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CANADIAN EPICS IN RADIOCOMMUNICATION

ALUMNI WHO LIVED THE ADVENTURE OF RADIO

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHISTS  -  SPARKS  -  RADIO PIONEERS

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ÉPOPÉES CANADIENNES EN RADIOCOMMUNICATION

LES ANCIENS QUI ONT VÉCU L'AVENTURE DE LA RADIO

TÉLÉGRAPHISTES SANS FIL  -  PIONNIERS DE LA RADIO

OPÉRATEURS RADIO  -  TECHNICIENS RADIO

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INSPECTEURS RADIO  -  GESTIONNAIRES DU SPECTRE

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Lorne Furnell

Joined DOT in 1951 - Retired from DOC in 1989
 

 
 

 

Adapted for the web from personal correspondence, Laval Oct. 2008
 

Lorne's uncle was with the American Army Signal Corp . He was reading the morse code from the CPR ships coming into Comox using an old regenerative receiver of the 30'ies. Lorne was impressed with his ability to make sense out of the dits and dahs. So, he went to the Sprott-Shaw school in Vancouver to get his 2nd Class certificate in 1949.

He then started with CNS on the SS Prince Rupert as 2nd radio officer for the cruises of May to September 1951. High light was when his ship collided with the CPR Princess Kathleen in Dixon Entrance.Headlines in local paper Prince Rams Princess....  Accident sometime in last week of Aug/51 or a little before.

 

Paid out, he joined the government radio service with the Marine Division and spent time ( Sept/51 - Oct/52 ) at Alert Bay/VAF  and at Estevan Point/VAE,  then at sea again aboard  the weathership station ''P'', the Stone Town/CGGP for two and a half years

 

In October 54, he was transferred to Victoria Radio VAK then in 1955, to the Fisheries Patrol Vessel Laurier on which he spent just over a year . He was transferred again in 56 to Sandspit Air radio. Two miserable years at this location . ( in those years, DOT would send you where-ever there was a need .. such was the life of a radio operator ! )

 

February 58 and it was the Ladner Monitoring Station with OIC Verne Reid, staff members Charlie Cruz, Donald Staryk and Rodger Drouin..One of the highlights was monitoring the first Sputnik as it passed over..

 

Applied for radio inspectors position and was successful in getting a Vancouver District office position from 1964 to 1974. Larry Read was then District Manager, inspectors Keith Sears, Dave McLeod, Ian Rutherford,and Al Petersen were there at the time. Jim Whiteside remembers attending a 3 months course in Ottawa and sharing an apartment with Lorne and Jack Leeming at the Four Winds on Baseline Road, taking turns cooking and housekeeping, he mentions that Lorne was a great guy to have around and that he used to break-up the classes with funny remarks.

One of the highlights of his passage in Vancouver was the discovery of an illegal broadcast station that was  shut down , however the Department did not prosecute.

 

In 1974 , he was transferred to Victoria with Bill Krueger, Bob Thicke was then the district manager,. Other inspectors were Jack Leeming, Johnny Jackson and Len Johnson. When Thicke retired, Bill Johnson became the manager and Jack Anderson replaced Bill after his retirement. Lorne eventually became supervisor of enforcement and is happy to say that his crew was successful in finding and prosecuting eight illegal stns. He retired in 1989. 

 

He is the proud owner of the Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy 1925 Edition put out by the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Co.

 

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