A community built around radio, public service, technical learning and friendship—now enriched by the early memories of Graham, VE7ABC.
This illustrated history brings together surviving club web pages, published amateur-radio records and the personal recollections of Ted Lee, VE7LEE, and Graham, VE7ABC. It is not an official publication of the Burnaby Amateur Radio Club. A verified founding date has not yet been located, so this page does not invent one; Graham confirms that the club was already established before he joined.
“The Mission of the Burnaby Amateur Radio Club (BARC) is to use our network of technical resources for recruiting, training and assisting Amateur Radio Operators as well as providing community service in the form of radio communication support.”
Burnaby Amateur Radio Club mission statementLocated in Burnaby, British Columbia, BARC gives radio amateurs a place to gather and share their experience in the hobby. Meetings are open to the public, and visitors are invited to learn about amateur radio. That welcoming character—operators teaching operators—runs through the club’s recorded history.
The club’s complete paper archive has not been found online. The chronology below therefore distinguishes personal recollection from independently documented events.
Graham, VE7ABC, remembers that the Burnaby Amateur Radio Club had already been formed before he became a member. He estimates that roughly 35 people might attend a meeting. Among the members he remembers from that early period were Dan Gentry, VE7DG; Alex, who taught the classes; Walt, VE7BGJ; and an amateur whose name he cannot now recall, VE7BGA. Graham remembers these early members as Silent Keys.
When Ted Lee was preparing for his amateur certificate, the Burnaby Amateur Radio Club was already an active local community. Walter Hendrickson, VE7BGJ, a respected blind amateur, taught Morse code and helped newcomers develop confidence. Ted remembers CW practice near 28.010 MHz and local two-metre simplex activity around 146.58 MHz—an era when direct station-to-station contact mattered and today’s linked digital systems did not yet exist.
The club repeater call sign VE7RBY appears in the 11th edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory. This confirms an established repeater presence in the early 1980s and places the club in the developing VHF network that connected Lower Mainland amateurs.
A 1986 amateur-radio directory lists the Burnaby Amateur Radio Club, and a 1995 73 Magazine listing gives the Monday club net at 8:00 p.m. on VE7RBY, using 145.35 MHz or 442.85 MHz. It also publishes the club’s Kingsway mailing address. The weekly net and paired VHF/UHF frequencies became enduring parts of the club’s identity.
Surviving BARC pages document a club station at Eastburn Community Centre, with an antenna installed on the roof. Photographs identify members operating the station and show Walter at the key. The archive also preserves Field Day activity with neighbouring clubs in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
For Field Day 2004, Burnaby and Coquitlam amateurs set up at Mount Seymour. The posted results record 364 CW, 557 phone and four RTTY contacts, using generator and battery power. This was both contesting and practical emergency-communications training.
BARC’s annual swap meet became a gathering point for radio operators across the region. The archived 2004 page called it Western Canada’s largest amateur-radio swap meet. Lou Beaubien, VE7CGE, was a long-time organizer associated with swap-meet arrangements and the club’s Vancouver Sun Run communications work.
At the Sun Run, BARC members worked with other area radio clubs to relay information to officials and alert medical personnel when assistance was needed along the ten-kilometre course—an example of amateur radio serving the wider community.
The club continues its familiar VHF and UHF repeater service while adding DMR through VA7DIZ. Saturday coffee meetings, on-air nets, technical discussion, help with programming radios, and Basic or Advanced examinations all carry forward the traditional club role: turning individual curiosity into shared knowledge.
Recollections supplied by Graham, VE7ABC. Approximate details and uncertainties have been retained instead of replaced with invented precision.
“I have many fond memories of the Club and our activities.”
Graham remembers joining a club that was already well established. Lou Beaubien, VE7CGE, joined just ahead of him, and Graham estimates that about 35 members attended a typical meeting. He cannot recall most of the original membership and believes that most, if not all, of those original members have now become Silent Keys.
Other members Graham remembers joining later include Norm Kirk, VE7FKN; “Fuzzy”, whose call sign is not recalled; Wally Garrett, VE7CJT; and John Henry Brown, VE7JHB. He does not remember anyone named Marty without having a call sign to connect with the name.
While living in North Delta, Graham attended most Friday club meetings. BARC first met at an older location in the Metrotown area and later moved to a location on Edmonds. After the general meeting, members sometimes continued the evening at the White Spot on Kingsway. Moving to Langley made the drive considerably longer, while a son playing hockey also placed new limits on Graham’s free time.
One memorable Field Day site was near the pitch-and-putt course in North Burnaby—radio equipment, antennas, outdoor operating and fellowship in the same place.
Members travelled together to hamfests in the Okanagan and south across the border to Tacoma, extending the club’s friendships beyond Burnaby.
