Yes, this website is still going!

10 November 2016 - It's way overdue for an update. Rest assured that this website is still being maintained. Please know that all the hard work from Michael and all the volunteers is still benefitting others and receiveing healthy traffic and interest. Submissions of photos and information are still being gladly received and processed as we receive them.

 

At this same time as this site is maintained, as Michael planned for, the site content is slowly being migrated and integrated with the main www.RCSigs.ca site. In order to ensure that the NWT&Y specific information will remain grouped and locatable amongst all the other material about the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, a NWT&Y Portal has been created. There you will find the same site graphics and information sections as you're used to seeing so hopefully it will be just as usable. At this point there is still lots of material to migrate so for now please continue to use the original site while you check out the new one!

 

That's it for now! Please continue with your contributions and comments.

Farewell from the Editor/Webmaster

It is time to hang up the headset and unplug the key. Since 1998 I have managed to keep this website going through the generous contributions of time and energy of hundreds of kind souls who sought to preserve the history and memory of the old Northwest Territories and Yukon Radio System. 

 

In March of 1998, in responding to a university researcher who asked if I knew anything about the NWT&Y Radio System I said I knew virtually nothing about it but would find out. I was dismayed to learn that there was almost nothing out in the public domain that told the story.  There were station journals at the Museum in Vimy Barracks and three printed versions of the official history of the System.  That was the extent of it.  I dedided that something should be done to correct this situation.

 

At that point I knew nothing about making Internet web pages but thought this would be the ideal way to connect with the community and gather information.  With the help of a colleague from Queen's University in Kingston we mounted the first website dedicated solely to the NWT&Y Radio system.  I then started spreading the news through word of mouth to anyone I thought might be interested. 

 

My initial objective was to make a page for each one of the Stations and another for a few of the personnel who had served on the System, plus a copy of the Official History.  I thought I would have it all finished by the end of the year.  Then the queries and contributions started coming in.  I quickly learned that there were numerous people out there who likewise wanted to preserve the history of the System and the memories of people who served on its stations.  What you see here today is the result of 15 years of collecting photos and information and keeping the website up to date.  In the meantime we have been given recognition by Heritage Canada and adopted by the Military Communications and Electronics Museum, which has included us in their permanent exhibits.

 

But now technology has overtaken the website and old infirmaties have laid hold of me.  I no longer have the energy nor the ability to continue the upkeep of the Project so have decided to pass it on into more capable hands.

 

From the very early stages RC Sigs Militaria has hosted the website without charge.  For this we are most grateful to Joe Costello without whose contribution we would never have made it past the first three years.  Now Joe has extended his generosity by agreeing to take over the website and do a badly needed overhaul of the technology that keeps it going.

 

Many mistakes were made in the early days of preparing and posting photos and these are clearly visible to the viewer today.  I was learning on the go, and took short cuts that were not quite up to Internet standards.  Joe will correct these mistakes and ensure that the NWT&Y Radio System vitrual memorial will continue to stand.

 

To all of our contributors and to the many personal friends I have made in this enterprize over the past decade and a half, I can only say, "without you all this would never have happened." 

 

Together we have left a legacy for future generations of Signallers and recognition of the tremendous contribution our Corps and its people have made to our Nation.  We are immensely proud of them.

 

73 MM AR

--------------------------------

Michael Martin

michaelmartin@nf.sympatico.ca

(709) 639-1163

 

SN:  To those contributors who have sent in photos and information in the past 12 months, and did not see the results on the website, I must appologize.  I have not been able to deal with the backlog due to illness.  I am now in the process of correcting those omissions.  If you do not see your material added or edited by the end of October, 2013, please contact me at the e-mail address above.  I am very sorry for the delay.  --  MM

 

Relocation of the Memorial Cairn

We have received word that the NWT&Y Radio System Memorial Cairn in Edmonton has been moved to a new location. It was originally located near 132nd Ave. and 127th St. where the Receiver site once stood.  That property was subsequently taken over by NavCan and they have recently decided to sell the property. At that point it became necessary to do something about the Memorial. After some discussion it was decided that the best place to put it is in front of the 1CMBG HQ and Signal Squadron, Steele Barracks, Garrisson Edmonton, 400 Italy Cres. It now sits on a site leading into 1 Signal Squadron entrance.

On October 8th., 2013 there will be a small ceremony to rededicate the Memorial.

Information provided by: Sgt. W.L. Sanford, ROS 1 CMBHQ and Sig. Sqn., Edmonton, AB

Consider a Donation or a Bequest

What's going to happen to Grampa's picture album when he is gone?

Who has any interest in pictures of people and places that they don't know anything about? Aside from family pictures, where is the interest in hanging on to old photographs that bring no memories or make no connections to the past?

Too many times in making enquiries about the possibility of photographs of an old soldier we learn that no one knows what happened to them. They went somewhere to be tucked away - and were forgotten and eventually thrown away. Old treasures becoming useless junk because there is no longer any personal connection. It happens more often than most people realize.

Old photographs are an invaluable records of past events, changing landscapes, evolving communities and technologies. To historians and archivists old forgotten photos can be goldmines - if they have been properly preserved and identified. Even those that are damaged or faded with time can be repaired and revived through the new techniques of digital imagery.

If you have no further use for Grandfather's old photos you should consider donating them to a museum, or to a national, provincial or community archive.

If you care at all about what will happen to your memory treasure-chest, and want to protect them for prosperity, there are secure repositories where they would be most welcomed, and where they would be available to future generations.

If you have photos relating to the Royal Canadian Signal Corps, and in particular the NWT&Y Radio System, please get in touch with us either at the Military Communications and Electronics Museum in Kingston, or here at the History Project. We would be delighted to receive your old albums, or copies of the photographs and other related documents and artifacts.

Contact us by e-mail at the address above or write to the curator of the museum at:

Military Communications and Electronics Museum
Box 17000, Station Forces
Kingston ON,
Canada
K7K 7B4