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Lester C. 'Les' Card Calgary ON, Canada QCWA # 23684 Chapter 151 |
Lester Card passed away peacefully on the morning of January 27, 2015 at the age of 95 years.
Les started his life of adventure on August 7, 1919 in Cardston. Les was a life-long scouter and lived by the motto of being prepared. He was an amateur radio operator for 77 years, with the current call sign VE6CA. Lester joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940 at the age of 21 as a Leading Aircraftsmen WEM(R). He volunteered to protect his country and he didn't mind if he died doing it, because he was committed to the cause. During WWII he was stationed in Great Britain, Malta and North Africa. Lester continued to serve in radar and telecommunications until 1968, when he retired from the RCAF as a Squadron Leader. After his military service, Les taught school for a number of years and spent his remaining working years as a geologist, retiring when he was 80.
Les is survived by his wife, Jean, and children Cam (Deborah), Joseph (Brenda), Carol (Emad), Jennifer (Brent) and Jon. Lester also had many grandchildren of whom he was very proud: Sarah, Jonathan, Caitlin, Whitney, Jennifer, Mike, David, Joanna, Chris, Jacob, Elizabeth, Alison, Caitlin, Brittany, Holliston, Richard and Harlow, as well as 11 great-grandchildren.
Funeral Services will be held at Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints Bow Valley Chapel (2526 24 Ave NW), on Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. Condolences may be forwarded through www.mcinnisandholloway.com.
In living memory of Lester Card, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Crowfoot, 82 CROWFOOT CIRCLE N.W. Telephone: 403-241-0044.
Lester Charles Card passed away peacefully just after 7:30 AM on Tuesday the 27th of January. He had been a resident of the Colonel Belcher but was in the Foothills Hospital at the time of his passing. His daughter Jennifer was with him at the time.
His funeral service will be Saturday January 31 at 2:00 PM at the Bow Valley Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:
2526 24 Avenue Northwest
Calgary, Alberta T2N 4H9
His obituary will be in the Calgary Herald Thursday and Friday.
Any condolences to my email address jncard@shaw.ca, will be shared with his wife Jean and the family.
I thank each of you for your kind thoughts and comments in Lester's regard.
Regards,
Joe Card, VE6JCA
The year I became interested in Ham Radio was 1933, but I had to wait until 1934 when I was 14 to apply for a licence. I received my call either in December 1934 or January 1935. The call was VE4RX. Bill Stunden the RI did not come to Cardston Alberta until 1936 and I took my exam and fortunately passed both the CW and theory.
I held VE4RX and then VE6RX when they changed the Provincial numbering. I have held VE7, VE6, VE5, VE4, VE3 and VE2 call signs during my airforce career from being posted from province to province from 1946 to 1969.
I returned to Calgary after retirement from the RCAF and received VE6CA which I presently hold.
When I was in Cardston the hams that helped me were Doc Dobry, VE6DR, John Wosling the local town radio and PA repair man and a fellow by the name of King. I have forgotten his call sign.
All of the early equipment was home brewed. Hartley and Colpitts oscillators, 201A tubes, then a pair of 45's TNT in push pull (my favorite). Then when crystals were available and 6L6's were cheap enough to buy, a 6L6 TRI-TET oscillator.
The first receiver was my folks with a converter. Then a 2 or 3 tube super-regenerative receiver with plug in coils. My power supplies were home built and power transformers were hand wound on laminations I made out of stove pipe iron. I had a friend Bill Jensen who got his licence the same time as I did and we were greatly helped in transformer building by a fellow named Fielding Thomas who had worked on transformer design at the Hammond Transformer plant in Ontario, then returned home to Cardston.
Our first power for transmitters and receivers came from dry cells collected from behind the telephone office and hooked up by the box full in series to get the voltage. They worked but didn't last long. We even used mother's quart sealers by the box full filled with dilute acid from the garage and lead and copper plates which generated about 1.5 volts per jar.
None of the original equipment was purchased. Our antennas were usually cut to length and were "zep", end fed with open wire feeders. Almost all operations were on 40 and 80 meters , on CW and all hams were identified by their chirp. Some of my early contacts were Bill Savage, VE6EO, in Lethbridge, Doc Dobry, VE4DR and many other Alberta hams across the province. DX to us in those days was California or eastern Canada. My friend Bill Jensen and I went on 40 phone (illegally thinking it was only across town) using a carbon microphone absorption modulation, but we found out we were getting to North Dakota.
Bill Jensen and I made it to the 1936 Waterton Glacier Hamfest a highlight of our early activities. This was in Glacier Park Montana. Both Bill Jensen and I became involved with the cadets signal corps as a result of our amateur activities.
As I grew a bit older and started earning some money, my favorite stores to visit were Taylor Pearson & Carson in Lethbridge and Smalleys in Calgary. It was at these stores we were able to get the odd components we needed to build our equipment.
Bill Stunden gave me my full phone advanced endorsement in 1939 just before the war. My equipment was all home built.
One of the saddest happenings which turned out to be a blessing, was my first 6L6 Tritet oscillator started drawing too much crystal current and it started to whistle then fractured. I took the holder apart and there were two equal pieces of a 40 metre crystal. I thought since it was broken, I might as well try and see what frequency the pieces oscillated on. To my surprise and joy, both pieces were useable and on the same frequency. So now I had two crystals, one of which I gave to Bill, but from then on I watched my crystal current and tuning of the oscillator.
From the "Tritet" 6L6, I added at a later date two 807's for a final, and modulated with two 6L6's in the audio amplifier.
When I started in ham radio I guess I really upset the household routine by my staying up and code being heard throughout the house.
One day I came home and an old granary was in the back yard. We levelled it and put a pot bellied stove in it and some windows. Now I really was in business. I went to the mountains with a wagon and a team of horses to get aspen poplar for the scouts. At the same time I cut two long straight pine poles and brought them back for antenna poles. One pole was fixed at the end of the shack and the other at the other end of the garden secured to a fence post. This held up a 40 M zepp antenna and later another post was obtained and off at about 40 deg. an 80 M zepp was erected. The shack with my VE4RX then VE6RX painted on the side remained there for many years even though by now I was overseas with the RAF and RCAF.
It was during those early days that Bill and I even tried with success underground antennas and verticals were also used for 20 meters and 10 meters. You can say for many years I was a confirmed AM operator and when SSB came in I was the first of many who called them "Donald Duck Stations". But alas I too, to stay alive on the air converted to SSB.
Those early days of home brew equipment, self excited oscillators and tuned circuits for frequency control and the chirpy notes bring a nostalgic feeling, but progress cannot be stopped and like a lot of old timers not only did we become obsolete with rapid advances in electronic sciences but we ourselves even get a bit older. Now the only chirpy notes we hear are the creaking of our joints and bones.
Les Card, VE6CA
1995