Thanks for viewing my attempt at my Personal Webpages, it is a work in progress project.
Just a little bit of personal info about me. I was born in Elliot Lake, Ontario on 01 January 1959 to Wil and Geri Donohue, and I am the oldest of 2 sons. After a period of 4 years in Elliot Lake we moved out west to Saskatchewan, to Esterhazy and then a couple years later moved to Saskatoon where most of my childhood was spent in Saskatoon. I was quite active in sports namely baseball and like every young Canadian boy, I played hockey during the Winter months.
Joined the Military at the age of 19 and completed my Basic Training in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. From there I spent some time in Kingston, Ontario where I completed my trades training, and then headed out west to Calgary, Alberta. From there, I was fortunate enough to be Posted to Lahr, West Germany. Spent 6 years in Lahr, then moved back to Canada, to Calgary, Alberta where I spent 4 years and then once again on the move and was heading back overseas, this time to Brunssum, The Netherlands where I lived for a period of almost 4 years. I then once again returned to Canada, this time to Petawawa, Ontario and this has been my home since 1994. I have 2 daughters, Melanie and Jennifer, and a total of 4 Grandchildren, who all live only a stones throw away (just 15km) in Pembroke, Ontario. I have been most fortunate to have served on a number of 6-7 Month Tours overseas, namely 3 Tours in Bosnia, 1 Tour in Kosovo and just successfully completed my 2nd Tour of Afghanistan where we spent the entire tour living in trenches and makeshift accommodations while being under a constant high state of readiness. My last serving unit prior to my retirement on 16 September 2013 was 2 ASG Signals Squadron, which was a very nice break from the hectic life of being in a field unit.
As mentioned above I am now fully retired as of 16 September 2013, now have some free time to achieve a few of my goals, namely getting to the #1 Honor Roll. One of my favourite interests is Weather. I have 2 Davis Weather Stations at the home QTH, Davis Vantage Pro 2 FARS and a Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus in which I upload the data to my Personal Webpages as well to other locations on the the internet. I have always been facinated with weather and it's ever changing properties. My next weather related project is to get some equipment for lightning detection and join the Blitzortung group of weather followers. Weather has always been and probably will continue to be a very good source of conversation while on the radio. When is the last time you have checked into a 80m Net and not found people talking about the weather, I can give detailed weather condition reports for my local area better than Environment Canada. Go Figure.....
My interest in Amateur Radio came around the age of 15, when my father would get me to ask him questions about the theory and regulations. Once we pretty well covered those subjects, and when on night shift at work he would get me to tune in W1AW on his Heathkit SB-303 receiver and record the code practice. I even remember sending cw to my dad at times, it must have been pretty hard to understand my sending back in those days pretty choppy. After all that, what seemed like hard work to me, my parents bought me a Heathkit Shortwave Receiver for christmas so I could listen to shortwave and amateur radio transmissions. Being still a teenager, I didn't get bitten by the Amateur Radio bug until the late 70's when I worked the CFARS station at CFB Calgary. I would run phone patches for troops on oversea's deployments as well as chat with the many CFARS operators all over the world. CFARS is the equivalent of the US MARS program. That really started the ball rolling as from there it wasn't too long after when I went and obtained my Amateur Radio License. The theory and regs etc was all I really need to work on, as at that time I had already mastered CW. I could send and receive morse code at 35 wpm and at times once I got into a flow, could get even higher speeds. Keep in mind that is using a straight key no bug or paddles for me back then. It wasn't until late 80's that I could finally save enough $$ to purchase a pretty small station. Prior to going back oversea's again in 1990, I sold everything off and while oversea's saved my penny's and upon returning to Canada in 1994 I bought a very nice Kenwood TS-830S station, later followed by upgrading to a Kenwood TS-940 station. Then got bitten by the Yaesu FT-1000D bug and that is what I wanted so I sold off quite abit of equipment to purchase the FT-1000D. Then a few years later my wife and parents chipped in and bought me a Yaesu FTDX-9000 Contest with dual receivers and a few other options. What a nice present. I had that rig for a few years and then wanted to get into SO2R operations, so I sold the FTDX-9000 Contest and bought a couple of Yaesu FT-2000's. While they were not in the same class at the FTDX-9000, they would suffice. Then in 2014 came what hopefully is my last big transition, bought a pair of Elecraft K3's and P3's. Now that is what I like, the K3 is an awesome radio.
