On the third morning, a Sergeant arrived with his driver in a van. The Sergeant had my manila
envelope of documents, and my entire kit was loaded. A sure indication that I was finished with Lansdowne Park.
I was informed that we would now proceed to "the station", and we drove the full length of Bank Street,
across to Rideau Street, and on to Montreal Road. In a strange city it seemed like a very long voyage before we
finally turned left off Montreal Road onto Burma Road, down a steep embankment and onto the flat plain of the
distant Ottawa River. A few hundred yards along the flat, we turned right and stopped before an undistinguished
flat roofed stucco building within the western boundary fence of the National Research Council compound.
"The Station", at last!

I was introduced to the Commanding Officer, Capt. Patterson, and the WO1, Max Narraway, and was slowly informed
of the nature of the tasks I was to perform. We toured the one story building and it's half basement, and I
met the staff on duty that day. I remember being impressed that most of them appeared rather older than
soldiers in uniform at that time. Staff Sergeant Luck, who was to be my supervisor, had four operators on duty
with him that day, and I learned later that most of them had been profession telegraph operators employed by
the various press agencies. Their receiving capabilities were legendary. I remember watching in awe as
Ted Heavens copied plain text press at 90 wpm - on a typewriter, of course!

Most military personnel in Ottawa at that time lived in private quarters, and it was considered patriotic to have
a few "boarders" in private homes. A place was selected for me on James Street, and I was given a day to
settle in before reporting for duty at the Station. An army bus collected personnel along preset routes, and
my point of contact was the corner James and Bank. Our "patron" was an elderly retired dentist and his
wife, and they provided a comfortable home for five or six persons, ranging from military to civil servants.
We ate meals at the boarding house, but since my life was complicated by rotating shifts, I quickly became
acquainted with a number of small private eating places. We had limited facilities at the station, so all of
us carried lunch boxes to work. When I reported to Staff (Sergeant) Luck, he immediately took me to the
orderly room, where I was assigned the operating number "56", and thereafter all my work bore that number.
The shifts at that time varied from four to six or seven operators, depending on activity and time of day.
Two or three of the operators would be assigned to known schedules. Frequencies and times were provided,
and they copied as best they could. A surprising number of "regulars" were being followed, and since most
were hand transmitted at low speeds the operators could recognise their "fists" and accumulate a surprising
amount of information about them. Typically, the clandestine transmitters would be of relatively low power,
with the energy closely beamed to the recipient. In North America, they loved to "hide" behind strong
transmitters, such as broadcast stations, and it could be very interesting picking the wanted traffic from
the unwanted traffic. Some operators had an almost supernatural ability to produce good copy through noise.

Those not assigned specific tasks were engaged in "search" activity, tuning up and down the HF bands in search
of transmissions, which sounded doubtful or suspicious. This was demanding and exhausting work, for at that
time there were quite a few clandestine broadcasts, especially from South America, and we were all
challenged to let nothing illegitimate go through. I spent a good many afternoons and evenings trying to dig
faint signals from the ionosphere, and finding at the end of the day that I could scarcely hear the sounds
of the city. And, speaking of the ionosphere, our bible was the short and long range ionospheric predictions
from Boulder City, Colorado, and every operator had a good look at their reports before setting his earphones
in place! Conditions could vary widely, and I remember one time when for two solid days we could not hear
a sound on any of the HF bands between North America and Europe. White noise; it was eerie, and of course
we blamed our equipment at first.

Handovers between shifts were unhurried, and the bus usually spent at least a half hour at the station door.
It was a relatively small group of people focused on a common objective, and everyone knew everyone else
so morale was unusually high. We had excellent relations with the chaps at intelligence in the city, and
they regularly visited and encouraged us. Outstanding in this regard was Lieut. Col. Ed Drake who could always
be relied upon to boost morale on his frequenmt visits to the station. Courier service between the station
and the city offices was frequent, and was a good way to get around taking the scheduled bus.

(Editors note: Lt Col Ed Drake is a predominant figure in Canada's SIGINT history. He later served as as the first head of the CBNRC - the predecessor to CSE. Not that long ago, CSE dedicated a building in his name.)

