New radio books by Spurgeon G. “Spud” Roscoe VE1BC (ex ships and HALIFAX RADIO)
Dear Sparks,
our friend and colleague Radio Officer OM Spurgen G. “Spud” Roscoe – VE1BC from Halifax has ended and published his two books described below, they are available at FriesenPress Bookstore https://books.friesenpress.com/ but for Europeans it is much easier to buy them via AMAZON.
The first Book is entitled: “Radio History – Ship Shore”
From flags and pennants to Morse code and complex telecommunications, Radio History Ship to Shore is a treatise on the navigational aids vessels have used over the centuries. Author Spurgeon “Spud” G. Roscoe takes the reader on a journey through the evolution of communication systems globally, from the days of Columbus to modern times.
Roscoe also mines his first-hand experience as a radio officer who sailed on a dozen ships, including a reproduction of the ill-fated HMS Bounty. Now in his eighties, he has been meticulously collecting the content for Radio History Ship to Shore for more than five decades. The result is a hefty tome in which Roscoe shares his encyclopedic knowledge and unyielding fascination with communications systems. The book includes all the vessels in the RCMP marine section (and, later, marine division), the RCAF marine squadrons, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, and the Canadian Coast Guard, including the weather ships, and icebreakers.
Radio History Ship to Shore is complemented by a wealth of historic photos of everything from warships to Canada’s famous Bluenose schooner.
Spurgeon G. Roscoe has been fascinated with living the life of a radio operator since the age of seventeen. In fact, he became so enthralled with his work, one year he was at home for only six weeks. Although he officially retired years ago, Roscoe’s interest in the navigational aids and communications systems used by ships has never waned. He belongs to a number of organizations, including the Halifax Amateur Radio Club, American Radio Relay League, Radio Amateurs of Canada, The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society, and the California Historical Radio Society.
Spurgeon G. Roscoe lives with Joan, his beloved wife of 61 years, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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The other book is dedicated to Amateur Radio and it is entitled: Radio History – Amateur Radio
In this sweeping history, author Spurgeon G. Roscoe takes a look at the world of amateur radio in North America and the special role the Halifax Amateur Radio Club (HARC), of which he is a member, played in it, from the time of the World Wars all the way to the present day. Roscoe presents an account that is at once intimate and wide-ranging, covering topics from amateur radio’s role on the Canadian ships of the 1920s and ’30s and during wartime to the involvement of women in the craft, to the technical details of how some of the equipment involved has evolved over time, to a detailed look at the American Radio Relay League and what has appeared in the pages of its membership journal, QST, over its many years in circulation. His own deep, nearly lifelong involvement in amateur radio not only brings a deep base of knowledge to this ambitious project, but a particularly penetrating and oftentimes sentimental lens to it, too—particularly when it comes to documenting the activities of HARC and the many members who have passed in and out of it over the years. Expansive and detailed at once, Radio History: Amateur Radio is essential reading for anyone involved or interested in the hobby worldwide.
http://www.radiohistoryshiptoshore.com
Deeply involved in the world of amateur radio for many decades, Spurgeon G. “Spud” Roscoe first fell in love with the hobby in 1956, when he began training with the Radioman Special Royal Canadian Navy. After graduating in 1961, he went on to graduate from the Radio College of Canada in Toronto, Ontario, the Air Services Training School in Ottawa, Ontario, and the National Radio Institute in Washington, DC. He has his First Class Certificate of Proficiency in Radio and his Coast Guard Radiotelegraph Operators Certificate. He has operated radio as a radio officer aboard HMS Bounty, in a teaching capacity for young learners interested in the hobby, and as part of the Halifax Amateur Radio Club and the many activities in which they are involved, such as competitions like Field Day. He lives in an apartment in Halifax with his wife of sixty years and continues to operate his station, with call sign VE1BC, to this day.
Enjoy your reading!
73’s Webmaster