Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB, est intronisé au Temple de la renomm�
�e de la radio amateur du Canada

Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB (on right) making the presentation to the Captai
n of the Polar Prince.
Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB (� droite) faisant la présentation au
capitaine du Polar Prince.
Barrie Crampton VE3BSB, appointed to Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame
(CARHOF)

https://www.rac.ca/canadian-amateur-radio-hall-of-fame-carhof-2023/

For immediate release | February 13, 2024

The Board of Trustees of the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame (https://
www.rac.ca/carhof/) is pleased to announce that Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB
, has been named to the Hall of Fame. Radio Amateurs of Canada recognize
s deserving Amateurs by appointments to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of
Fame. The Constitution for the Hall specifies that the appointment as Mem
ber of the Hall is made for “outstanding achievement and excellenc
e of the highest degree, for serious and sustained service to Amateur Ra
dio in Canada, or to Amateur Radio at large”. The Trustees of th
e Hall have interpreted the Constitution to mean that the person has perfo
rmed significant service over many years to enhance the well-being of Amat
eur Radio.

Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB, was first licensed in 1954 and was issued the
call sign VE2WQ. In 1955, he built his first radio transmitter and rece
iver and later one of his mentors helped him obtain a Royal Air Force R115
5 aircraft receiver. Shortly thereafter, he began working with Spartan A
ir Services on the herculean task of photographing the Canadian Arctic for
government mapping purposes.

In 1958, Barrie moved to Stittsville, Ontario and received the call si
gn VE3BSB. In the winter of 1968, he assembled several Amateurs at his c
ottage to test out the use of VHF radio units on snowmobiles and the resul
ts showed the feasibility of VHF network communications for community emer
gencies such as in search and rescue.

When Barrie retired in the 1980s, he moved to Perth, Ontario where he
met Don MacKenzie, VE3ULM, who was the joint owner of various towers
in Lanark County for his own communications company. In the early 1990s
, Barrie and Wayne Henwood, VE3ICF, approached Don about using his t
owers for a VHF repeater network and one of CTV/CJOH’s towers, w
ith the help from Sandi Cameron, VE3AAC, a CTV engineer. It was this n
etwork that Barrie as Emergency Coordinator for this area drove forward,
which eventually led to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Lanar
k County and the Lanark North Leeds Amateur Radio Emergency Service (LNLAR
ES) to provide radio services in times of an emergency.

The establishment of the LNLARES radio network proved extremely fortuitous
as the 1998 Ice Storm was about to descend on Eastern Ontario. In Lanark
County, many community hydro services from Southern Ontario arrived to
help Ontario Hydro restore the electrical grid.

In the 2000s, Barrie worked with various schools in Lanark County throug
h multiple initiatives to help them become more aware of Amateur Radio and
its connection to space exploration. Responding to a request from a group
of parents interested in establishing a school project as a team, he wo
rked with the parents and members of the LNLARES group and assembled fligh
t modules containing a camera and an APRS tracking transmitter to facilita
te the launch and tracking of 15 helium weather balloons. They reached as
far away as Maine and achieved an Amateur world record altitude of 130,
000 feet.

In 2007, Barrie worked with Neil Carleton, VE3NCE and Al Niittymaa,
VA3KAI, to arrange with Parks Ontario to have several archeologists com
municate from their dig site at Murphy’s Point Hoggs Bay to Neil
’s grade 5 classroom in R. Tait McKenzie School in Almonte. This w
as done through the LNLARES VHF Network to permit Neil’s students
to talk directly with the archeologists with various questions about thei
r work at the dig site. The answers of the archaeologists were transmitted
from temporary stations set up at the excavation and examination sites by
LNLARES.

Barrie led a team of Canadian Amateurs in installing a WSPR (Weak Signal P
ropagation Reporting) beacon on the Polar Prince icebreaker during the Can
ada C3 Expedition – a 150-day expedition from Toronto, Ontario t
o Victoria, British Columbia via the Northwest Passage to celebrate Cana
da’s 150th birthday. The WSPR station aboard the ship garnered the
attention of Amateurs around the world who, through their reception and
reporting, provided over 600,000 reception contacts and precise locat
ions of the Polar Prince during its C3 voyage. The propagation data that t
he voyage generated was eventually provided to the Canadian government for
researchers needing to know about radio frequency propagation in the Arct
ic.

