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| VE3CGJ operated as an amateur radio station in Radio 1 when the ship was part of Ontario Place in Toronto. This was the QSL card in use at the time. There have been several 100 watt transceivers used over the years feeding an inverted vee 80/40/10 meter trap dipole. This dipole is attached to the end of the port yardarm on the foremast. At the end of Haida's service life, she had an active amateur licence under the call sign of VE0NV, so it was fitting to have an amateur station operating from this room after the ship paid off. . |
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| HAIDA's service call "CGJD" sign spelled out with flags. |
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| Al Goodwin VE1AJX of Dartmouth Nova Scotia,
served aboard HAIDA as the POTEL (senior radio operator) from May of 1960
until she paid off in October of 1963. Al recollects memories from this
period. "I operated amateur radio station VE0NV from early 1962 when I
first received my ticket until we paid her off. At one time, we had five
operators working the bands and that was probably a record number for one
ship. For a receiver, I removed the Hammarlund SP600 in Radio 4 and used
it with either a Marconi CM11 or PV500 transmitter.
A VE0 call was very rare in those days and one CQ brought back a 'pileup'. One thing still sticks out from this period. The Commanding Officer thought that operating an amateur station was really neat. He used to bring his guests into Radio 1 and show them the QSL cards that were displayed on the aft side of the Message Centre bulkhead. One day, he noticed a QSL card from Russia and asked - 'What would you talk to him about?' I replied 'Crypto codes - of course', a remark that I passed during the height of the Cold War" |
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| Summer of 1993: Jerry Proc, VE3FAB, is at the controls of VE3CGJ, a callsign registered to HMCS HAIDA Sparker's Club. The Heathkit HW101 was in use at that time. For an interim period, a Heathkit SB-104 was used and was later replaced by a Drake TR-7. Amateur radio operations, first started in 1992, stopped in 2001 when HAIDA was being prepared for her 2002 refit. From 2003 to 2018 , and under Parks Canada stewardship, VE3CGJ only operated as a special events station perhaps one to two times per year. VE3CGJ is now silenced because Radio Room 1 no longer has power for the equipment . |