About Skywide

The Current Club

The Skywide Amateur Radio Club was re-established as a functional club in June of 2022 after a brief hiatus from 2018. The club AGM was held in August and a new executive was instated.

 

 

As of March 15th 2023 the club has 53 members and is now home to a thriving amateur radio community just as the original club was and continues to grow rapidly.

 

Skywide Executive

President – Tom Stefanac VE3/VA3VWX
Vice President – Ken Baine  VA3KEX
Treasurer  – Carlos Rivera VA3CRL
Secretary –  Ian Penney VE3INP
Technical Advisor  – Jerry Proc VE3FAB

The mission of the Skywide Amateur Radio Club is to promote the spirit of amateur radio through communication, community, member engagement, public outreach, and collaboration. We believe amateur radio is manifold in nature, reaching into many sub-hobbies and interests spanning all age groups. Our club membership enjoys contesting, building, experimentation, communication, and of course education which is an integral part of our club meetings and activities.

The Original Club

A lot of amateurs built their own gear in the 1950s. This is the 6 meter station of Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY circa 1955. Pictured here is the 50 MHz down converter atop the receiver. The 50 MHz transmitter at the left is also home-brew. It consisted of a 829B dual tetrode and had a power input of around 50 watts to the final.
A lot of amateurs built their own gear in the 1950s. This is the 6 meter station of Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY circa 1955. Pictured here is the 50 MHz down converter atop the receiver. The 50 MHz transmitter at the left is also home-brew. It consisted of a 829B dual tetrode and had a power input of around 50 watts to the final.

The Skywide Amateur Radio Club was founded in 1952. The only document which survived was the November 1, 1956 edition of the Skyhook Club Bulletin. This copy was made available by Dave, K1DT, President of the Providence Radio Association in 2019.

 

Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY (pronounced Dmee-triss), provides some early history of the Skywide Club.

”I was a SWL high school student in 1952, and there I met Alan Smith VE3DNP. We became “Charter Members” of SARC . Both of us are shown in the “1956 Skyhook Sheet 1 membership list. He is a Silent Key as of 20 May 2019 per TCA Sep/Oct 2019 Issue.

 

 

In the early 1950s, initial meetings to form SARC were held in the home of Orry Castrucci VE3BUD who was also on the membership list, but not at the Statler address shown. We met at his earlier home on Meadowvale Drive, (Bloor St./Royal York Rd. area). Castrucci is honoured as Member of the Month in the 1956 Skyhook Sheet 3, where a new home is also mentioned. No meetings were held at his 1956 Statler Ave address.

 

By 1954 when I got my ticket, meetings were held in the Mimico Hydro building on Royal York Road, at the junction of Drummond St., just south of St. Leo’s RC Church. That was a two story brick building, maintenance shop/office, with a large room at the front on the second floor. Some years later it was demolished for site re-development and SARC meeting locations changed.

This was the very first contact made by Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY. It was a DX contact on 50 MHz to Tennessee and was made with the gear pictured in the photo above. Power was fed into a 4 element beam on a 12 foot pole outside bedroom (shack) window.
This was the very first contact made by Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY. It was a DX contact on 50 MHz to Tennessee and was made with the gear pictured in the photo above. Power was fed into a 4 element beam on a 12 foot pole outside bedroom (shack) window.
This QSL card was sent to Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY from Alan Smith VE3DNP, one of the charter members of the Skywide Club. Circa 1954.

There were two Ladies Night events in my time as a member. The second one was in 1963 and I still have a memento glass ashtray showing the club emblem and VE3DRT (SARC call sign) underneath like the one on webpage. Those events were held at the then Lions Club Arena (next to Gus Ryder Pool) in a second floor banquet room. It’s now a Humber College facility. I was married by then and with obligations, work travel, etc., so let membership lapse and never attended a meeting elsewhere.

Some photos of those early years are posted below.”

Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY at the controls of the Skywide VHF Field Day station in 1956. Although the beer bottles are staged, it does make a statement when the band suddenly goes dead and there are no contacts to be made.
Bill Dmytrasz VE3DNY at the controls of the Skywide VHF Field Day station in 1956. Although the beer bottles are staged, it does make a statement when the band suddenly goes dead and there are no contacts to be made.

The First World War & The Skywide Lou Lomas Trophy

One of the founding members of Skywide Amateur Radio Club in 1952 was the early Canadian amateur
radio pioneer and telegrapher Lewis James Lomas, VE3LL (SK) of 104 Mimico Street. Lomas operated his
first amateur radio station when he was 15 years old in 1908. He served as a radio operator in the 75th
Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War 1 where he was seriously wounded,
September 1916 at Courcelette, during the Battle of the Somme. Following his discharge from the
military, he was an active member of the Canadian Amputations Association, amateur radio
organizations and the community of Mimico.  In 1956, a memorial Cup designated the Lou Lomas
Trophy was donated by Herb Clark to be presented yearly to the Skywide member who has given the
most effort to promoting the betterment of the club.
The posted picture is of the 75th Battalion in Courcelette, 1916, with a wounded soldier being
evacuated and a telegraph operator in the trench at his post.

Field Day 1959

(Taken by Bill Dmytrasz on a Kodak Brownie movie camera and later converted to MP4 format.)