4AA          H. E. Smith                1522 Richard St., North Battleford, Sask.
       4AB          D. C. Jones                Vulcan, Alta.
       4AC          not issued
       4AD          W. M. Cummings       391 Simcoe Street, Winnipeg, Man.
       4AF           I. B. Vaillancourt        Laford, Sask.
      4AG           G. F. W. Reynolds    457 Spence St., Winnipeg, Man.

We stop here, because this is the point in the list that is relevant to what follows:

4AG was first issued in February, 1920, to George Reynolds, when he lived in Medicine Hat, Alta. In those days, District 4 covered the 3 Western provinces and there was, of course, no VE prefix.
George moved to Winnipeg in 1921, and using the same call had a 1/4 KW Spark Set.
In the summer of 1923, he went to work at a small gold mine in Northern Manitoba, where he had a 20 watt phone-CW set. He used the same call (4AG), but later the company got special experimenter call 9AD.
In 1925 he went to the U.S. to go to mining school and gave up hamming until 1935 when he was in Bissett, Man. where he was Mill Super at the San Antonio Gold Mine.
He operated only CW until the war. At this time, he held the call 4SX.
After the war, he got back on the air with call VE4ZX. But later he got his original
4AG call back (at this time, VE4AG).
In 1947, he built a 200 watt phone rig using an 813 and operated all phone and CW bands.
His wife, Jean Gibson Reynolds, was getting interested in ham radio by this time, and in the early 50's she got her ticket and began operating on 10 meter phone. On September 4, 1958, she got her Advanced Amateur certificate, and worked all phone bands. Her call was VE4JR (used her initials). They both operated at Bissett until the mid-60s when he retired and they moved to Winnipeg. Both never got on the air again, although in the years until his death, he held two more Ham licences, VE4VU and VE4AJ (as close as he could get to 4AG, because I then held the call- and George was happy with the manner in which I was operating with it, so didn't press me to relinquish it!).
(Jean passed away on October 18, 1978, at the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, after a brief illness).

Another note about George:

VE4VU Addresses the Manitoba Historical Society
George Reynolds, VE4VU, addressed the November meeting of the Manitoba Historical Society, November 21st, in the Provincial Archives Reading Room on the subject of "Early Wireless and Radio in Manitoba, 1909-1923". Only about 10% of his talk dealt with Amateur Radio. The rest was on Marconi Spark Stations, Lee de Forest's Winnipeg Demonstrations, enemy broadcasting, etc., but only referring to Manitoba. George mentioned that he had enough material gathered for a 200-page book which he hoped to get around to writing some day.
(George, indeed, did write the book, and it is available for purchase from the Provincial Archives in Winnipeg. Years ago, in the Ham newsletter we edited for the Winnipeg Amateur Radio Club, we published excerpts pertaining to Ham Radio during the years mentioned. George honoured us with a 'first copy' of his book.).

We have also talked to others who have held the call VE4AG - one in B. C., and one in Ottawa, ON - and we have much information about them as well. A well-known Winnipeg Ham from the 30's, Cliff Ferg (s.k.), also held VE4AG.

If you are an old-timer reading this, maybe you have talked to one of the previous holders of VE4AG - I'd be very interested in hearing about the contact(s), and your story.

(Note: Some of the material above was gleaned from the 'MANAN", publication of the Amateur Radio League of Manitoba - Oct/Nov/Dec/1978 issue: Vol. 4, No.5., and the words used are George's own.)

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