St. Margarets, NB

ACCOMMODATION AND FACILITIES

New construction progressed very well during this period. The James Park School was accepted on 16 Aug. It was anticipated that the following buildings would be taken over in December or January; Hospital, Fire Hall, ME extension, Admin Building, and Guard House.

Construction of the combined quarters was going fairly well. Barracks remain over-crowded. It was anticipated the new barracks would be ready in the spring.

As at 30 Nov, 105 PMQs were taken over and occupied.

Recreational and utility facilities consist of Sports Stores (where equipment is available on loan), a skating rink, a library, tennis courts, a ball diamond, two messes, wet canteen, dry canteen, snack bar, grocery store, laundry, barber shop, and a gas pump.

The Rec. hall and other facilities are available for our personnel at Station Chatham, 15 miles away. There is one Recreation run to Chatham each evening.

F/O Woodcock transferred to 2400 AC&W (Aux). F/O Hedley transferred to Station Parent.

P/O Foreman promoted to F/O

F/O Gerling proceeded on TD to GObC Rimouski. A liaison visit to this unit was made by A/C Bennett D/APM AFHQ, W/C Lee "P" Branch AFHQ, and W/C Tulley SOPC-1 ADCHQ.

Night flying from Station Chatham commenced at 2200 local. Cross country flights were carried out under surveillance of this unit.

F/L Johnston COpSO, proceeded on TD to Station London for JOAC course.

F/O Gorling, Sgt Gallupe and party proceeded on TD to Eaglebeak for I week of cross training.

F/O Babcock proceeded on TD to Yuma AFB for controller proficiency course.

At 1620Z Electronic and Mechanical Jamming was experienced. The mission was carried out by 104 communications flight (Fricassee). Jamming finally ceased at 1800Z.

From 1624Z to 1635Z Electronic jamming was experienced. Mission was carried out by 104 communications flight (Fricassee).

Summer training commenced for 12 airmen from 2424 AC&W (Aux) Hamilton. Two men were placed on each of 6 crews for training purposes.

6 Controllers from 2400 AC&W (Aux) arrived for summer camp.

Unit was off the air from 1930Z to 2130Z for the final switching over to new diesel.

A liaison visit and tour of the building was made by W/C Allen OC 1(F) OTU, Col Lamb (USAF) AFHQ Liaison, and S/L Patterson COpSO Station Foymount.

The unit experienced Electronic and Mechanical jamming from 1601Z to 1847Z. The ECM mission was carried out by 104 communications flight (Fricassee).

5 SAC B-47 aircraft on a training mission penetrated the sub-sector. F/O Campbell proceeded on TD to ADCHQ on a liaison visit concerning training.

F/O Bowman proceeded on TD to Cold Lake for the AW(F) course. 40 cadets of the College Militaire were given a conducted tour of the unit.

3 SAC B-57s overflew the subsector on a training mission.

F/O Kerr from 2400 AC&W (Aux) here for contact training.

Mr. C Johnstone (ADCHQ) Senior Met. O and Mr. B Dickison Chatham Met. O visited this unit concerning weather facilities.

A SAC Training mission of 5 B-47s penetrated the sub sector. This overflight was intercepted by a section of Sabres from Chatham.

A SAC training mission consisting of 5 B-47s and 3 B-52s penetrated the sub sector.

F/O Gorling proceeded on TD to Yuma AFB for controller proficiency course. F/O Skeaff was notified of the dates of his transfer to Station Falconbridge.

Word was received of the transfer of F/L Dickson from 1 Air Div HQ to this unit.

This unit experienced Electronic jamming from 1640Z to 1657Z. This jamming was carried out by aircraft of an overflight using the call sign Devilfish.

This unit experienced Electronic jamming from 1543Z to 1540Z. The jamming mission was carried out by 104 communications flight (Fricassee).

Dr. G Lindsay, ADC Ops research visited this unit for purposed of evaluating TU 104 overflight.

Russian TU 104 flew through our area on these flights to and from New York. Complete records of the radar tracking information was sent to ADCHQ. The flight was also witnessed and evaluated by ADC Ops Research personnel.

F/O Niles and F/O Brophy were notified of their dates for the fighter controllers course.

Night flying carried out at Station. Chatham. Program was 17 navigation flights and 17 cross country flights. Radar surveillance was carried out by 21 Squadron.

Night flying carried out at Station Chatham. Program was 3 sections on PIs, one section on cross country and 7 aircraft on local. GCI control and surveillance were carried out by 21 Squadron.

A synthetic exercise was carried during the period 0527Z to 0600Z.

F/O Tyson visited this unit from 5 Oct to 18 Oct, for cross training purposes.

A synthetic exercise "Cabot Grape" was carried out during the period 0600Z to 0700Z.

Captain Ricker (USAF) and 3 airmen from Caswell AFB visited this unit for 1 week as part of the cross training program.

Electronic and Mechanical jamming were experienced by this unit from 1733Z to 1755Z. The jamming mission was conducted by aircraft of 104 communications flight (Fricassee).

