Contact Us

The national organization of the CVRS has an executive formed from a slate of directors elected to office by members at the annual general meeting held each year.  The current slate of directors, official roles, and contact information is as follows:

Gerry O’Hara MPhil FEC, Director (President)

Gerry O’Hara, a member of the CVRS since 2006, and Editor of ‘Canadian Vintage Radios’ since 2007, became interested in radio when he was 14, becoming a licensed radio amateur in the UK in 1972 (callsign G8GUH).  Although he was trained in an old-fashioned radio and TV store while at school (weekend/vacation job), and during vacations while at university, he went on to become a geologist, hydrogeologist and then environmental engineer.  He moved from the UK to Canada in 1997, and is currently licensed as VE7GUH.  Gerry retired as a Senior Principal with a major international consulting company in 2017.

Gerry’s interest in vintage electronics started in 2004 when he spotted a 1924 radio for sale at a local fleamarket.  He restored it and, to his delight, managed to get it working.  That hooked him on a new aspect of the radio hobby: vintage radios and the history of communications.  He soon discovered the Society for Preservation of Antique Radios in Canada (SPARC) was based in his (then) home city of Coquitlam.  He eventually became a Director of SPARC, and then President in 2012, stepping down in 2017 on moving to Victoria (although still a Director).  Gerry’s main interests are restoring domestic and communications receivers of the 1920’s - 1950’s, and writing articles on radio restoration topics.

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Bruce Winter, Director (Treasurer)

I became interested in electronics in high school, setting up PA systems, spinning the discs for school dances and running projectors.

Trained in electronics at BCVS in the 1960’s I went on to work at a variety of small local electronics firms involving troubleshooting, repair and calibration. Cytronic Industries, National Electrolab, and most recently, before retirement, at Xantrex Technology, a manufacturer of industrial programmable power supplies.

I have been a director and treasurer of the SPARC Radio Museum in Coquitlam for 20 years, and have now added the duties of treasurer for the CVRS in 2018.

My interests run mainly to vintage test equipment, Tektronix oscilloscopes, the iconic AVOMETER and audio from the vacuum tube era.

I have held the amateur radio call VE7 HBW since 1988, belong to the Delta Amateur Radio Society, a life member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers and reside in Delta, BC.

At this stage of my life, the pooch is now the more intelligent one.

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Doug Parker, Director (Secretary)

Doug Parker lives in Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan and has been a member of the CVRS since 2012.   From an early age of about 12 years old his first introduction to electronics was by routinely walking on a warm Saskatchewan winter day (> minus 10 degrees C.) on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to go to his uncle’s farm which was 1.6km (1mile) across the field to gain a new knowledge of repairing radios.  Doug’s uncle was a Radio College of Canada (RCC) correspondence graduate student and he would share his completed lessons with Doug and he always had many items to repair.

After high school Doug attended the Saskatchewan Technical Institute from September 1974-December 1975 and obtained a Radio and Television and Two-way Radio Servicing diploma.   Doug worked in the radio, television, two-way radio and C-Band Satellite receiver service from 1976 to 1981 and in that time obtained his Saskatchewan Journeyman Certificate for Radio and Television Repair.  From 1981 Doug worked on installing and troubleshooting mini-frame computers, desktop computers and laptops, networking, large and small printers until his retirement in 2015.

Beside collecting and restoring antique tube radios and phonographs Doug also restore cars and lawn and garden tractors.

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Jerry Proc, Director-at-Large

Jerry Proc is a resident of Etobicoke, Ontario, has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 1964, and also holds an Advanced Amateur Radio Operator's Certificate.  His interest in electronics was sparked at a very young age, and during the 1960's, Jerry developed a fascination with military radio gear.  In 1970, he graduated with a diploma in Electronics Engineering Technology from the Radio College of Canada.

Jerry is a well-known authority on the Marconi Company (especially the Canadian Marconi Company), and, in particular, the radios, transmitters and related electronic equipment deployed by the Canadian Navy.  Jerry’s website (http://jproc.ca/ is well worth a visit as it is packed with interesting topics and many downloadable manuals, etc.  His efforts to restore HMCS HAIDA's radio rooms and other significant contributions were recognized by the Historic Naval Ships Association, and he was awarded the “Bos'n Marvin Curry Award”, the first Canadian to receive it.

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Shahied Gairy, Director-at-Large

Shahied Gairy is a resident of Brampton, Ontario, and has over 45 years of experience in the electrical and electronics industry.  He owned his own electronics repair business for about 15 years, and for the past 18 years he has been working at Best Buy Canada, at the ‘Geek Squad’ in Toronto.

Shahied collects, repairs, and restores vintage radios, and it's something he loves doing.  Its really a labor of love for him, and he devotes as much time as necessary to each set he works on, strongly believing that its amazing what engineers of that era did with the technology available at the time.

With this background and commitment to the vintage radio hobby, Shahied is looking forward to doing his part to keep the CVRS going strong.

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Les Dickson, Director-at-Large

Les Dickson has been a member of the CVRS since 2015. Now retired, he has been a journeyman carpenter, an educator and a web designer so his involvement in the realm of vintage radios is purely as an amateur. As a teen he acquired the family radio (which no longer had a case) and fondly recalls falling asleep listening to CJME radio in Regina, the bedroom lit by the glowing tubes. He now realizes that the radio was an Emerson 744B and would love to have one again.

His interest was piqued again when he salvaged a Northern Electric cabinet radio from the local dump and sometime later when he discovered an estate sale which included some radios and test equipment. Since then he has spent his winters hunkered at the basement workbench, researching, reading and monitoring local auctions. Les’ involvement on the Board primarily relates to the upkeep of the CVRS website. He is grateful for the support he has received from many CVRS Members in the forums.