I have done some big changes recently in the shack, I still have the SO2R station, I currently have a pair of Elecraft K4D transceivers. I still have the KAT500 and KPA500 to go along with the K4D. I recently purchased a KPA1500 and another new Elecraft K4D. I also have added a Collins station to my list, complete Collins S-Line (WE). I also have a Flex-3000 that I use from time to time.
My only real regret in this hobby is that my father passed away 4 years prior to me achieving ARRL Honor Roll Status. He would have been so happy and very proud. If only I had started a few years earlier chasing DX.
My other hobbies are playing with Computers and the Internet, as well as Amateur Radio. I try to combine both hobbies into one whenever possible. Most evenings I can be found downstairs in the shack on the radio. My love is being on HF and I enjoy SSB and CW Ragchewing. I am also quite fond of working RTTY. I am not much into the other digital modes but from time to time I will experiment. I also enjoy working CW, the backbone of our great hobby. I can operate at speeds around 35 - 40 wpm on a good day, but usually work at 25 - 35 wpm. In the past I also enjoyed working Contests in both SSB/CW and RTTY modes, whenever I can find the time which as of late, due to family commitments and an overabundance of oversea's tours has been pretty sparse. I would have thought that once being fully retired that I would have ample time for Contesting, still not the case, I seem to be even busier once retired than when I was in the workforce.
As you can probably tell I am still pretty new to the fine art of Webpage Construction, kind of like stumbling along and forever experimenting and changing things. Maintaining a Website is a Full Time job when I can only spend Part Time. I sure hope that you enjoy my latest attempt at being a Part Time Webmaster amongst all of my other Full Time activities.
Just a little bit of personal info about me. I was born in Elliot Lake, Ontario on 01 January 1959 to Wil and Geri Donohue, and I am the oldest of 2 sons. After a period of 4 years in Elliot Lake we moved out west to Saskatchewan, to Esterhazy and then a couple years later moved to Saskatoon where most of my childhood was spent in Saskatoon. I was quite active in sports namely baseball and like every young Canadian boy, I played hockey during the Winter months.
Joined the Military at the age of 19 and completed my Basic Training in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. From there I spent some time in Kingston, Ontario where I completed my trades training, and then headed out west to Calgary, Alberta. From there, I was fortunate enough to be Posted to Lahr, West Germany. Spent 6 years in Lahr, then moved back to Canada, to Calgary, Alberta where I spent 4 years and then once again on the move and was heading back overseas, this time to Brunssum, The Netherlands where I lived for a period of almost 4 years. I then once again returned to Canada, this time to Petawawa, Ontario and this has been my home since 1994. I have 2 daughters, Melanie and Jennifer, and a total of 4 Grandchildren, who all live only a stones throw away (just 15km) in Pembroke, Ontario. I have been most fortunate to have served on a number of 6-7 Month Tours overseas, namely 3 Tours in Bosnia, 1 Tour in Kosovo and just successfully completed my 2nd Tour of Afghanistan where we spent the entire tour living in trenches and makeshift accommodations while being under a constant high state of readiness. My last serving unit prior to my retirement on 16 September 2013 was 2 ASG Signals Squadron, which was a very nice break from the hectic life of being in a field unit.
As mentioned above I am now fully retired as of 16 September 2013, now have some free time to achieve a few of my goals, namely getting to the #1 Honor Roll. One of my favourite interests is Weather. I have 2 Davis Weather Stations at the home QTH, Davis Vantage Pro 2 FARS and a Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus in which I upload the data to my Personal Webpages as well to other locations on the the internet. I have always been facinated with weather and it's ever changing properties. My next weather related project is to get some equipment for lightning detection and join the Blitzortung group of weather followers. Weather has always been and probably will continue to be a very good source of conversation while on the radio. When is the last time you have checked into a 80m Net and not found people talking about the weather, I can give detailed weather condition reports for my local area better than Environment Canada. Go Figure.....
