NO Reproduction in Whole or in Part, on ANY, and ALL of my Pages,
 Including Text and Pictures,
 May be made, without the express Written Permission
 of Web Editor, Doug Gent © 2015

BC Tel
Terrace District History
Comment Page

Want to add a link to my pages?
see my Copyright Information Page
for the only Authorized Picture Link allowed.
All Pictures on all my web pages, are now Visibly Watermarked,
some are Semi Invisible, Some Secretly Watermarked,
And some have all 3 !
All my pages are now Right Click, copy and paste, disabled.
If this unauthorized use of pictures from this site continues,
I will remove the whole thing,
 as there is no point in keeping it online.
I ask everyone that enjoys free history sites,
to start policing these violations.
If we don't stop this, no one will donate pictures to me or anyone,
and we all loose.
If you see one of my pictures on facebook, etc.
tell them to remove it, if they don't in a reasonable time,
please email me the culprit,
and I will add them to my Wall of Shame page.
Trust me, I regret having to do this!

As the Comments come in on the History Pages,
I will do my best to add them here.
I reserve the sole right to Edit, Print, or Delete any Comment.
This will be the same as a guestbook,
only with a strict moderator.
Please no Spam, no Offensive language.
Any comment submitted may be printed
 in this Public Comment Page, with your Name, and date.
No last Name, the form will not allow you to proceed.
I will print the Name and Message if approved by myself.
I will NOT print your email address.
The form will not proceed until you enter it.
I will never make these public,
unless an email address is requested by another
ex BC Tel employee, trying to make contact with you. 
I will then email that request, word for word,
to the applicable person, for their viewing,
and they will return a message, if they wish.
They will not get posted here.

Feedback & Comments

Up to and including Sept 11, 2009

a little behind on adding comments. 3 1/2 years!
shame on me.
Last couple weeks have brought many nice surprise emails

today a nice note from Todd Worobey, Maurray's son.

Sept 11, 2009-  name = Todd Worobey
    Name and Message Approved for Public Viewing = Yes
    Email Approved for Member Distribution = Yes
    message = I wanted to say a quick thank you for maintaining this site. Murray Worobey was my father & it was by a chance search that brought me here. I lost my Dad a long time ago, but the memories I do have of my time with him stay with me. I was just a kid in the 70's but he often took me to "work", I remember those trips vividly, if not the names of the actual radio sites. What a great wild bunch all of you were. Thanks again, I will be bringing my son's so they can read about their Grampa & at least some of his exploits ;) I wish they could have met him.
              Thank you. Todd Worobey.

Then this one not from an ex BC Tel employee, but he has an interest in tropo and Port Hardy pics and info, anyone help him?

I enjoyed looking through your website!  Allow me to introduce myself.  I worked at the CNT troposcatter DEWline terminus at Hay River, NWT back in 1975.  Years later I purchased the antennas from CNT with plans to relocate them to Alberta under a grant which I came very close to winning.  When that plan failed I undertook a study in 1983 to determine if the antennas as installed on an E-W baseline pointing almost due north might be suitable as-is with feed modifications for a proposed radio astronomy application.  Working alone I inhabited, lived in and retrofitted the site from 1985 through 1989.  During my tenure there I was able to travel by helicopter to the Snare rapids tropo site on a mountaintop NW of Yellowknife.  That site was much like the one you are familiar with at Trutch Island, with four 60 foot billboard antennas.  It was a repeater between Hay River and the next stop at Great Bear Lake, another 4 antenna station.  The last and most northern tropo in this link was a two antenna site at Lady Franklin Point, home of a DEWline station on the beaufort sea.  This was the tie-in to the south for the Canadian section of the DEWline radar stations peppered all along the northern coastline.  I was able to remove Northern Electric parametric amplifiers and other receiver components from Snare, plus original manuals.  They are saved in my possession still today.  Quite a feat considering how much valuable scientific apparatus I have had to abandon along the way of my life since and too many moves.  The CNT tropo system operated at 1.7-2.3 GHz, much higher frequency than the White Alice system AFAIK.   FYI and interest I attach a couple of pictures I took of the Hay River Tropo once it was in my possession circa 1986. 
OK, reason for this contact.  I was wondering if you might have any photographs of the Port Hardy tropo site which you could share with me and if you could tell me anything about it. Thank you for your interest and assistance. 

