Chapter 7

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START OF PART 4

MOBILE RADIO
SHOPS
CHAPTER #7

        In the 60’s,70’s and 80’s, a big portion of the job was installing mobile VHF radios in taxi’s, logging trucks, cars and pickups. As well as numerous base stations in the District. We installed the old gray tube GE sets, some were trunk mounted with a small headset under the dash.
        All antennas had to be installed in the center of the roof of all vehicles in those days. It wasn’t until the late 70’s that the   L- shaped stainless steel bracket came out of CT”S shops, and the fender mount became the standard. We converted the GE’s to Motorola Dispatcher radios in the early 70’s. These units were half tube and half transistor, no handset unit. These were later changed out in the late 70’s to the VTR10-12 unit, all transistorized. Later on there was Autotel, TAD etc.
Terrace, Smithers, Pr. Rupert, Juskatla, and other areas, had mobile radio shops, in the Terrace district.
         The original Terrace shop was in the rear of the Terrace Phone Mart building, at 3236 Kalum st., where the repair/storage room was. It had one large garage door with a passage door to the right.   The Phone Mart was closed Sept 2002, so this building and its history will be changed when sold. Salvation Army now owns and operates the building. (2015) At one time this was the Telephone Commercial Office, Central Office, Sales Offices, Administration Offices, Service Center, and Radio Shop, all in one.
          When the Service Center in Terrace, next door to the old Radio Shop, required more room, the Radio Crew was bounced out, and up the hill, into the old Army Drill Hall (“the BARN”) on top of Birch Hill. We had an ATCO trailer moved in, to the right of the main doors, just inside the building. We did our radio installs in front of that trailer.          The Barn burnt to the ground, in a spectacular fire on May 8, 1975, at 9:30AM. This fire was caused by a New Terrace City International Garbage truck having a hydraulic fitting fail, and igniting on the exhaust pipe. The truck was backed into the doorway at the time. The propane line to our trailer ran directly overhead. In only minutes, over a million dollars of damage was done, all caused by a mismatch of threads on a male and female hydraulic fitting, used just days earlier. The Company sued City of Terrace, They sued International trucks in Terrace, International sued their mechanic, and he sued the Company that made the fittings, and apparently they had put the wrong one, in the wrong box! The hydraulic fitting company’s insurance company was stuck with the bill.
         Due to quick thinking on the part of our Storesman at the time, Vic Filby, he went into the I&R Trailer and rousted out anyone in there and they made their way to the back door (just installed a few months before to access the cable yard, not as a safety door ironically enough)   As they made their way thru the gate out back, the whole end wall was blown out the rear of the building. Amazing no one died! The radio man at the time Owen Jamieson and Don Parr the Supervisor had just left to go have coffee uptown, and were lucky enough to be out of the building, otherwise it could have been a different ending to the story! I personally think Vic should have gotten a commendation for his heroic effort. It would have been easy for him to run and save his own life. Especially when one finds out, Vic was seriously burned in a Child Prank, lighting a fire with Gasoline. He had scars on his neck and chest and arms from this fire, and now he is in the position of warning others to get out. A Hero in my books!
VIC FILBY
Terrace Storesman

I personally lost a new car I had just bought, and other employees lost cars, pickups etc as well, that were parked up against the outside wall of the building. Laverne Fredericks lost his “like new” 69 or 70 Chev. Pickup that he had just purchased, and the insurance company was only going to give him a few hundred dollars in damages for it. It and other personal items were added to the insurance claim and the lawsuit. Everyone got their money for the loss.
Following the Barn Fire a new home for the Terrace radio crew was rented from Doc’s Cartage on Keith. We were adjacent to the old Motz Plaza. We had a 2 bay garage and office in behind. We were there until the new Barn (Terrace Plant Center) was built. Stan Patterson was the Area General Manager at the time and this was his baby. It was built how he wanted it, not what was good for us. We had to install radios out in the open area, no heat, and poor lighting. To this day it is one of the worst designed buildings in the Company, no, sorry Smithers is worse, and it too was his handi work. Stan was a great Boss, in that he stood up for our area, but he had some funny quirks also. These buildings were one of them! The Smither’s building is 2 stories high and only 12 ft wide.
Today the radio crew is in the same room as the old SATT machine used to be in the Primary Center on Lazelle. They still have an area in the Keith building for radio work and storage. It is located at 5215 Keith Ave, in Terrace.