Churchill Photo Album

CHURCHILL PHOTO ALBUM - RECEIVING FACILITIES

Click on photo to enlarge

1965 Wide Area Overview: HMCS Churchill and surrounding vicinity taken on August 14, 1965 using a ZEISS RMK 15/23/0 camera at a focal length of 152 mm. The top of the picture points approximately north and the red circle marks the Operations Building. The middle of the photo centers on 58° 44 42N, 94° 06 51W.
Rhombic antennas were located in the fields behind the building on both sides of the operations wing. The fact that the antennas straddled the road was always a contentious one in those days because vehicles passing under the wires would generate ignition noise that interfered with reception. HMC Dockyard Halifax - Antenna Shop was responsible for erecting the antennas at each station. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)

1965 Closeup #1:
1.Operations Building. Note the narrow interconnecting passageway between the buildings.
2. Rhombic antenna arrays consisting of 9 antennas each. The circle of masts are the feed points for the antennas. Each mast was painted with 6 red and 5 white rings each.
3. The straight black line emanating from the building was a sewage pipeline. Those were the days when ecological considerations were just about non-existent and waste material was dumped into ponds at the end of the pipeline.
4. This is HFDF shack and the Adcock array for the original CNF-4 installation. In the early 1950's, there was just makeshift path to the shack which was wide enough for a jeep or 4X4 but usually the operators walked there. A rail line was situated beyond the DF shack and closer to the Churchill River but close enough to go give the DF operator an early morning wake-up call.
5. Baseball diamond. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)

Basic rhombic array. This diagram depicts the basic 9 antenna rhombic array which was found at Churchill, Coverdale and other SUPRAD sites.
Adjacent sides of the rhombic "diamond" were attached to a common mast and were separated by about 8 feet using insulators. At Churchill, the common mast at point 'A' (typical 9 places) was guyed. Mast 'B' (typical 9 places) at the tip of the apex was also guyed. In the rhombic renderings that follow, it is not possible to show this level of detail. (Image by Jerry Proc)

1965 Closeup #2 : Rhombic antennas - Two rhombic arrays have been rendered based on mast shadows observed in the photo. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-26)

1965 Closeup #3 : The rhombic array across from the Operations Building has been rendered and exactly the way it was remembered by Chief Omer LeVasseur, This array only had 7 members rather than the usual nine. In total there were 25 rhombic antennas at Churchill with a nominal spacing of 13 degrees. (Edited National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)

DF Sites (1965) : It is known that Churchill used both the CNF-4 and AN/GRD-501 DF sets.The GRD antenna site, with it's 8 monopoles, is the larger of the two circles. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)

DF Sites (2005): Both antenna sites are still evident although one of the access roads seems to have nearly vanished. (Photo courtesy Google Imagery)

Low Level Aerial 1: Unfortunately the fresh blanket of snow degrades the contrast in the photos. It was been confirmed that the baseball diamond was already there in 1953 so the photos must be older than that.

Low Level Aerial 2: Rowland Fell served in HMCS Churchill from 1965 to 1967. He does not remember the antenna masts across the road from the Ops building as depicted in the photo but believes they were there before the baseball diamond was built. By 1965, there was however, an antenna strung between three masts in that area. It was used by a couple of positions in the Operations Room as a basic directional antenna that was sometimes needed for improved reception. (RCN photo submitted by Doug Stewart)

Rear view of the Operations Building. (From the collection of D.S.K. Blackmore. Submitted by Donna Loewen).

1965: Bird's eye view of the Operations Building. Up to the fall of 1956, there was no telephone service to the building. (Enlargement of National Air Library Photo #A1951-27

1961: This photo shows that the masts in Churchill were supported by guy wires broken up into non-resonant lenghts. Guy wires were necessary because the masts are situated in permafrost. (Photo by David Smith)

Churchill as it appeard in 1965. (Photo by Roger Lambert)

2005-1: A satellite photo of the former Churchill base. The land across the road from the Ops Building has been developed. One telltale circle of rhombic antenna masts can still be seen along with some of the 'Y' shaped access paths to the masts. The waste line leaving the building has also been removed. (Photo courtesy Google Imagery)

2005-2: This wide area satellite photo shows the location of HMCS Churchill relative to the town and the airport. (Photo courtesy Google Imagery)

Contributors and Credits:
1) Donna Loewen <donnaern(at)telus.net
2) Ray White <legerwhite(at)rogers.com>
3) David Smith <drdee(at)sympatico.ca>
4) Roger Lambert <rcnlambert(at)shaw.ca>
Back to HMCS Churchill

Sept 4/10

	1965 Wide Area Overview: HMCS Churchill and surrounding vicinity taken on August 14, 1965 using a ZEISS RMK 15/23/0 camera at a focal length of 152 mm. The top of the picture points approximately north and the red circle marks the Operations Building. The middle of the photo centers on 58° 44 42N, 94° 06 51W. Rhombic antennas were located in the fields behind the building on both sides of the operations wing. The fact that the antennas straddled the road was always a contentious one in those days because vehicles passing under the wires would generate ignition noise that interfered with reception. HMC Dockyard Halifax - Antenna Shop was responsible for erecting the antennas at each station. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)
	1965 Closeup #1: 1.Operations Building. Note the narrow interconnecting passageway between the buildings. 2. Rhombic antenna arrays consisting of 9 antennas each. The circle of masts are the feed points for the antennas. Each mast was painted with 6 red and 5 white rings each. 3. The straight black line emanating from the building was a sewage pipeline. Those were the days when ecological considerations were just about non-existent and waste material was dumped into ponds at the end of the pipeline. 4. This is HFDF shack and the Adcock array for the original CNF-4 installation. In the early 1950's, there was just makeshift path to the shack which was wide enough for a jeep or 4X4 but usually the operators walked there. A rail line was situated beyond the DF shack and closer to the Churchill River but close enough to go give the DF operator an early morning wake-up call. 5. Baseball diamond. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)
	Basic rhombic array. This diagram depicts the basic 9 antenna rhombic array which was found at Churchill, Coverdale and other SUPRAD sites. Adjacent sides of the rhombic "diamond" were attached to a common mast and were separated by about 8 feet using insulators. At Churchill, the common mast at point 'A' (typical 9 places) was guyed. Mast 'B' (typical 9 places) at the tip of the apex was also guyed. In the rhombic renderings that follow, it is not possible to show this level of detail. (Image by Jerry Proc)
	1965 Closeup #2 : Rhombic antennas - Two rhombic arrays have been rendered based on mast shadows observed in the photo. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-26)
	1965 Closeup #3 : The rhombic array across from the Operations Building has been rendered and exactly the way it was remembered by Chief Omer LeVasseur, This array only had 7 members rather than the usual nine. In total there were 25 rhombic antennas at Churchill with a nominal spacing of 13 degrees. (Edited National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)
	DF Sites (1965) : It is known that Churchill used both the CNF-4 and AN/GRD-501 DF sets.The GRD antenna site, with it's 8 monopoles, is the larger of the two circles. (National Air Library Photo #A1951-27)
	DF Sites (2005): Both antenna sites are still evident although one of the access roads seems to have nearly vanished. (Photo courtesy Google Imagery)