From Neutrinos to Morse Code: A Conversation with Dr. David Sinclair, VA3WDS, by Craig, VE3OP
Back in December, my shack played host to a very special guest: Dr. David Sinclair, VA3WDS, Neutrino Hunter. What began as a chat about Amateur Radio quickly unfolded into a fascinating journey through science, discovery, and generosity.
David isn’t just another ham operator. He’s a subatomic particle astrophysicist whose career has spanned continents and breakthroughs. After his early career, he then spent 16 years teaching and researching at Oxford University, where he probed the mysteries of nuclear structure and even designed the first dedicated carbon-dating facility used to date the Shroud of Turin. After that, he returned to Canada to join the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOLAB). His leadership and novel fundraising helped drive the team that unlocked the secrets of neutrino behaviour, a discovery that ultimately earned them the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. It is well worth reading this Carleton University News: Neutrino Hunter.
Dr. Sinclair was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017.
When I asked if we could share his story with the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club (OARC), he did not hesitate. Although officially retired, David has not slowed down. He continues to chase particle puzzles, but his research leaves little time for radio. So, in a gesture that speaks volumes about his character, he recently donated his equipment to the Club to support the next generation of experimenting amateurs.
As OARC’s youth equipment coordinator, I received his gear, tested and detailed it, catalogued it, and put it to work. Some pieces were sold to raise funds for our youth equipment program, while others were set aside for new OARC course graduates. Highlights include:
- A Collins transmitter and receiver, now treasured by a local collector.
- A beautiful Vibroplex Blue Racer Bug, snapped up by a bug enthusiast out west.
- A Yaesu HF/VHF/UHF FT-897, soon to light up the shack and inspire the mind of a young OARC course graduate.
For the Club, donations like these are more than equipment — they are important fuel for inspiration and igniting exciting careers. Ottawa’s amateur radio community is full of remarkable people: federal leaders, specialists from the Department of National Defence (DND) and the RCMP, high-tech innovators, astronauts, and more. David Sinclair’s story is one of the brightest, blending world-class science with a love for radio and a commitment to giving back. Enjoy his journey below!
On a rewarding career launched as a ham with the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club (OARC)
By David Sinclair, PhD, VA3WDS (Formerly VE3FUD)
In 1960, I was just starting high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute when I heard about ham radio and decided to attend a meeting of the OARC. I obviously enjoyed it as I soon joined and remained a member throughout my high school years. Through the club, I started to learn about electronics, and this sparked my curiosity to learn all that I could about how things worked. I learned enough about radios and Morse code at the club to pass my first licence. Through the club, I acquired an HRO receiver (vintage late 1930s), where one changed bands by plugging in a set of coils. The main feature was a wonderful tuning knob, which survived through many generations of National receivers. This allowed me to hear the world, and soon I wanted to get on the air. I built a Heathkit DX60 as my first real electronics project and placed a dipole across the roof of our house. I could now work the world. Initially, I could only transmit on a single frequency controlled by a crystal, but my next project was to build the matching VFO, and I was very proud of my shack.
By this time, I was off to university. I went to Queen’s and followed my drive to learn more about how things worked and enrolled in Physics. I participated in the university’s ham club and enjoyed the visiting speakers who came to talk to us, but increasingly, my attention turned to the computers that were just starting to become common. I took a summer job with the nuclear physics group at Queen’s, programming one of the first computer-controlled experiments in Canada, using a PDP-9. This machine was over 1000 times slower than any current desktop and had about a million times less storage. Nevertheless, it marked a great advance in what could be accomplished. It was an age where computers were made of discrete transistors, diodes, and resistors. It was not very reliable, but I found I could generally find the blown transistor and fix it without having to bring in a service tech. It was a great way to learn about how these devices actually worked!
I stayed at Queen’s to complete my PhD in nuclear physics and then went to the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen for a year of post-doctoral work before moving to a position at Oxford University in the Nuclear Physics department. I was also appointed the first male tutorial fellow of St. Anne’s College in Oxford. Most of the work was associated with learning more about the atomic nucleus, but one side project was to participate in the design of a system for carbon dating using small nuclear accelerators. Versions of this were then installed at Oxford, Toronto and Arizona. The Toronto facility is now at the University of Ottawa. An early application of these facilities was to date the Turin Shroud because they could produce an accurate date with just a small piece of thread.
My interest then moved to understanding the links between nuclear and particle physics with astronomy. In 1989, I returned to Canada to play a major role in the design and operation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, where we set out to resolve what was known as the Solar Neutrino Problem. Neutrinos are almost as abundant in the universe as the photons of light, but they are much more difficult to detect. Several experiments had searched for the neutrinos thought to be emitted by the nuclear processes that power our sun, but they all came up short. By creating the world’s largest deep underground cavern suitable for human occupancy at a depth of 2 km and building a detector with 1000 tons of heavy water, shielded by 7000 tons of regular water and viewed by 10,000 light sensors, a feeble signal from solar neutrinos could be detected. I was part of the team that found that neutrinos had a strange property in that they changed their type as they travelled. Known as Neutrino Oscillations, this explained why early experiments had failed to see the expected numbers, and it proved that the neutrinos must possess mass. This discovery led to the awarding of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Although retired, I continue to conduct research. My current work now focuses on another cosmological problem. We have lots of evidence that the universe started with a big bang, but we do not understand how it came to have the matter in it that we see (and which we require in order to exist!). The answer may lie in the properties of neutrinos that we discovered. In addition to playing in the lab, I have served on science advisory committees in France (for a neutrino project at the bottom of the Mediterranean), Italy, Spain, Germany, the UK, Finland, the US and Japan but now I spend most of my time in the lab, soldering iron in hand, looking to make an even better neutrino detector.
All this because the OARC sparked an interest in me!
Dr. David Sinclair, PhD
Last Updated on 2025-12-29 by Joannadanna