What got me interested in the radio communications hobby?
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That is a hard question to answer, there was many things that got me interested, but i would say number one on the list would be of course be my dad ... Harold Morgan Steele. Dad worked for CHVO in Carbonear for years as a broadcast engineer, before he got transferred to VOCM in St.Johns in the late 1990's, where he became chief engineer and was responsible for most VOCM radio stations all across Newfoundland.
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Dad worked for VOCM for 30 years before he passed away in May of 2012.
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I remember Dad heading out on the highway's during winter storms and thunderstorms to transmitter sites located in Tilton, Clarenville, Marystown, Gander and Grand Falls.
I even helped him install a brand new transmitter at the transmitter site in Stephenville - CSFX, at the time replacing a older RCA TUBE transmitter that was installed on the site, he even had to re-tune the matching network to the tower, it was rather interesting to say the least.
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So as you can see, i have been exposed to radio communications my entire life!
The second reason how i got interested was my Brother, he owned and operated on CB radio in Carbonear in the mid to late 1990's, he used at that time a Cobra 139xlr with red face, also the antenna was a awesome structure, i think it was called the Ultra Kicker, i could be wrong on the name.
Below is a model of that same antenna:
But my interest did not end there, my brother also owned a set of Browning Golden Eagle Mark-4A, he still has these today, all though not in use sadly.
So, as time went on i got interested in CB radio, lucky enough i managed to nab a brand new still in the box Cobra 21xlr, my friend's Glenn and Mike also owned CB radio's as well, so we setup my Cobra 21xlr with a Antron-99 mounted outside, we talked to each other for hours on end and even early morning's when we decided to go for our many bike rides all over gods green creation, we biked everywhere and anywhere! As of note, Glen owned a Cobra 2000gtl, a 50ft tower with a antron-99 right on top!
I believe Glenn's CB handle was "Sky Scraper".
After highschool back in 1997, our family moved from Carbonear to St.John's where i have lived ever since then. At the time i only owned the Cobra 21xlr CB radio, set that beast up and then met people all over the city on that radio, some i became friends with while at the same time met a few jerk-off's "Ain't they everywhere? Geez".
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Later i managed to purchase a old Realistic DX160 with both matching speakers, listening to amateurs all over the world every evening, how i wished at the time that i could also become a ham radio operator. There was one chap i listened too every chance i had on the 14mhz 20 meter band on 14.175mhz USB, the call sign W2ONV, Man did that man love his HI-FI audio, it was a pleasure to listen to him everyday,
It was a very sad day when W2ONV passed away, i never did get a chance to speak with him.
Then there was another chap from Ireland, i used to call him the "The power house of Ireland", he mostly could be found either on 160 or 80meters booming into this side of the pond, Sadly i do not remember his callsign, but man what a signal that man produced! WOW!
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Later i managed to purchase the famous Panasonic RF-4900, What i would not do get my hands on another one of them beasts, of all radio's i ever owned at the time, that radio had to be the best rig that i had ever owned. The sound quailty of that radio was unmatched by any other radio i had at the time, sensitivity that could pick out signals out of nowhere, it was unreal.
Moving ahead a few years back on September 11, 2001, The whole world stopped and watched as multiple planes had been hijacked, 2 of which slammed into the world trade center in New York city, another into the Pentagon and another crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township Pennsylvania.
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The four flights were:
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American Airlines Flight 11: a Boeing 767 aircraft, departed Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of 11 and 76 passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane into the northern facade of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 a.m.
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United Airlines Flight 175: a Boeing 767 aircraft, departed Logan Airport at 8:14 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of nine and 51 passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane into the southern facade of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 9:03 a.m.
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American Airlines Flight 77: a Boeing 757 aircraft, departed Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:20 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of six and 53 passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane into the western facade of the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, at 9:37 a.m.
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United Airlines Flight 93: a Boeing 757 aircraft, departed Newark International Airport at 8:42 am en route to San Francisco, with a crew of seven and 33 passengers, not including four hijackers. As passengers attempted to subdue the hijackers, the aircraft crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m.
I remember listening on the Panasonic RF-4900 too 8.906mhz USB to Gander radio as this was one of my favorite utilities to listen too, that frequency was ALWAYS busy with flight traffic to and from aircraft out over the Atlantic heading towards or away from Gander flight control zone.
I remember being at work in the community of Goulds, on Meadow Brook drive working construction at the time, i remember hearing on the AM/FM radio in the car that the United states was under attack! I could not for the life of me believe what i was hearing.
I left to go home early that day because i just could not concentrate on my work. I walked into the radio shack, turned on the Panasonic RF-4900 to maybe hear some traffic... I was met with silence! I have never heard the radio so dead, the only transmission i heard was that all traffic to be diverted from United States to Locations in Newfoundland which were Deerlake, Gander and St.John's.
