HMCS NADEN

Esquimalt, British Columbia

Radioman Trade Group 1 Course

January 1966 to July 1966

HMCS Naden is a naval base located at Esquimalt, British Columbia. Although the Naval Communications School was still in Cornwallis, we were sent to the west coast as a trial to test the possibility of moving the comm school to HMCS Naden. It worked. The comm school was eventually moved from Cornwallis, Nova Scotia to Esquimalt, British Columbia in the fall of 1966.

HMCS Naden, Esquimalt, British Columbia - 1966

Tug boat Esquimalt II at the wharf on the base

HMCS STADACONA

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Electronic Warfare Course

September 1966

HMCS Stadacona was the main naval base outside the Dockyard in Halifax. When I came back to the east coast after my Radioman Trade Groupe 1 course, I took an Electronic Warfare course while waiting for a transfer to a naval radio station.

In the photo above, I am on the left and my shipmate Carter is on the right. The photo was taken during the summer of 1966. We are in a room at "A" Block, the lodging building at HMCS Stadacona in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

NAVAL RADIO STATION - NRS NEWPORT CORNER

Ellershouse, Nova Scotia

Radio Transmitter Maintenance

October 1966 - January 1967

Naval Radio Station (NRS) Newport Corner was the main radio transmitting site for the Canadian Navy. It transmitted morse code, radioteletype and facsimile broadcasts to the fleet on LF, MF and HF frequencies. The main radio receiving site for the reception of signals from the fleet was located over 60 miles away at Albro Lake in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The receiving site was eventually moved to Mill Cove near Hubbards, Nova Scotia. I worked at Newport Corner while waiting for a draft (posting) to a ship.

The photo above shows the Newport Corner transmitting site. It is difficult to see the wire antennas (LF, MF and HF dipoles and log periodics) which formed a spider web over the site. All the transmitters were located in the transmitter building. Married staff lived in the  married quarters with their families. Bachelors lived in rooming houses in the nearby town of Windsor, Nova Scotia. There was so much radio energy in the vicinity of the Newport Corner transmitting site that AM radios in cars were useless within one kilometre of the site.

Above, Newport Corner Radio Technicians

The technicians above are actually standing inside an HF transmitter.

There was no lodging for single guys at Newport Corner so most of the bachelors stayed at Mrs Whalen's boarding house which was about 12 kilometres away in Windsor. On their days off, bachelors either took the bus to Halifax or stayed around Windsor to court local girls. A good spot to meet girls was at the bowling alley in Windsor.