A fully integrated centre, MCTS Thunder Bay is located at the western end of Lake Superior, in the Coast Guard Base at Keefer Terminal. Its radio coverage is quite vast as Lake Superior, the St. Mary’s River, northern Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay all fall under MCTS Thunder Bay’s area or responsibility. MCTS Thunder Bay is able to provide these services with the fourteen (14) peripheral sites scattered across central Canada, of which seven (7) were inherited with the integration of CGRS Sault Ste. Marie and CGRS Wiarton in April of 1997. Wintertime sees the thirteen staff members drop to six full-time employees as the ice build up all but stops shipping in this area, with the locks at Sault Ste. Marie closing for three months every year.

History of Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Wiartion, and Midland Stations:
The Port Arthur station (now Thunder Bay - since 1975) was opened in November of 1910 by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada which had the station constructed at its own expense. The original Marconi station call was MUG. There was a provision that the Department of Naval Services could take over the station at a later date. The Port Arthur station proved useful almost immediately when the Steamer “Dunelm” of the Inland Lines ran aground on Canoe Rocks (just west of Isle Royale), December 7, 1910. About three years later, VBA came into existance when the government took over the Marconi station and reconstructed the buildings.

A scheme was later drawn up to set up stations approximately 180 miles apart from Port Arthur to Kingston. The Kingston station had sufficient range to communicate with Montreal, linking the proposed system with the east coast system and giving straight-through communication to Cape Race, Newfoundland.

The early Canadian Great Lakes stations all ran 5000 watt rotary spark-gap transmitters (except MUG which used 3500 watts). The rotary spark-gap transmitters (for the Canaian Great Lakes stations) used 75000 volts and produced a very nice sounding "musical" signal. All the wireless operators, of that time, noted that those types of transmitters sounded as if they were singing.

In 1925, all the Canadian Great Lakes stations converted over from spark-gap to CW tube transmitters with a very nice sounding, stable and controlled signal. They always ran the transmitters in the "ready to go" to answer ships on 500kHz. Coast stations didn't have to retune. One antenna was tuned for 500 kHz and a second for
the station's working frequency, only ships had to retune and this only took about 30 seconds. The MF/HF transmitter is always in the full on, tuned and ready to go state, and still are today.

The DOT, formed in 1938, took over control of the marine radio stations (from Dept. of Marine & Fisheries). The late 1950's would have been around the time that
the Marconi Company lost all of its sole use contracts to all the marine radio stations, and the DOT started the centralized training RO program - Most of whom would come out of the Red River Radio College, and be trained in Ottawa. Many Marconi operators were transferred over to the government payroll, of course, already being fully trained and qualified. They would have to be cross-trained for the air services at the combined stations starting in the early 1960's when the air and marine branches were combined.

In 1962 the Port Arthur station was combined with the aeradio station at the Fort William airport. The aeradio/marine radio station was under the authority of the air services branch in Winnipeg.

On January 1, 1970, the towns of Port Arthur, Fort William and Thunder Bay were amalgamated. Thunder Bay was the last station to provide both aeradio and marine radio in the region, and the combined Department of Transport station continued its operations until April 1, 1986, at which point it was relocated to the Thunder Bay Post Office Building as a Canadian Coast Guard Radio station. Winnipeg Radio/VFW5 and Churchill Marine Radio/VAP closed down operations that same year, with its equipment being remotely controlled from Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay now had morse code coverage for western Hudson Bay and VHF coverage of Lake Winnipeg. On April 1, 1997, the station was again relocated, this time to the Coast Guard Base at the Keefer Terminal complex. The services of both Wiarton and Sault Ste. Marie have been integrated at the new site ever since.

The Sault Ste. Marie station (VBB) was built as a government owned station, and put into operation on August 7, 1912. The Marconi company had a contract to supply the wireless operators and operate the Great Lakes stations for the Canadian government. People call them "Marconi stations" but this is incorrect factually and historically. At the time the transmitters were 5 kw giving the station a daylight range of 350 miles. The station had an excellent view of St. Mary’s River as well as the Sault Ste. Marie Locks.

Later in 1961 the marine services were collocated with air services at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport—after nearly 50 years of operating from the original site.
It was not until 1978 that the marine services were separated, and moved back into the city, but this time at the Industrial Park.

The Great Lakes CW service was restarted in the 1980's, first at VBG Toronto. Due to horrendous AM interference with commercial power house AM broadcast stations, the service was moved to VBB in the late mid-1980's. MF/CW reappeared as a service on the Great Lakes as Sault St. Marie/VBB was again heard over the air waves. This CW service on the Great Lakes was discontinued with the closure of the station. On March 31, 1997 the station was remotely controlled from the Thunder Bay MCTS Centre. The services of both Wiarton and Sault Ste. Marie were integrated at the new Thunder Bay site, on April 11, 1997.

VBA, being a terminus port. had the bulk of radio traffic to send and receive, and never had any problems with the ship RO's, most of whom spoke very good English, or the bridge officers, where the pilot stood by to assist. All foreign ships had to carry English speaking (or French) pilots during their Seaway transits to Thunder Bay.

The wireless coast station opened at Midland on July 8, 1912. The site for the original station was secured on the hill overlooking the harbour. Just at the end of 1954, renovation of the Midland Coast Station (VBC) was completed. A new high-powered radiotelephone transmitter was installed as well as telephone terminal equipment.
In 1961 the station at Midland was combined with the aeradio station at Wiarton to improve communications on Georgian Bay as well as cutting down on operating costs. This put an end to nearly 50 years of operation with the closure of the Midland station.

VBD Toboermory was built in 1912, also. The current owner of the buildings runs it as a B&B. Art is planning on having his centennial in 2012. More info at http://trailsendlodge.org/trailsendlodge/new%20html/historyTRAILS.html

The official birthday party for VBA centenniary celebrations occurred on 1 October, 2010, and the special event station CG3MUG is all set to roll starting 1 November for the entire month. More information can be seen at http://my.tbaytell.net/va3rom

(Thanks to Lori and Robert@ VBA Thunder Bay for the above info. They both operate the VE3VBA station from the Coast Guard Station.)

Here is a photo of the SS Keewatin during the days when I worked onboard in the Steward's Crew. Still one of the best times of my life. An yes, she did burn coal. Because the Kee and her siste ships were too big (at the time) for navigating the St. Lawrence locks, they were engineered to be split into two sections at the eastern end of the system, and towed thru to the Great Lakes where they were reassembled for service.

Note from VA3LKI station Sysop.
As a youngster, I used to hike up to the "Wireless Hill" in Midland and could see some of the operations of this station when the radioman would leave the door to the station open. There were two structures on the property, painted "government maroon" and dwarfed by the three tall masts that supported the antennas. The masts were painted the mandatory red and white with red flashing lights for night beacons. The smaller of the two buildings was the radio station, and the larger, housed the operators and I think their families as well. Both buildings still stand today as private dwellings, and the antenna masts were removed long ago to make way for a subdivision back in the 1960's. The radio station call was VBC Midland.

Personal Connections

Shown below is a photo of one of the vessels that worked the south end of Georgian Bay. One of the Sailing Masters of the City of Dover, was my grandfather. As a result, I was treated to frequent rides aboard "The Dover", although I was quite young at the time. To this day, I still recall the smell of the hot oil and lubricants that were religously applied to the brass and metal fittings, gears and related machinery. A photo of the other vessel my grandfather once captained - the Midland City - is also included.