ODE TO SILENT KEYS
We twist the dial and listen
for fists that are not there;
then sadly we remember
they are no longer on the air.
The signals that once streaked across
the silent, empty sea –
The Chief of all the Universe
has ‘broken’ — “QRT.”
We are sad to announce that Doug Gray became a Silent Key on Monday, February 11, 2013 while in Palliative Care in Bastion after a long illness. There will be no formal service, but Doug’s wife Shirley has indicated that in a few weeks, there will be a small gathering of radio amateurs who have known Doug well. We will keep you informed.
We are sad to inform you that John VE7ASC became a Silent Key at Shuswap Lake General Hospital on Saturday, February 3, 2013. Daryl Chipman VA7DBC is in contact with John’s family. As soon as any update is received, we will post the information here as a revision to this post.
The first Silent Key reference found in our records was a Notice of a Memorial Service being held in April 1979 for Ed Ginger VE7BYN. Of special note is that the VE7BYN call is now presently held by Rick Ginger who relocated to his home town of Sicamous many years later, giving up his American call upon completion of the 2005 Basic Qualification Course run by SARC.
Our records indicate that instructor Al Marr VE7CAL paid Eagle River School in Sicamous $5 to cover stencils and reproduction paper to reproduce materials related to the Basic Qualification Course held in that school.
Use the standard password assigned in February, 2013 to open the document.
The Celebration of Life Service in memory of Duncan Zavislake will be held on Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 2:30 p.m. at the Pleasant Valley Funeral Home at 4303 Pleasant Valley Road in Vernon.
The Shuswap Amateur Radio Club application of March 9, 1978 for a license to establish and operate an Amateur Radio Experimental station has received favourable consideration. “Authority is hereby granted for the operation of your Amateur Station Repeater in accordance with the regulations and schedule of frequencies determined by your Amateur certificate. The call sign VE7RNH is to be used to identify your station. 146.760 MHz Transmit and 146.160 MHz Receive. A formal license will follow.” issued by the Department of Communications, Kelowna.
For what appears to be the first Field Day of the club and likely the most creative, the Field Day was held at Anstey Arm Provincial Park.
There is no doubt that there were many hams in the Okanagan Shuswap area long before the club was formed in 1977, and it is very likely that many hams gathered together in small informal groups to work Field Day which began with the American Radio Relay League in 1933.