The following was forwarded to me as an email by VE4BAW. I added a few pictures off the internet to dress things up a bit but the text is courtesy of Donald Courcy, VE2CW.
As you will see from reading through his article he has a great deal of love for our submarine fleet and he wears the dolphins proudly…
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HMCS OJIBWA is a cold war Canadian Oberon Class submarine which
was in service in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1965 to 1998. The
submarine has been acquired by the Elgin Military Museum of St. Thomas,
Ontario and will soon be towed from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Port Burwell, Ontario where it will be preserved and operated as a submarine museum.
Plans are being prepared to restore the radio room onboard the
submarine as an active ham radio club station, operating under
call sign VA3ZFQ, in memory of OJIBWA’s former international call sign CZFQ.
I am a former submariner who served onboard submarines HMCS
OJIBWA, HMCS ONONDAGA and HMCS OKANAGAN during the cold war. I have agreed to sponsor call sign VA3ZFQ until a local ham radio operator in the Port Burwell area, with an advanced radio certificate, comes forward to take over as the sponsor.
Call sign VA3ZFQ has just been assigned to HMCS OJIBWA Submarine
MuseumAmateur Radio Club (HOSMARC). To view the VA3ZFQ info at
QRZ.com, CLICK ON THE PICTURE OF THE SUB (ABOVE)
Once the submarine has been towed from Halifax and installed at Port
Burwell, the restoration of the radio room will begin.
Volunteers will be needed to assist in the project. We will also be looking for old naval radio equipment. Details about the radio room restoration
will be posted in the coming months on the:
VA3ZFQ page at http://www.qrz.com/
For more information about The Ojibwa Project in Port Burwell,
Ontario, click on the Museum Logo (above)
If you are interested in helping out during the restoration of
the radio room onboard OJIBWA, and/or in joining the HMCS OJIBWA Submarine MuseumAmateur Radio Club (HOSMARC), send an email to
VA3ZFQ@rac.ca
You might recall that I was involved in a similar endeavour 3
years ago in Rimouski, Quebec, where OJIBWA’s sister submarine HMCS
ONONDAGA was installed as a submarine museum. The radio room onboard ONONDAGA is now on the air as a ham radio club station and operating under call sign VA2GNQ in memory of ONONDAGA’s former international call sign CGNQ. The station is operated by members of the St-Lawrence Amateur Radio Club found at http://www.ve2csl.ca
For more information about HMCS ONONDAGA’s ham radio club
station, please click the sub (above)
For more information about HMCS ONONDAGA’s Submarine Museum in Rimouski,Quebec,click the sub (below)
Donald Courcy, VE2CW
Sous-marinier Partenaire: Musée du sous-marin ONONDAGA -
Rimouski, QC
Member # S72-0007 – Ships Company – HMCS OJIBWA Submarine Museum
- Port Burwell, ON
Sponsor for VA3ZFQ – HMCS OJIBWA Submarine Museum Amateur Radio Club (HOSMARC) – Port Burwell, ON
Member: Submariners Association of Canada
Member # 0732 – North American QRP CW Club
Member # 15344 – FISTS (The International Morse Preservation Society)
Member: Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC)
Membre: Radio Amateur du Québec (RAQI)
Member: Submarine Veteran Amateur Radio Club (SVARA)
Member: Club Radio Amateur Rive-Sud de Montréal
Webmaster and Radio History Keeper: www.spectralumni.ca
Personal Website: www.radioman.ca
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So thanks again to Donald for sharing this information with us and many many thanks for doing all this work to get the Subs Radio Rooms back on the air.
Donald also advises that the story (in much more detail) will be coming out in a TCA Article in the future.
Just remember… The original Amateur Radio Social Media device used a “Key” and not a “Keyboard”.
73 from Ottawa… Bob
