In the early photos of the station, you can see a Collins desk microphone. Of course, there were no WARC bands back then.Īnother irony is that the Science Centre was built in a ravine, so a 100-foot mast barely got us back up to street level.Īnyone know the story of Big Bertha? I’ve heard that a helicopter was used to take it down. Possibly it had stopped rotating?įortunately we had a Hy-Gain TH6-DXX tri-band yagi on a guyed tower that worked very well. There were only a couple dozen of these monsters ever built.īut even though I started operating within a year or so of the Science Centre opening, the Big Bertha was no longer in use, and I cannot remember the reason. There were monoband yagis on it for (I think) 40, 20, 15 and 10-metre bands. The Big Bertha antenna system was extremely impressive, a US-built unguyed welded steel pole over 100 feet tall. I wonder why the amplifier was changed, and whether it was ever used much. I’m not sure if this is the one I remember, which could have been in two cabinets, one for the RF deck and one for the power supply. My recollection is that the new amplifier was floor-standing, like the 30S-1, but the colour photo seems to show a desk-top linear. Maybe it came out of the Science Centre workshop? I cannot remember what tube(s) it used, but it appeared to be very well built. Shortly after I started operating the station, perhaps late 1970 or early 1971, the 30S-1 disappeared and was replaced by a homebrew linear amplifier. I was also asked to avoid using it because it would interfere with the security guards’ walkie-talkies! It was there when I began operating the station, although I never used it because the station put out a great signal using just the 100 watt 32S-3 transmitter and those nice antennas. The station originally had a Collins 30S-1 kilowatt linear amplifier. This was no problem for those of us brought up with separate, often unrelated, transmitters and receivers, but it was unusual for the early 1970s when transceiving (single control of transmitter and receiver frequencies) was becoming common, and was offered with the standard S/Line receivers. So we had to zero-beat the transmitter with the receiver every time we changed frequency. It uses a different PTO than the other S/Line equipment, and therefore cannot transceive with the 32S-3 transmitter. The question is interesting because the 51S-1 actually made the station more difficult to operate. short-wave broadcasting or commercial radioteletype? So, why was a 51S-1 chosen? Did the person buying the equipment for VE3OSC just ask for “the best of everything”? Or was there perhaps some intention to demonstrate non-amateur use of radio, e.g. The 51S-1 receiver was a general coverage radio, spanning the entire shortwave spectrum, and it would have cost much more than a ham-bands-only receiver which would have been the typical companion for the 32S-3 transmitter, namely a 75S-3B or a 75S-3C. If you’re able to shed any light, or offer additional information, please do get in touch.
Just a few thoughts and questions about the original amateur radio station VE3OSC at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.
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