After a very long absence, a permanent amateur radio station has been established aboard HMCS HAIDA using call sign VE0NV. This is the same amateur radio call sign that was used when HAIDA was in service.Now housed in Radio 2, is an ICOM 7300 transceiver running 100 watts into a LDG Electronics remote antenna tuner and connected to the 28 foot aft port whip antenna. Preliminary testing had indicated favorable operation on the traditional and WARC bands allocated to the amateur radio service. It even works on 6 meters with a very low SWR.
The station was officially launched during the "Museum Ships On The Air" event held on the weekend of June 6 and 7, 2026. Rick Bialachowski made the first contact at 10 :00 on Saturday, June 6 with a contact in Wisconsin.
On day one of the event, the sun emitted a Coronal Mass Ejection which completely shut down high frequency communications. Conditions recovered and by Sunday June 7, a total of 54 contacts were made. Currently, the plan is to operate the station whenever the ship is open, provided that volunteers are available.
By establishing VE0NV in Radio 2 , it gives radio volunteers the opportunity to contrast old and new radio technology to the ship's visitors.
Many thanks go out to Rick Bialachowski who was instrumental in repatriating call sign VE0NV for HAIDA , to Friends of HAIDA who provided the funding to buy the amateur radio hardware, to Chris Cuthbert who installed the station and to Jerry Proc who provided counsel.
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| Chris Cuthbert, VE3PKY at the controls of VE0NV. In the background is equipment native to HAIDA when she paid off in 1963 |
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| The cylinder of metal which holds up the 28 foot whip antenna is called a sponson. |
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| Tucked neatly away, under the steel of the aft superstructure, is the LDG Electronics Model RT-RC100 remote controlled an antenna tuner, In HAIDs case, it yields SWR readings approaching 1:1. |
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| VE0NV station equipment. . |
| All photos in this table by Jerry Proc |
The Hamilton Spectator published a story about VE0NV. Page 1 Page 2 .
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Jun 12/26