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Even watching the news on TV was like watching a movie, seeing them 2 planes slam into the World Trade Center was like watching a sick movie on TV, i thought to myself, it can't be real, Can it? It took me about 30 minutes to realize it was real and this was happening!
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WAL-MART and other companies thruout St.Johns donated food, water and blankets to the stranded passengers, we all did what we could to help these people, it saddens me even today to think back to September 11, 2001.
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I will never forget that day on September 11, 2001, Forever etched into my mind.
A few years later and here i am, sitting in front of the computer screen, updating this website during the mist of a global pandemic caused by the Corona-virus - COVID-19. it amazes me just how fast life can change! Things that we once took for granted are longer available, places we once visited are now closed, gas prices that was selling at $1.30 per liter now sells for less then .75cents per liter.
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Most businesses are now closed with only essential services allowed to stay open, Hospitals over flowing with millions of people that have become sick, and thousands more people have passed away from this deadly virus.
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The world right now is a very different place. Streets have very little traffic, very little to no aircraft flying overhead, our city's and town's have now become ghost towns as Governments shut down everything to help put a stop to the spread of the COVID-19.
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When i first heard about the Corona-virus in early March, many cleaning products including toilet paper flew off shelves as people began hording these products, everyone thought this was funny at first.... But as the days and weeks passed by, the pandemic really started to hit home and began to become much more serious.
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I thought for awhile that Newfoundland would be able escape COVID-19, but that was not to be the case, as of April,4th,2020 Newfoundland now has over 200 cases of the virus, the numbers keep growing higher by the day. Most cases have been because of travel, but in recent days there is now cause for a new alarm of community spread caused by people who have the virus that either do not know they have the virus or just plain do not care about their life and lives of others around them!
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Every country around the world are fighting a battle that can not be seen, people walking around you that have no idea that they have become infected, while passing the virus unto anyone that ventures within inches of them.
Very scary times we now live in.
Below are a few photos of what St.John's now looks like during a full fledged global pandemic.... I truly hope a cure can be found for this virus, if not, i fear millions more may pass away.
Local breweries have retooled production lines to make hand sanitizer instead of regular alcoholic beverages such as beer and other spirits.
Notice the "Made right here" message on each label?
As more and more businesses are now closed, and while folks have to stay home unless for essential supplies or to venture outside for fresh air. More and more people are becoming irritated by the rules now in place. Although they are upset about it, we all know how important it is to stay inside and away from friends, family and all other people. While we must keep 6ft away from each other we can still venture outside to enjoy the nice weather while walking down the streets or while out for a drive.
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Below i show you a photo of a bronze statue of a rower that sits near the top of Quidi Vidi lake here in St.Johns, even this statue wears a face mask, scarf, hat and sun glasses.... even tho he rows, he stays safe.
Here i am again, writing yet another entry onto this little Blog, as of February, 12th, 2021 all of Newfoundland and Labrador has gone back into Level-5 Lock down once again, this time due to a highly-contagious variant of COVID-19 known as the B117 variant, which first detected in the UK.
Once again i jumped into the RAV-4 and decided to go for little drive around the great city of St.Johns to grab some photos, once again the city has become a ghost town as you can see from the following photos.
"#BREAKING || The outbreak in the St.John's-Metro region is due to a highly-contagious variant of COVID-19 known as the B117 variant, first identified in the UK.
Effective IMMEDIATELY - the ENTIRE province is reverting back to ALERT LEVEL 5 for the next TWO WEEKS."
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As most people know, the world went thru this 100 years ago with another Pandemic "The Spanish Flu", they made it thru then, we can make it thru now. We just got to keep doing what the good doctors have told us all to do.
Hang in there folks...
Few months have now passed since my last entry into this website blog of sorts, not much has really happened here only that we have had a really hot summer with temps reaching as high as 32.c and humidity close to 42.c at times. i for one do not enjoy the the hot weather nor the humidity that comes with it. Now that fall is near, the temps have dropped to the low teens, which is a nice change from the summer heat. The island suffered a couple of really big forest fires in the central portion of the island which had burned for about 3 weeks or so before it fully contained.
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Covid19 is still out there, people are still being infected and also passing away from the virus, i have been one of the lucky ones so far. I have not contracted the virus during the pandemic and i am very thankful for that.
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Work is going well, and it appeared we are more busy now then before the pandemic even hit, every day we venture to work, and every day we give service to those whom need us. I am very proud to have given our emergency services all the technical support that they needed during the pandemic, regardless if i had to visit the emergency room of our local hospital, to installing radio equipment in ambulances and fire trucks, to visiting fire departments thru-out the island to working on public works trucks and equipment.
To this day i will continue to provide our community the technical services they need, and to provide the service to them best that i can, i am very proud to have been able to provide my services to them.
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"When the world stopped and the people stayed home, emergency and essential services were still out there, providing the services to keep your world going, I am
proud to have been one of them"
