National Capital Chapter 70 - Ottawa, Canada
VE3GS Biography 
Roy (John) Athey - SK - QCWA# 22917 (Silent Key)
Background
John grew up in England.
Education / Employment History
- John graduated from University of London (External) with a degree in Science.
- 1949 - He joined the RAF and was posted to Southern Rhodesia
- 1950 - On return to England, he worked at General Electric Co in television design
- 1953 - John emigrated to Toronto and worked at Philips on television design. He later worked for Canadian Arsenals in counter-measures design.
- 1964 - He moved to Ottawa and joined National Research Council to work on electronic engineering applied to biological sciences.
- 1988 - John retired from National Research Council
Amateur Radio History
- 1949 - First licensed as ZE3JA in Southern Rhodesia while with RAF. During this time John was involved in early experiments that led to the discovery of trans-equatorial propagation mode.
- 1950 - Assigned call sign G3GRC.
- 1959 - He applied for a call sign after an inactive period and was assigned VE3CTX.
- 1984 - He obtained VE3GS and also Quebec call sign VE2GSX for use from his Chelsea, Quebec home.
Additional Information
John’s main interests were in this order - home-brew construction (to which he brought a professional design expertise), HF DX, and antennas.
In 1980 he was accepted as a member of the DX Honour Roll, only the third member from Eastern Ontario/Western Quebec.
John was a member of Ottawa Amateur Radio Club and served as DX Editor of the OARC Ground Wave newsletter.
John joined QCWA in 1989 and gave a very informative two-part presentation at the Chapter 70 May and November 1993 dinner meetings on catching the rare DX entities and getting the contacts confirmed by QSL cards.
He received his “50 Year Licensed” Golden Certificate and lapel pin at the November 1999 meeting.
John passed away on May 24, 2002.