The White Spot on Kingsway was part of club life too—a place where conversation could carry on after a general meeting ended.
For ten dollars, the club’s experienced crew would install a tower for a new member. Graham recalls with humour that some recipients were never heard from again.
Graham, VE7ABC, recalls: “Brian (VE7CTH) and I put our brains together to figure out who was in this Field Day picture from around 1995-ish. Sitting on the left is yours truly (VE7BBV). Next to me is Don (VE7FW), with Al (VE7UG — SK) standing. We are unsure of the next two, but the taller fellow was our ‘tower monkey.’ If you needed someone to put an antenna on your 30-foot tower, he was your man. The next person, wearing jeans, a white shirt and a grey jacket, I believe is Claude Leduc (VE7ZZX — SK), and the man in black is Roland Savoie (VE7UUU). We did not know the next two, but that is Brian (VE7CTH) behind Vol Riley (VE7EYG). We also are not sure of the second-to-last person, who has his arms crossed. The person on the extreme right is Jeff Haak (VE7HAK). We believe Lou (VE7CGE) was behind the camera, since that was his Volkswagen van.”
Lou, VE7CGE; Tom, VE7FFB; Mac, VE7ECE; Bill Kremer; Fred, VE7FFK; and Graham, VE7ABC installed “a heck of a lot of towers” around the area. This was practical amateur radio at its most neighbourly: heavy work, experience and safety shared to help another station get on the air.
For many years, Graham operated the on-air Swap and Shop on the club repeater, taking listings for used amateur-radio equipment offered for sale. It was a popular part of the net, and on busy nights the complete set of listings could take more than 30 minutes to read. The service gave local amateurs a friendly, practical way to pass along gear and help another operator get on the air.
Graham remembers the club’s flea market beginning almost as a joke. Rob, VE7TT, asked about holding a Dutch auction so members could dispose of what Graham affectionately calls their “quality junk.” Graham believes he may have been club president at the time and agreed to try it. The rest was history.
On one especially successful occasion, Harry, VE7HNC, arranged for the flea market to be held at the Armoury in New Westminster. The lineup to enter stretched down to Royal Avenue. Inside, Graham remembers moving past the tables as being “like salmon swimming upstream,” with buyers wall to wall. It was both a community gathering and, in his words, a good and profitable time.
Graham vaguely remembers that someone once began documenting the history of the Burnaby club, but he cannot recall who it was. His own account now becomes part of that unfinished record.
— Graham, VE7ABC
Walter is remembered as a patient CW mentor who contributed his knowledge even though he was blind. In the club station archive he is shown seated at the key—an image that fits how many local amateurs remember him: listening carefully, operating skilfully and helping others learn.
Lou’s call sign appears repeatedly in club and regional records. He coordinated radio volunteers for the Vancouver Sun Run and served for years as a contact for the BARC swap meet. His work illustrates the quiet organization required to turn a radio club into a public-service community.
Graham’s first-hand memories supply an important bridge between the club’s undocumented early years and its later published record. He recalls the instructors, tower crews, Friday meetings, road trips and flea markets that made BARC a real community.
In amateur radio, a Silent Key (SK) is an operator who has died. This memorial records Burnaby Amateur Radio Club friends remembered by Graham, VE7ABC, with help identifying names and call signs from Barb Boman, VE7CZM, and Randy Zarowny, VE7PGE.
These brief notes remember far more than call signs. They recall club leadership, CW instruction, Field Day, repeater voices, tower work, radio shops, flea markets and the friendships that helped sustain amateur radio in Burnaby.
The club’s VE7RBY repeater is located on Seymour Mountain. The analog VHF and UHF repeaters use the same 127.3 Hz access tone and are not currently linked to one another.
145.350 MHz
442.850 MHz
145.0225 MHz
Frequencies and operating arrangements can change. Confirm current details on the official BARC website before programming a radio.
Saturday gatherings are informal. Members talk about technical subjects and whatever is on people’s minds. Visitors can ask questions, get help programming a radio, learn about the hobby or simply socialize. Meetings usually run from about 10:00 a.m. until noon.
Coffee is available. Bring your own mug; cookies and muffins often appear too.
On sunny, warm days the meeting may move to the park. A location change is announced at 9:00 a.m. on the Rainbow Country Net through the VE7RPT repeater.
This mailing address appears in published amateur-radio listings. Verify it with the club before sending time-sensitive correspondence.
To schedule a Canadian Basic or Advanced amateur-radio examination, use the official club contact form and say which examination you are seeking.
The source list is part of the history: it lets future researchers check the facts, correct errors and add missing chapters. First-hand memories are listed alongside documentary sources but clearly identified as oral history.