Our equipment consisted of a mixture of the finest receivers available in North America at that time.
We had top line Marconi receivers, National HRQs, Hallicrafters, and Hammarlund Supr Pros. The latter were
generally favored by the operators, and when No. 1 CDN Special Wireless Group was outfitted for overseas
service, they carried with them 50 new, state-of the-art Hammarlund Super Pros. As I recall, the
Hallicrafters were used with the Creed perforated tape equipment to copy high speed press, while the
others were arranged on the operating table to be used as preferred. As important as the receivers, were
the antennas, which stood in an antenna farm to the north of the station. We had one or two Rhombic
antennas, and a large number of dipoles orientated in all the desired directions. All antennas were
terminated at a selection board at one end of the operating desk, and were connected to the receivers
upon request of the supervisor. Terminating matching equipment, HF amplifiers and cathode followers provided
a wide range of choice in antennas for the operators.

The equipment used vacuum tubes, and was high maintenance. Staff Sergeant Roy had an impressive range
of choice in antennas for the operators.

I believe I was one of the last "solo" recruits to No. 1 SWS. A month or so after I had taken up my
duties, training classes from Vimy Barracks, especially trained for this work, began to arrive in groups
of five to ten. I remember that Signalman Greene, who was one of our first casualties in Australia,
was in the first group to arrive. The station on Burma Road became very crowded, and long range planning
to erect a new station at Leitrim was beginning to show results, with a building already erected, and work
on antennas well under way. I found myself being directed towards the new station, and my place
on the operating shift was taken by a new recruit. I had developed and excellent working relationship
with Major Ralph Pick, out technical engineer, and a genius at making things work with what was at hand.
His offices were in a high rise, red brick building standing at the rear of what is now the National Arts
Centre. The Canadian Radio Station was on the top floor, and I found myself at that office more that
at the station. I vividly remember one tragic occurrence when a goup of officer trainees from Brockville
engaged in "relistic" exercises in Ottawa, attempted to cross the Rideau Canal in full pack. They
jumped in the water at the entrance to the covered part of the train station, in plain early afternoon
sunshine, and most of them floundered. We saw it all from our window; terrified civil service clerks
distrubed at their lunch, heroic men assisting the afflicted, and panic all around. A number of cadets;
the number escapes me now, drowned on that sunny afternoon.

Other forces were also at work, and I was dispatched to the Officer's Training Centre in Brockville
to be prepared for another phase in my work. No way would I engage in "realistic" exercises, and a
lesson had been learned anyhow. I was at Brockville and the School of Instruction at Kingston when
the physical move from Burma Road to Leitrim took place. However, before leaving for Brockville I had
the satisfaction of seeing the first rhombic antenna at Leitrim go up. I also took with me some very
callused hands to help me with the ordeal of Brockville.

(Editors Note: those Rhombic antennas that Mr. Legere helped to construct(the first antennas at
Leitrim), actually lasted in operational use for nearly 57 years - they finally gave out during the
ice storm of 1998.)

Capt. (ret'd Hance Legere returned to Leitrim and went on to serve as it's CO from 1943-44. In early 1945
he was dispatched to Riske Creek BC, to set up No. 4 Special Wireless Station. This assignment was cut short
when the government decided that Canada would deploy the 1^st Canadian Special Wireless Group
to Australia to collect SIGINT against the Japanese military. Mr. Legere deployed to Australia to lead the advance
party , and to serve as an operations officer with 1CSWG. When the unit was repatriated to Canada in 1946
he returned to civilian life and earned an engineering degree from McGill University. He had a long and successful
career in Montreal with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the United Nations. Now 78 years
young and retired to Nova Scotia, Hance has never forgotten his years as one of the pioneers of Signals Intelligence
in Canada. When The Communicator staff first found out about Mr. Legere, we dispatched the two previous copies
of The Communicator via mail. Mr. Legere immediately emailed a response - "First of all, congratulations on both
issues . . . it may not have a wide field of interest among the general public, but to one who has devoted time
to the service, it is fascinating." He congratulated Leitrim on turning 60 years old, and for soldiering on in the
spirit which the station was founded - intelligence support to our military commanders.

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