Ancient Web: Steve Kavanagh Taught Ham Radio at Ten Gigahertz in 1999

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

It is possible to make a radio contact at 10 gigahertz with surprisingly modest equipment, but the antenna may have to be aimed with the care normally reserved for astronomy.

Read the Ontario 10 GHz operating booklet

Steve Kavanagh, VE3SMA, wrote An Introduction to 10 GHz Wideband Operating in Ontario in 1999. The surviving page is a complete technical booklet for Canadian amateur-radio enthusiasts, not a promotional brochure. It explains the 10–10.5 GHz band, how wideband FM differs from the familiar modes used at lower frequencies, and why secondhand radar hardware made microwave experimentation affordable.

The parent Kitchener-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club's microwave page points visitors to the guide alongside another introduction to 24 GHz, equipment descriptions, and information about contests.

From surplus shelves to hilltops

Kavanagh describes the Gunnplexer, a compact microwave transceiver popular with experimenters, and the use of hollow metal WR90 waveguide instead of ordinary coaxial cable. He explains dish reflectors, horn antennas, receiver intermediate frequencies, and how to test an installation before traveling to a distant operating location.

The examples feel wonderfully local. Equipment could be found at surplus outlets. Microwave contacts were sometimes attempted across the Great Lakes. Participants might take advantage of weather-dependent propagation and could have trouble making a supposedly easy over-water link.

The contest section describes summer amateur-radio events and a two-weekend 10 GHz and Up Contest. Its point system encourages operators to make contacts over different paths and record precise grid locations. One appendix lists active amateur call signs around southwestern Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, and nearby New York locations.

That list is a time capsule of a community rather than a current roster. Kavanagh includes notes about operators who had died or moved, while his bibliography spans ham radio, Practical Wireless, Canadian amateur publications, and microwave newsletters.

The author specifically says the booklet describes practices current in 1999. Its hardware recommendations, band arrangements, and regulatory assumptions should not be copied uncritically as instructions for modern transmitting. Contemporary regulations and equipment standards must be checked independently.

The Web's contribution here was remarkably concrete: a niche hobbyist wrote down local knowledge that had previously moved through club meetings, paper magazines, and conversations in parking lots.

Read the original 1999 guide and the club's microwave index.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.