Barrie has continued with his commitment to Lanark County with a mapping p
roject on the historical settlement of a large part of Lanark County. He a
lso served as Deputy Reeve of Tay Valley Township during the pandemic and
was very active in the LNLARES radio activities. Barrie continues to work
on the updating/modernization of the County’s Amateur Radio netwo
rk along with members of LNLARES, Almonte Amateur Radio Club and the Ren
frew County Amateur Radio Club. In recognition of his outstanding communit
y service work, Barrie was chosen as a recipient for the Queen Elizabeth
II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Radio Amateurs of Canada and the Board of Trustees of CARHOF sincerely con
gratulate Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB, on his appointment to the Hall of F
ame. A detailed account of his achievements will be presented in an upcomi
ng edition of The Canadian Amateur magazine.

For more information on the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame please vis
it:
https://wp.rac.ca/carhof/

Prepared by Frank Davis, VO1HP
Chair, Board of Trustees
Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame

Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB (on right) making the presentation to the Captai
n of the Polar Prince.
Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB (� droite) faisant la présentation au
capitaine du Polar Prince.
Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB, est intronisé au Temple de la renomm�
�e de la radio amateur du Canada

https://www.rac.ca/canadian-amateur-radio-hall-of-fame-carhof-2023/

Pour diffusion immédiate | 13 février 2024

Le Conseil des fiduciaries du Temple de la renommée de la radio amate
ur du Canada (https://www.rac.ca/carhof/) a le plaisir d’annoncer
que Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB, a été intronisé au Temple
de la renommée. Radio Amateurs du Canada rend hommage aux amateurs m
éritants en les intronisant au Temple de la renommée de la radio
amateur du Canada. L’Acte constitutif du Temple indique que l�
��attribution de cette distinction vise � rendre hommage « a
ux personnes qui se sont signalées par des réalisations hors du
commun et par l’excellence de leurs activités, jusqu�
�au niveau le plus élevé qu’il soit possible d�
�atteindre, dans le cadre des services qu’elles ont rendus ave
c un sérieux et une constance exemplaires pour promouvoir la radio am
ateur au Canada ou dans n’importe quel autre contexte ». Les
fiduciaires du Temple ont, selon leur interprétation de l’
Acte constitutif, considéré que la personne dont le nom figure
ci-dessus a rendu d’éminents services, pendant de nombreus
es an
nées, en s’attachant � promouvoir la radio amateur.

Barrie Crampton, VE3BSB, a reçu sa licence en 1954 et s’e
st vu attribuer l’indicatif VE2WQ. En 1955, il a construit son p
remier émetteur radio ainsi que son premier récepteur, et par
la suite, l’un de ses mentors l’a aidé � se p
rocurer un récepteur R1155 de la Royal Air Force embarqué sur av
ions. Peu de temps après, il a commencé � travailler chez
Spartan Air Services et a été chargé de mener � bien
une tâche jugée gigantesque : photographier l’Arctique
canadien pour réaliser les cartes dont le gouvernement avait besoin.
..

En 1958, Barrie s’est installé � Stittsville (Ontario)
et a reçcu l’indicatif VE3BSB. Au cours de l’hiver
de 1968, il a rassemblé plusieurs amateurs dans son chalet afin de
déterminer l’utilité d’appareils radio VHF plac
és � bord de motoneiges, et les résultats obtenus ont con
firmé qu’il était possible de créer des réseau
x de communications VHF � exploiter par les collectivités dans d
es situations d’urgence telles que celles rencontrées lors de
la conduite d’opérations de recherche et sauvetage.

Lorsque Barrie a pris sa retraite dans les années 80, il a dém
énagé � Perth (Ontario), où il a rencontré Don
MacKenzie, VE3ULM, qui était propriétaire conjoint de diver
s pylones d’antenne utilisés dans le comté de Lanark par
l’entreprise de communications dont il était propriétai
re. Au début des années 90, Barrie et Wayne Henwood, VE3ICF
, ont demandé � Don l’autorisation d’utiliser
ses pylones pour exploiter un réseau de répéteurs VHF et y
ont ajouté l’un des pylones de CTV/CJOH avec l’aide
de Sandi Cameron, VE3AAC, ingénieur chez CTV. C’est ce r
éseau que Barrie, en tant que Coordonnateur des operations d�
�urgence pour cette zone, n’a cessé de développer,
ce qui a fini par aboutir � la signature d’un Protocole d�
��entente (PE) entre le Comté de Lanark et le Lanark North Leeds
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (LNLARES) en vue de la fourniture de serv
ices radio en cas d’urgence.