Midi playing is "Have I Told You Lately That I love  You"

        I was born in Rouyn, Quebec November 30, 1931 of Finnish parents. My father was a timber boss at a local mine . Went to school in Val d'Or, Quebec. Moved to McKellar, Ontario near Parry Sound in 1942 where we grew up on a small farm on the shores of Stewart Lake. The Lake was renamed Simola Lake in the 1950's. 

      My father was building large log buildings on the Georgian Bay islands for wealthy Americans and during the summer months I learned all about carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, stone masonry and a myriad of useful skills. Also got certificates in Diesel and Automotive Engineering and worked  mostly in marine environments. 

        In 1956 I joined the Ontario Provincial Police, stationed in North Bay, Ontario. I transferred into the Identification Branch, where I learned fingerprinting and crime scene photography. In late 1959 I started studying for my Amateur License and by August 1961 I had my Advanced Amateur. In 1966 I again transferred, this time to the Intelligence section of the OPP at their headquarters  in Toronto. We worked the organized crime bit using visual and electronic surveillance. I was in charge of the electronics section and designed and built all the tracking and listening devices. 

    I left the OPP in 1972 and got in to the Motel and Restaurant business in North Bay. Due to health problems about 2 years later, we gave up the motel business and sort  of relaxed for about one year. I got involved with electronics again in the sawmill business and traveled extensively as a service Manager for Harvey Engineering throughout Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. 

    Became a Consultant in the field of Process Control and Automation for the sawmill and mining industry, then branched out to Energy Monitoring and Power Management. Retired from that in 1992. 

This was my first "Ham Station" in North Bay in 1960. Top ... SX99 Hallicrafters Rcvr, Homebrew Plate Modulator for the DX40 (Everyone said I sounded like a broadcast station, audio wise, after I built it and went on the air), above it is the Heathkit SWR Bridge, top far right is the Speaker for the NC240D National Rcvr (lower left), DX40 Heathkit transmitter is on the lower right. To the left of it is the VFO and under the VFO is a Homebrew Scope that was used for checking modulation. 

    Back in those days I used to be Net Control for the Muskeg Net and I still have the call in list for the stations back then. We used the list to call each one of the stations in turn and when we got to the end of the list we would see if there were any other checkins. 
 

    Here is a photo taken in October 1948 at McKellar, Ontario. The car is a 1935 Studebaker and the 19 Set just rested nicely on the bumper. I bought the 19 set from a War Surplus store in Winnipeg, through an ad in the Old Family Herald, a weekly newspaper as I recall. About 2 weeks after I received it, I had a visit from the R.C.M.P wanting to know what use I was going to put it to. I remember being rather intimidated by the visit. That is my brother Niilo, VE3NSB who lives just south of Parry Sound. It took me 30 years to talk him into getting his license ! 

     My present station consists of an Icom 735, Vector 500 Linear Amplifier.
2 meter homebrew 20 element beam at 72 feet.
Multi-band Dipole for 75, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters at 65 feet. 
Inverted V for 160, 40 and 15 meter with apex at 45 feet. 
Full Wave Loop for 75 Meters. 
Sloper Coaxial antenna ( bazooka) for 40 meters from 68 feet sloping to the east, ending about 6 feet off the ground. 
     Also have a Kenwood TS 50 for mobile work and have built at least 30 Screwdriver antennas for mobile work. 

Multi-band Dipole at VE3DXG's place.

This is my Multi-band Dipole that I have used since I started in Amateur Radio back in 1961. It does not require a tuner and just one 52 ohm feed line. I use it as a reference antenna for all my antenna experiments. If an experimental antenna does not outperform my multi-band dipole in both reception and transmitting after about 2 months use, it is discarded. Sorry for the quality of the photo, but this one was the best of 6 taken under different conditions over a week.
For those that have expressed interest in some of the technical details, see below.

Frequency    Wire element lengths   Wire size
75 Meters         121 feet 4 inches       # 10 Stranded
40 Meters           63 feet 2 inches       # 12  "
20 Meters           32 feet 4 inches       # 14  "
15 Meters           29 feet 8 inches       # 16  "
10 Meters           16 feet 6 inches       # 16  "

The above measurements are a good starting point, leave all elements longer than above and just wrap the excess wire back on itself on the ends until you are happy with the SWR, then tie a knot at the end and cut joff the extra wire.

All insulators are PVC 1/2 inch water pipe cut to 4 inch lengths with 1 hole drilled in each end to accomodate the wire size. The lower element wire end is pushed through the hole and just knotted. The upper end of the insulator is slid so that there is a bit of a droop to the lower element, then just a couple of turns of electrical tape around the upper wire keeps it there.

The center insulator can be any suitable material 3 inches by 5 inches with holes drilled 1 inch apart for each element on each side. All wire elements are connected together and soldered on each side, RG 58 coax is then connected to each side.

This antenna is very broadbanded on all frequencies, no tuners required, just switch your rig from band to band, see below....

Reflected Power

80 & 75 Meters  3.510 --- 1.75    3.750 --- .25    3.850 --- .55    3.950 --- 1.5
40  Meters          7.010 --- .25      7.050 --- .25    7.150 --- .5      7.235 --- .6
20  Meters        14.010 --- 1.25  14.150 ---  .6   14.200 --- .6    14.300 --- 1.00

Many have tried building this antenna and have been successful, others have given up in desperation, however it does take a bit of patience as every adjustment you make has an effect on the other bands. The easiest way to make the adjustments is to string the entire assembly up about 6 or 7 feet above the ground, adjust the 75 meter first so that it is 1 to 1 at your favorite frequency, once you have that done, adjust the 40 meter portion the same way and continue doing the same until you get to 10 meters. Pull the antenna up to operating height and mark down the SWR across each band so you have a reference point to work from. Again do your adjustments from 75 meters down to 10 meters, but pull the antenna up to its operating height each time.

Good Luck,  Ted

My smallest experimental 40 Meter Antenna!

Here Chris is holding the antenna which is 3 feet per side, # 16 wire. The 4 inch diameter PVC section contains a 1 inch diameter coil, 5 inches long, 22 turns of # 14 copper wire with a 365 broadcast band capacitor, although a 150 pF would do the job.

I had it on top of a 6 foot step ladder in the back yard and worked stations in Ontario, Quebec and the east coast! Not bad for something so simple.