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| The former research station at Chelsea, Quebec. Despite its important role in ionosphere studies, there wasn't much there to see. (Photo: National Archives, PA-177693) |
CHELSEA, QUEBEC
RESEARCH STATION
(1941 - 1947)
Of the fifteen or so military radio sites that existed in the Ottawa area during World War II and post-war periods, the naval radio station at Chelsea is perhaps the least known. It was located on the north side of Old Chelsea Road a few hundred yards west of Highway 105. Chelsea is a small village about five miles or so north of Ottawa with the population of Chelsea almost evenly divided between Anglophones and Francophones. Both English and French are in common use throughout the village.With the increase in the use of radio by both sides during the war, a need developed a need to understand how communications could be affected by the ionosphere, that layer in the upper atmosphere capable of bouncing radio signals back to the earth's surface. More specifically, the Navy wanted to understand how the propagation of radio waves was affected by the ionized layer and how that layer could be used to intercept enemy signals in a more efficient manner. In co-operation with the National Research Council, the RCN established a "field intensity station" at Chelsea in 1941 to monitor ionospheric heights in a project called “P’F”. (That might have been a code word). Chelsea was also known as an ionospheric observatory.
"Remembrances by a Radio Scientist" by Jack Belrose offers some comments on Chelsea. "In Canada a modest beginning to propagation research was made by the National Research Council during the 1930s, but wartime requirements for communications over circuits not previously established and to mobile units at sea and in the air resulted in a substantial expansion and acceleration of that work. At the request of the Royal Canadian Navy, and to support its anti-submarine campaign, an extensive study of the conditions affecting the transmission of radio waves was initiated. An ionospheric sounder was installed at Chelsea, Quebec, in 1941 by F.T. Davies to measure the critical frequency and the height of the reflection of radio waves from the ionosphere. Because the reflective properties change with time of day, season and sunspot cycle, up-to-date measurements were of great value for estimating the best frequencies for medium and high frequency communications. Such information was also of advantage in determining some of the details of transmission from distant hostile stations. Of particular importance was the need to assess and, if possible, forecast intervals of ionospheric disturbances during which communications were disrupted".
The Chelsea station operated during the post war period but in 1947, its work was transferred to the Defence Research Board's new Radio Propagation Laboratory in Ottawa. Shortly thereafter, the station was demolished.
Today, there are no traces of the single shack or the many masts that were once erected on the property.
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| The former research station at Chelsea, Quebec. Despite its important role in ionosphere studies, there wasn't much there to see. (Photo: National Archives, PA-177693) |
The municipality has a reputation for being environmentally responsible and was one of the first in Canada to ban the use of pesticides. It was once known as Hull-Ouest or West Hull, but the name was changed to avoid confusion with the neighbouring city of Hull (now Gatineau).
MANOTIC, ONTARIO Manotick was an RCN experimental ionospheric laboratory often referred to as the RPL, or Radio Physics Laboratory and was never referred to as a Naval Radio station . It was located on the Prescott Highway.
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| Map courtest Mapquest |
POINT GREY, BRITISH COLUMBIA
1940 - 1945
This was DOT facility which monitored German and Japanese (Kana code) submarine traffic during WWII. Point Grey is now part of the City of Vancouver. (Photo courtesy SPARC Museum. Submitted by Laval Desbiens)
RAMSAYVILLE, ONTARIO Ramsayville was a site used for HFDF experiments. The Navy installation was located on Base Line Road about five miles from Gloucester near the intersection of the Leitrim Road. It was not that far away from CFS Leitrim. Ramsayville was not a Naval Radio Station but whatever experiments were conducted here were probably classified during the station's heyday.
The station was located on the bay at Resolute Bay, close to the JAWS weather station, but in a separate complex. The story of the Resolute Bay Ionosphere Station has been written up by a couple of people (Lloyd Cope, Robinson). Here are a couple of aspects that have come up in the context of the JAWS project.a) Personnel submitted by Si Tucker, 20 January 2003
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b) The Operating Station
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| This is the Resolute Bay Ionospheric radio communications position.
The equipment is as follows:
- Next to the message slots on the left is a manually operated "A" Scan
Ionospheric Sounder;
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Al Simpson comments "We built that operating position while I was at Resolute, about 1953 or 1954. Prior to that the equipment just sat on a long bench. To the right of the clock is a telephone handset which I mounted. The line ran over to the Met station. To the left and down from the clock (above the CSR-5) was the audio amp unit for the old US military transmitter. It was a separate unit and fit in a 19 in rack nicely. One can see the meter, the name plate (on right) and a microphone hanging there.The Collins 30K4, on the right, replaced the old US surplus transmitter and would have gone into service at Resolute about the same time as the one at Baker Lake (resupply of 1951). The US built C-2 Ionosphere sounder was to the left of the operating position, out of sight.
The old manual sounders had a CRT in the center and two National type dials. The one on the left was the VFO for sweeping the transmitter through the spectrum and the one on the right was to control a height marker. The height marker was a blanking pulse that you could move from the ground pulse on the left side of the CRT to the reflection pulse and then read the height of the layer off the calibration on the right dial. The old Manual Ionosond which used 807 tubes with a thousand volts on the plates, ran blue all the time and the tube element buzzed from the pulses hitting them. It ran one kilowatt Peak Pulse Power (if I remember correctly). That's pushing a couple of 807s to say the least. On the left of the picture is a bunch of stacked slots for filing incoming and outgoing messages.
Prior to the installation of the Collins 30K-4 transmitters we used the US military transmitter (name and
model escapes me now). It stood waist high, had a bank of three plug-in units on the right side of the top (oscillator and multiplier stages) and the three plug-ins were switchable for a three frequency operation, but you had to change amplifier coils (coil bay on the top of the unit an the left). The final used a 250TH tube and had two 100 TH's for modulators. The interlock on the coil bay operated a relay and the relay contacts often welded together resulting in some bad burns when the operator changed coils.(Thanks to Si. Tucker, Vic Decloux and the late Al Simpson for identifying the equipment)
STEVESTON, (LULU ISLAND) BRITISH COLUMBIA
194(?) to 1945
Operations Room Personnel 1945: This was DOT facility which monitored German and Japanese (Kana code) submarine traffic during WWII. Note the National HRO receiver on the unmanned desk at the left and the coil set next to it. (Photo from Ed Good via Ernie Brown via Laval Desbiens) Steveston, B.C. has been a fishing community (docks, salmon canneries, shipyards, etc.) for over 100 years and is now part of Richmond, a suburb immediately south of Vancouver. The land is very flat since the Richmond is on Lulu Island, an island in the Fraser River delta. Richmond been home to numerous radio installations over the years.
Various declassified documents from that period only mention the Lulu Island (and not Steveston) and Point Grey DOT stations in B.C.
Credits and References:1) Chelsea photo/copy submitted by Ray White. <r.p.white(at)sympatico.ca> . Source: Vol 2 of Paul Ozorak’s “Abandoned Military Installations of Canada”.
2) Chelsea copy from: http://friendsofcrc.ca/Articles/Belrose-EarlyYears/Belrose%20remembrances.html
3) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea%2C_Quebec
4) Copy and photos from Laval Desbiens <desbiens.laval(at)videotron.ca>
5) Steveston description via Tom Brent <tgb(at)telus.net>
6) Bill Robinson <newman-robinson(at)rogers.com>
7) John Gilbert <jgilbert(a)ca.inter.net>
8) Ray White <legerwhite(at)gmail.com>
March 31/10
