|
Radio Operator
at Hartlen Point, NS Monitoring Station during World War II. Transferred to
the Vancouver District Office in the early 1960s.
|
Opérateur radio au centre de
surveillance de Hartlen Point, NE pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
Transféré au bureau de district de Vancouver au début des années 1960. |
From
Laval Desbiens
February 18, 2018
It is a rare occasion when one
spectrum warrior finds a real radio amateur in our land! Well I found one the
other morning while searching ( as all old monitoring operators did and still do
) here and about the web.
His name is Steven McDonald.
I found him on Mayne Island BC and to top it,
he permitted me to trace a man named Baxter who
was an operator we knew of at the Hartlen Point
monitoring station and of whom we had lost trace.
Usually, when I
find one such real ham, I write him to mark the point.
Steve McDonald states:
|
" GM
Laval, from the west coast!
Yes,
there are a few of us still striving to keep the hobby from becoming too
dumbed-down by the lack of awareness exhibited by many new hams. I guess
we can't really blame them since many of them grew-up when radio was no
longer magic. It must be in your blood at a very young age to truly love
it!
I
wrote my ticket at age 15 (Grade 10...took the day off school) and
travelled to downtown Vancouver by bus...had the you-know-what scared
out of me by big 'old man
Baxter'
at the DOT...but passed with flying colors... VE7ANP. " |
Steve McDonald
continues :
|
"
Bill Baxter was a formidable man...60-ish (of course every adult looks
60 to a 15 year old), 6'2", balding white hair, big hairy white
eyebrows with a white dress shirt rolled to the elbows and dark
tie...gold wire-framed glasses and spoke with a gruff demanding voice. I
suspect he must have been in the Army at some point in time! Very
intimidating to a shaky 15 year old hoping to realize the dream of his,
so far, short life.
He became much
friendlier after he saw my CW skills. I could send easily at 25WPM on
the hand key and copy around 45WPM as I had been studying CW for about 3
years at that point. » |
 |
Our man
William J Baxter
was the Examining Officer
on Steven McDonald's
Amateur Certificate of Proficiency in
Radio
in 1963 |
Steve McDonald
continues :
|
" I
became
a high school teacher at age 20 and taught for 35 years...in the same
school! Mostly drafting and electronics. I had briefly considered
getting a commercial ticket and do some RO work or coastal station work
for the CG but soon shed that idea when I realized there was little $$
and likely a harder life, away from home too much. " |
Steve maintains a
Radio
Logbook page
and an informative interesting
blog
Laval D.
February 18, 2018