My interest in Amateur Radio came around the age of 15, when my father would get me to ask him questions about the theory and regulations. Once we pretty well covered those subjects, and when on night shift at work he would get me to tune in W1AW on his Heathkit SB-303 receiver and record the code practice. I even remember sending cw to my dad at times, it must have been pretty hard to understand my sending back in those days pretty choppy. After all that, what seemed like hard work to me, my parents bought me a Heathkit Shortwave Receiver for christmas so I could listen to shortwave and amateur radio transmissions. Being still a teenager, I didn't get bitten by the Amateur Radio bug until the late 70's when I worked the CFARS station at CFB Calgary. I would run phone patches for troops on oversea's deployments as well as chat with the many CFARS operators all over the world. CFARS is the equivalent of the US MARS program. That really started the ball rolling as from there it wasn't too long after when I went and obtained my Amateur Radio License. The theory and regs etc was all I really need to work on, as at that time I had already mastered CW. I could send and receive morse code at 35 wpm and at times once I got into a flow, could get even higher speeds. Keep in mind that is using a straight key no bug or paddles for me back then. It wasn't until late 80's that I could finally save enough $$ to purchase a pretty small station. Prior to going back oversea's again in 1990, I sold everything off and while oversea's saved my penny's and upon returning to Canada in 1994 I bought a very nice Kenwood TS-830S station, later followed by upgrading to a Kenwood TS-940 station. Then got bitten by the Yaesu FT-1000D bug and that is what I wanted so I sold off quite abit of equipment to purchase the FT-1000D. Then a few years later my wife and parents chipped in and bought me a Yaesu FTDX-9000 Contest with dual receivers and a few other options. What a nice present. I had that rig for a few years and then wanted to get into SO2R operations, so I sold the FTDX-9000 Contest and bought a couple of Yaesu FT-2000's. While they were not in the same class at the FTDX-9000, they would suffice. Then in 2014 came what hopefully is my last big transition, bought a pair of Elecraft K3's and P3's. Now that is what I like, the K3 is an awesome radio.
I have done some big changes recently in the shack, I still have the SO2R station, I currently have a pair of Elecraft K4D transceivers. I still have the KAT500 and KPA500 to go along with the K4D. I recently purchased a KPA1500 and another new Elecraft K4D. I also have added a Collins station to my list, complete Collins S-Line (WE). I also have a Flex-3000 that I use from time to time.
My only real regret in this hobby is that my father passed away 4 years prior to me achieving ARRL Honor Roll Status. He would have been so happy and very proud. If only I had started a few years earlier chasing DX.
My other hobbies are playing with Computers and the Internet, as well as Amateur Radio. I try to combine both hobbies into one whenever possible. Most evenings I can be found downstairs in the shack on the radio. My love is being on HF and I enjoy SSB and CW Ragchewing. I am also quite fond of working RTTY. I am not much into the other digital modes but from time to time I will experiment. I also enjoy working CW, the backbone of our great hobby. I can operate at speeds around 35 - 40 wpm on a good day, but usually work at 25 - 35 wpm. In the past I also enjoyed working Contests in both SSB/CW and RTTY modes, whenever I can find the time which as of late, due to family commitments and an overabundance of oversea's tours has been pretty sparse. I would have thought that once being fully retired that I would have ample time for Contesting, still not the case, I seem to be even busier once retired than when I was in the workforce.
As you can probably tell I am still pretty new to the fine art of Webpage Construction, kind of like stumbling along and forever experimenting and changing things. Maintaining a Website is a Full Time job when I can only spend Part Time. I sure hope that you enjoy my latest attempt at being a Part Time Webmaster amongst all of my other Full Time activities.
Amateur Radio Station VE3YF