Word was received concerning the transfer of F/O Boyle from this unit to Holberg. At 1410Z 21 Squadron was on "Cocked Pistol". This state was cancelled at 1414Z for 2 Sector as the area was not affected.

Word was received concerning the transfer of F/O Mayne to this unit from Tofino.

A synthetic exercise was carried out by this unit from 0755Z to 0935Z.

Two synthetic exercises were carried out by this unit. The first took place from 0600Z to 0736Z and the second from 1030Z to 1150Z

Captain Whelan (USAF) and one airman visited this unit for cross training purposes.

As directed in ADC Ops Plans, this unit continued to function in its assigned role.

For this period of time 21 Squadron carried 18,071 tracks, of which 60 were classed unknown. Of this total 50 were later identified, leaving 10 tracks remaining unknown.

The unit remains responsible for the display of all tracks in #2 sector, as the one room operational system is maintained. During this period a total of 51,156 flight plans were received. Tote boards continue to be used extensively for displaying amplifying track and tactical data.

Provision of control for air to air firing and flight surveillance for training aircraft of 1(F) OTU at Station Chatham continues. Throughout the period an average of 3 controllers operating on regular day shift compiled a total of 1880:52 scope hours. A total of 3,412 missions were flown by 1(F) OTU during this period. Following is a breakdown of controller activity:

Personnel 1 Jun 57 – 30 Nov 57

During this period there were an average of 116 FtrCops divided into six crews. There were an average of 3 Senior NCOs and 8 Cpls acting as supervisory personnel during this period. Controller strength for this period came to an average of 12. There were six officers employed as crew controllers with the balance of the controllers working on a normal day shift.

Controller and FtrCop training programs were handled by one officer, one Sr. NCO, and two Cpls. Trade advancement courses began the 23 Sep 57, consisting of 2 courses of ten days duration. There were a total of 32 FtrCops attending the course. The trade board was held in October with 34 FtrCops writing. Results of this board showed ten failures. In November the training section revised their syllabus and training was carried out by training section on weekends.

All controllers on this unit successfully wrote ASI 1/6 and 3/4/5 during October and November.

In this report a brief description will be given of major incidents that occurred in the Telecommunications Section during the period 1 Jun 1957 to 31 Dec 1957. It will be broken down into three main divisions:

(a) Radar History

(b) Communication History

(c) Personnel Movements

FPS-6 Installations – With the completion of the FPS-6 installation, the operational capability of the unit was increased. Difficulties were encountered during the first period of operation. However technicians are now more familiar with the equipment, and the majority of the "bugs" have been ironed out.

FPS-3 Installations – Scheduled preventative maintenance, combine with yearly overhauls have made the FPS-3 a very efficient piece of equipment. The outside appearance of the radome was improved when it was painted in June. An interesting point was the report of considerable interference noticed on both beams during the month of August. The interference was not identified, but is attributed to large explosions taking place on the sun. This phenomenon is known as a solar flare.

TPS-501 Installations – the TPS-501 installation suffered heavy corrosion in the waveguide system and the transmitter receiver from excessive humidity in the radome. The transmitter receiver was eventually replaced by a new unit. In the month of July an RCA Peaking Team visited the unit and brought the equipment up to peak performance.

GPX-6 Installation – The IFF installation was modified to obtain same control gain on both short and long range. A number of sets have been made available to the field thus eliminating time "off the air" due to unserviceabilities.

GT28 Transmitter, Weather Broadcast - TCA are continuing their experiments with aircraft flying the North Atlantic routes. The GT28 transmitter has been used to transmit weather broadcasts to TCA and BOAC aircraft using teletype facilities. Using teletype facilities provides the aircraft with a printed page copy of weather conditions at aerodromes along the schedule route.

UHF Installation – Mr. Cooper of Canadian Aviation Electronics arrived in September to start the installation of twelve UHF Transmitters and Receivers at the remote TX and Rx sites. Inspection of the installation was carried out by Mr. Bird of the Department of National Defence Inspection Services when the installation was completed. This unit is now capable of meeting all requirements for UHF coverage to RCAF aircraft when they have completed their changeover to UHF.

Station Chatham VHF installations – Because of a large amount of interference to VHF receivers at RCAF Station Chatham, it necessary to make adjustments to the squelch control on their VHF receivers. It was felt that installation of these receivers at RCAF Station St Margarets’ Receiver Site would eliminate this problem. Command approval was obtained, and, on 14 Nov eight AF/URG60 receivers with antennae mounted on two trilon masts were installed. The Chatham Tower personnel report that the new location is very satisfactory and no interference has been experienced.

AN/GNH-501 Recorder – This installation was completed by Sonograph Engineering technicians during the month of July. This installation provides the Operations personnel with 25 individual dual recorders for use in recording radio channel and long line circuits.

Overhauls – General – Northern Electric Mobile Repair party started the annual overhaul of communications equipment on the 19^th of November. Three weeks later the work was completed and accepted by the STelO. The Mobile party did not include the HF Antennae Farm on the overhaul.