This issue of "Early Days of Wireless" is going to take you
back to 1950, and zero in on happenings in Northern Ontario.

"NORTHERN NET":
        In December, 1949, the Northern Net was organized and
put into operation. This net was composed of member stations
throughout Northern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec.
        The purpose of the Net was to have an East-West trunk
line in the North to handle traffic that was building up at
various points. The AFARS and the Ontario Phone Nets in the
southern parts of Ontario and Quebec were at times difficult
to copy in the North. Sudbury, however, had little difficulty
in direct net contact and several stations were active nightly
on the southern nets.
        The Net was started with member stations in Perron,
Val d'Dor, Amos and Lasarre, Quebec; Cochrane, Iroquois and
Twin Falls, Timmins, South Porcupine, Kirkland Lake, North Bay,
Sudbury, Bruce Mines and Sault Ste. Marie. Toronto direct outlet
was member station VE3YD of Scarborough Bluffs. The Montreal
outlet and member was VE2AEG.
        Now we had a smooth working system which was divided
into four areas. Each area provided a Coordinator whose duty it
was to see that a station from each town in his area had a
station active on each evening of net operation. In cases where
more than one station from one town was a member of the net, the
net control rotated in order that each member of the entire net
should become familiar with the procedure of the NCS.
        A great deal of traffic was passed over the entire Net
System. The Northern Net became a permanent fixture on the 75
meter phone band at 3842 KC. So effective was it that the
Air Force Amateur Radio System Co-ordinator at Rockcliffe Air
Station at Ottawa, S/L G. J. Bury, invited the Net as a complete
operating unit to become a member net of AFARS. All members of
other AFARS Units, who also operated on the Northern Net, would
have immediate transfer to the new "Northern Squadron" AFARS.
The members were asked to give their views on the switch, and it
was agreed that the change to AFARS was desired.
        Then came the "Blackout", propagation conditions became
most unstable on the lower frequency bands. The band was out at
the regular net roll call time, summer was dawning in the minds
of the members, and preparations for the garden, the summer cottages
and the boat, and so forth, made the net appearance a secondary
consideration. So it was temporarily halted for the summer season
with a few of the "faithful" still monitoring 3842 each evening,
in case some traffic would have to be passed.
        Squadron Leader Bury contacted the writer, from Ottawa,
and expressed a desire to come to Kirkland Lake with another
Air Force Officer to discuss the operation of the Net. When this
meeting takes place, all members will be advised when the first
night of Northern Squadron AFARS will be scheduled. In the
meantime, we will see you all at North Bay Hamfest and will be
seeing S/L Bury at that time and he will give us further details
on the AFARS system and its benefits.

"SPLATTER":
We hear that the FREDERICK Boys, Hal and Gil, will be leaving
Kirkland Lake with the family, and will reside in Peterborough,
Ont. We will be very sorry to have the boys leave. That will
reduce our ham population by two. Good Luck Boys.
(My call then was VE3EAA).

The above is from "Break-In", July, 1950 - published by K.A.R.L.
(Kirkland Amateur Radio League - VE3BAT) in Kirkland Lake, ON.

------ HISTOR19 ----------------- de Gil, VE4AG

And sadly, this ends the series of articles that I prepared and put
on PACKET many years ago, for the enjoyment of all Hams.
I had many replies, even phone calls - one from a Ham in New York
who told me he cried when he read one about the old days in his
hometown - it brought back sweet memories. I may try and do more -
or maybe you readers have many such stories or articles -
please send them to me, we'll put them on our homepage for others to read.
My e-mail address is < gilfred@pangea.ca >
73 to all.