Steve is a very avid gardener, with his own green house set up in his back yard. 

    I don't know about his first love, is it ham radio, gardening or fishing ? I suspect it may be fishing due to the many trips ( 300 kms plus ) he makes into the bush north west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. I do know that it is a family affair as his wife and son are dedicated outdoors persons. 

    Stephen arrived in Canada from his native Hungary in May of 1950. Was so happy to be in Canada that he kissed the ground as he got off the ship in Halifax. Unable to speak English except for a few words he had learned on board ship, he was taken to a farm at Bellwood, near Fergus, Ontario on a Federal Contract to spend one year on that farm. He worked there for about 5 months and the farmer indicated that since there was no work for the winter he would not be paid. 

    Stephen went and checked out Guelph, where he landed a job at the Homewood Sanitarium doing everything, including serving meals to patients. After one year there, he decided to explore Ontario by train, ending up in Nipigon, Ontario where he worked in the bush camps for several months.

    He arrived at the Lakehead and saw that help was wanted at the Ontario Hospital, took a taxi there and got hired. Here he seriously started to learn the language, how to write reports and all of the other things that were required to work in a hospital environment. People were friendly and assisted him in his new job. Stephen got aquainted with the secretary, Velmae and shortly thereafter they got married and raised a family of three sons.

   The facility was expanded and renamed the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital, at which time Stephen had to take a 2 year nursing course at a local college and received his RNA. His career in nursing spanned 34 years, ending in 1986 when he retired.

    In 1955, Stephen noticed a tower with antennas on it down the street and went to investigate what it was all about. Turned out to be the home of  VE3KZ , Bob Nash who invited him in to look at the equipment and explained what ham radio was about. He was told that he would have to learn the Morse Code and theory to get a license to become a ham radio operator. Stephen told him that he already knew the code from his days as a boy scout back in Hungary. With the help of Bob, he got his ticket in the fall of 1955 with the call VE3EBZ. In 1969 he applied for a 2 letter call and received his present call of VE3DP. He built his equipment with the aid of the ARRL Handbooks, experimented with antennas of all kinds and got his DXCC Certificate. 

    52 ohm coax is used as a feedline with a 10 inch diameter coil consisting of 10 to 12 turns of coax within 5 inches of the feedpoint. 

    The tower shown on the right is no longer there, as it was given to Kevin, VE3KKM for taking it down.

Another of Stephen's hobbies is using the computer to paint pictures of northern scenes that he comes across in his travels as he looks for the ultimate fishing spots! 

   Stephen's interest in languages started at work when he realized that many nationalities were represented  in the patients that he was looking after. He would learn to greet them in their own language and pick up on common terms used at meal times, etc. 

    His interest in languages was helpful in  his ham radio contacts as well and he tells me that he can communicate in about 14 languages to a sufficient degree to make himself understood. 

    The languages that he considers himself to be very comfortable with include English, German (any of the dialects), Hungarian, French and Spanish ! That is quite an accomplishment and Stephen admits it has taken many hours of study, through books, tapes, etc and of course his favorite method is learning them on the computer with compact disks that offer instruction in languages too numerous to mention.