Regards, Rob Stephens, RR#1 Shelburne,ON L0N-1S5,1-519-925-1771

                                             Then a real big surprise after 25+ years, an email from an old friend Birke Brookbank:

July 21, 2009- Hi Doug, Just went through the website of Terrace Radio Dept.
You did a fantastic job. I'm in Victoria now taking it easy.

Birke sent me a brief synopsis of his life work, and trust me,
 like Hank Snow sang, he has been everywhere man.
Great to hear from him after all these years.
One day when he drives thru Terrace, I am hoping he will stop in for a visit.

Mar 29, 2009-   Hi Doug:  I went through most of your website while we were locked out in 2005 and just now did it all again (over the last couple of weeks). I enjoyed it as much this time as the last.   I have been working on a sort of BCTel history for several years now. My focus is on both milestones in the company's history and the history of phone service coming to all the towns and cities of British Columbia. I am looking for types of switchboards (Magneto or Common Battery), conversion to automatic and types of switches, electronic conversion dates and switch type etc.   I am also collecting digital pictures of any and all BCTel/Telus buildings, CO's, Radio Sites, Vehicles etc. Looking for pictures of old switching equipment inside CO's too.   I did get some information on CO converion that I am looking for from your web site and am always looking for more. If anyone has any information that they can share with me please email me at Biddlecombe (at) Telus.Net,   Post my comments to your comments area when you get a chance.    Who knows what info might come out of the wood work. I wish I had taken more notes over the years while I was at CT&S from 1975 to 1990.     Terry Biddlecombe

I replied back that Brooke Hodson sent me a box of site photos,
 and I am sure there is pics in there he would want.  I just haven't time to scan them yet.  One day I will.

then this one from China, of all places, Nov 20, 2008

I stumbled across your page while checking for our school's most recent recruitment ads on the net. Great site Doug. And long time no see. I was through Terrace last summer for the first time since the early 70s on my way from visiting Dave Winterburn then on to Port Hardy and via ferry to Larry Miller's in Smithers but I missed seeing him so carried on and spent a couple of days with Al Madigan in Houston then on to Ontario to be with my family for the summer fishing. Wow... Terrace is different... I always liked Terrace. My wife and daughter love the north country. It always had a homey feeling for me. My wife and I are currently in the process of purchasing a home on the island near Campbell River. We plan to return to Canada permanently next year so I can really retire and go fishing every day. If you every get to our neck of the woods know that you and your family have a place to stay so drop in and we can catch up. 

Here's some update info if you want it for your CT&S page. Use as you see fit.
Al Lindstrom's online CV: http://www.geocities.com/alelaineteachers/AL_GlobalCV_Online_2006_HTM.htm

Al Lindstrom's current employer:http://www.skhps.edu.mo new website open soon will be www.acm.edu.mo

 Nice to touch base with one of the ol Terrace crew.  Have great day.  Best wishes, Al
 
Alan (Al) Lindstrom, Associate Principal
Macau Anglican College,
109 Avenida Padre Tomas Pereira
 Taipa, Macau SAR, China

Sept 11, 2008
From a Ex Supervisor

I found My old pic on the terrace bctel page you wrote…. 

If there’s ever a reunion of any sorts, I love to know…..I’ve really lost touch with everyone from the BCtel day….left in 1996 for the U.S. then returned by never back to BC Tel. I’m still in touch with Mark Hubber , Gail Davis

May 20, 2009- Hi Doug, just spent the last hour and a half looking at a lot of great memories of BC Tel and Terrace. You have done a great job to say the least and it was nice to even see my name there. So here is an update on my life if you are interested.

