About the Author

Spurgeon G. "Spud" Roscoe

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Spurgeon G. Roscoe lived the life of a radio operator from the age of seventeen and served the final thirty years of the ninety years that ships carried a radio officer. Although he officially retired years ago, his interest in the navigational aids and communications systems used in transportation has never waned. Roscoe has become an undisputed authority on the subject and is one of only eleven people to hold the highest level of radio certificate. 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.

Roscoe lives with Joan, his beloved wife of 62 years, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Books By SpuRGEON ROSCOE

Radio History 
SHORT STORIES

It might be hard to imagine the life of a radio officer more than fifty years ago, while flying a plane or travelling on ships (such as the Royal Navy’s HMS Bounty) across vast stretches of sea, navigating to far-flung destinations. Author Spurgeon “Spud” G. Roscoe lived that life from the age of seventeen, learning the breadth and depth of telecommunications, which steadily evolved from flags and Morse code to more sophisticated systems. In Radio History Short Stories, Roscoe shares his unmatched stories of his life and work with wry humour and encyclopedic knowledge.

The tales in this book are certainly entertaining in their vibrant detail. But more than that, they serve to preserve the complex and little-known history of the radio operator. Written as somewhat of a memoir, while delving into some fictional accounts, Radio History Short Stories is a companion book to Roscoe’s previously published nonfiction work, Radio History Ship to Shore, a treatise on ships’ navigational aids and communications systems over the centuries.
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You can order your copy of Radio History: Short Stories from most major retailers online now!
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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.
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Buy Your Copy

You can order your copy of Radio History: Ship Shore from most major retailers online now!
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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. 
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Buy Your Copy

You can order your copy of Radio History: Amateur Radio from most major retailers online now!
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