VE7ON Station Tour

My original fascination with radio started when I was in my early twenties. One of my co-workers was heavily into CB. After listening to his stories of DX conquests for some months, I was eager to learn more. I was a bit too chicken to visit this “big time” CB Dxer on my own, so one Friday evening I talked my brother into going with me to his house to see his radio in action. I was later told my eyes were as big as saucers as he demonstrated his radio! From that moment on I was hooked, and have been ever since.

It took a while to gain the required knowledge before attempting to write the test, and I spent virtually every moment studying. I received my license in 1971. I was greatly helped in my quest for a ham license by Felix Wright, then ve7bjm, and Chip Reid, then ve7cbb, and now kh6ap. After serving the mandatory year on CW, I received my advanced license in 1972. I have never enjoyed CW and have seldom used that mode since the first year.

My biggest thrill in ham radio has always been chasing DX and in the early days, building amplifiers, antennas and other such things. Early on my antennas were both simple and modest. Little by little they improved and eventually a tri-band beam was added. The country counters slowly rose until I moved to acreage in Langley in 1983. Finally I had the room to erect a proper antenna system. The tower grew to 85 feet and mono-band yagi’s were added. With the help of friendly competition from my neighbor, ve7sz, my country totals grew rapidly. I now have them all confirmed except for the ever illusivevu4 (Andaman Island) as well as 5 band DXCC. My current DXCC total is 338.

Teaming up with Allan, ve7sz, we have entered many contests together and made numerous trips to the local ham-fests and flea markets. We have also made several trips to Dayton and Visalia. These have been very enjoyable facets of the hobby for me.

Allan, ve7sz, and a couple of friends helped me build a one-thousand square foot workshop and ham shack a few years ago. Since then I have been able to pursue my hobbies in complete comfort.

The elusive VU4 has finally been on the air! After many years of hoping, I worked the December, 2004, Andaman Island

DXpedition that most DX'ers had been waiting for. While I was worried about sending mail and green stamps to India, there were no problems and soon I had my long awaited VU4 card. I had been planning a trip to Dayton in 2005 and it was a great pleasure for me to hand my last card to DXCC head Bill Moore personally. Mrs.D.Bharathi Prasad, VU4RBI, did a wonderful job of leading the VU4 team and I was very pleased to meet her in Dayton and personally thank her for my last country. After more than 30 years of DX'ing, I finally have them all confirmed! According to the ARRL web site there are only 16 Canadian hams (as of July 2005) that have all 335 confirmed and 7 are from BC. VE7 truly is the DX capital of Canada...Gord.

**Click on picture for a larger image**

The station is housed in a separate 1,000 square foot purpose built (by myself) combination work shop and ham shack

The equipment consists of a Ten-Tec Omni 6 transceiver that drives a Henry 3K-A amplifier. The antennas are a 2-element Cushcraft ”40" at 85 feet, 5-element Wilson “20" at 75 feet and a DX Engineering log periodic for 10, 15 and 17 side mount at 65 feet

Station Tour: VE7ON