Left Terrace in 1986 for the new Fortel testdesk pilot project in Whalley and was there for 3 1/2 years. Then I bit out of there for Vanderhoof where I was the CO guy until I took the big buyout in '96 if memory serves me correctly. I then ended up working as a tech with the school district here in Vanderhoof and was with them until Feb 14th, 2006 when I took retirement so that I could go full time in my satellite business. It proved to be a good choice and I have really enjoyed working for myself and have done well to the point that we opened a retail outlet in the fall of 2007. The store is called The Satellite Guy, what else eh?? When it came to having to come up with a name for the business a couple of years ago it was pretty easy as people always were referring to me as The Satellite Guy. I hope to work at this for a couple more years and then hopefully sell the business. Still with Connie who I married in 1985 just prior to coming back to work after being off with my back injury. Kids are all grown up and doing well and we have been foster parenting since 1999 and over a 100 kids. 

Apr 28, 2008,   Hello Mr. Gent,  My name is Pam Pritchard. I just wanted to thank you for a great site. What a lot of work you have put in!  My father-in-law worked for B.C. Tel til the day he passed away in Port Hardy. His second to last post was on Trutch Island. His name was Harry Pritchard. He and his wife Carla were so thrilled to get the posting. What a beautiful spot. My husband and I flew up on the beaver several times and did relief on 2 occasions when Carla went to the mainland to deliver their 2 youngest children.   We started going up in 1980 and I think the last time we went was 1986. That was some flight. I used to get so sick the pilots would do their darndest to make the trip around bad weather. All of them were the best bunch of guys.  We stayed up for 2 and a half months once and it was so thrilling.   Anyway I thank you again for the wonderful memories, your pics are great.  Take care!   Pam Pritchard

Apr 13, 2008- Update on the airplane crash that killed 4 antenna crew at Terrace

Hi Doug, while surfing aimlessly, I came across your page today. Reading your page brings back  a lot of old memories. I can help fill a lot of blanks  about the Antenna Crew of the years gone by. One of them is as follow.

The plane crash  in Terrace happened  on  Friday, January 21, 1977, 6pm. Four Antenna men were killed that night ; Roy Pugle, 33 years old, Orville Breikreutz, 30, years old Lance Martin  20 years old and  Doug MacGowan, 31 years old

Up until my move to Terrace  Construction, a few months earlier, I was the I/C on that crew.  

I was working hanging RA's in Smithers that week. On Thursday afternoon, around 3:30, I was working on the lead by the Toyota dearlership,in Smithers ,when I saw my old Antenna Crew truck drive in to town  (Smithers). Neither they , or I, had any idea that we were  going to be in the same  town  that night. As faith would have it, we were all staying at the  same motel. Needles to say, we had a good time that night. We partied most of the night away, the Antenna Crew way.

The next morning, Friday, with a terrible hang-over, most likely still impaired, we had breakfast together. They were  on their way to Rupert to drop-off their truck, and were  flying back home  for the weekend on the NT Air daily sched twin Otter that night.  Little did we  know when we parted that morning, that it was destined to be our final farewell. I worked in Smithers until 2pm that day, before driving back home to Terrace .

I got home at about crash time. 6pm. I remember that it was very windy that night. Strong gusty winds, somewhere around 10 mph gusting to 30. It was only the next morning, at 7am that Jim Lalonde call me at home . Asked me I I had heard the news . When I answered : "What news"? He said  that there was a plane crash last night. He asked if he could come over, he'd like to talk to me. I said sure. Needless to say, I was wondering what I had done wrong... My supvr wanting to come to talk to me, at home, at 7am, on a Saturday? And  he broke the news to me.  The following week, I was working in Kitimat on the cable to the Hospital. I had to walk past the morgue back and forth. There was a red light above the door with a sign : Autopsy in Progress.  I knew what autopsies were being done. It was hard, I can tell you that much.

