in this shop by http:// www.marminc.ca volunteer hands. That’s the story of our trip to The Manitoba The storage building Amateur Radio Museum. has shelving groaning under loads of The XYL and I both agreed that we must equipment, return, and soon! accessories, vacuum Bill Karle, continuously licensed since 1957, tubes, books and has held calls K8QGT, VE2ECW, briefly 4S7KZG, magazines. Most are and presently VE4KZ. Bill is a Certified catalogued and Emergency Coordinator. His Amateur Radio tagged. interests include propagation, antennas, digi-modes and DXing. He is retired following Dave Snydal, VE4XN (left) a career in international consulting, university and Bill Karle, VE4KZ, teaching and university administration. discuss one of the documents.

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