I get emotional typing this e-mail Doug. Twelve people lost their lives that night. I lost 4 brothers.  Claude Bussieres

Apr 1, 2008, this death notice came in, for a good friend Terry Prinz

This is to let you know that Terry has passed away suddenly at 5am this am. Am thinking it was cardiac but will have to wait and see. His wishes were for no funeral and at this point I have not thought out much past today. Please if I have missed someone pass the message on. I hope I have covered everyone.  Thank you and will update you as I know further.  Sharon Prinz

Oct 28, 2007- from Tracy Pickton, Nelson BC-  left for Port Hardy in 1989 . Then went to Nelson in 1994.

Mar 28, 2007-  name = Pat Gleason
    General Comment Place or Event Name = Prince Rupert Tel (date  merged to BC Tel)
    Place of Residence = Toronto ON.
     message = Very Good!  I was with CT&S 1948 to 1953, Spent only 2 days in BC, The rest of the time on the prairies, and then to AE Co. in Ontario.           Came upon your very interesting site as I was searching the net trying to to establish the date that Prince Rupert Tel was merged with BC Tel.      If you have knowledge of the date and care to share it; it would be appreciated.         Pat Gleason

My reply- There never was a merger, I believe Prince Rupert Tel, not City West, is the only private City owned telephone company in western Canada.  They have now expanded to Terrace via fibre optic cabl, purchased Monarch Cable and now provide Digital cable, internet, to our area, as well as Local Tel service, in direct competition with Telus.

Dec 12, 2006- Sharon Landrath

    message = (I wrote)-"Interesting story about Cindy Thompson, her Aunt was the lady that operated the Cedarvale Store, on the north side of the Ferry Crossing.  I wished I could remember her aunt's name?"      The aunt's name was Edith Essex.

              Nice to come back and see your site here, Doug. Very well done.   All the best,   Sharon L

Thanks for the update and Addition Sharon

Sept 9, 2006- name = Gordon Duplisse

        Place of Residence = Salmon Arm B C

        message = Pretty bored this morning and started to read your history on the telephone industry in Terrace. It is excellent and now I'm late because I had to read every line. Thanks Doug, Gord Duplisse

Aug 19, 2006-     name = Bill Wright

    General Comment Place or Event Name = Local 33

    Place of Residence = Invermere

        message = Doug,   Excellent job! I was on loan Cable Maintenance in the Charlottes just when you were leaving. We chatted a few times. I hadn't been on this site for several months until tonight and your work is great. A lot of names from my travels came up! Enjoy not being here! I got 61/2 to go!   Bill

July 8, 2006

name = Sharon Knight

      Place of Residence = Victoria BC   

    message = Hi Doug,    Great page- I thoroughly enjoyed your page which was forwarded to me by Cindy Watson and I will be forwarding it also.  One person you missed in the Terrace Phone Mart is Lynn Straw and you missed Gorette Franzmann. What about Gord and Lorainne Lund?  Is there a way you can have so we might be able to contact (e-mail) other former employees?  Hope things are going well for you .  I am "between" work right now and will be looking soon- the downfall of being too young to retire... Thanks again      Sharon

Wished I could put emails on here Sharon, but too many idiot spammers out there these days, sorry.

Apr 6, 2006-    name = Darel Jackman

        Place of Residence = 2253 Nairn Place, Kamloops, BC

        message = Doug this is a wonderful history of the Terrace Radio Group.  I was in Engineering in Prince George and worked with the Terrace Techs in putting a lot of it together (1980-1990).  Darel Jackman retired in Kamloops.

There I think I have caught up now, if I missed your comment, please feel free to send another message

Posts as of July 13, 2006 below, except for 2 I missed above

Feedback & Comments