A RCTIC CIRCULA NO. I Notes on a trip in l6-foot ... - The Arctic Circle

VOL" XV No. 4 THE A<strong>RCTIC</strong> CIRCTTLAR 62
The line will conslst of two high-tensile strength polyethylenecovered
wlres and some 50,000 poles , 40,000 of which will be
native ttrnber to be used for tripod constructlon where muskug,
rockr or permafrost prevent standard single pole installation.
The survey of the route has been completed, and by the end
of 1963 the first sixty miles of pole line had been constructed desplte
delays caused by floodlng, The work of clearing the route and provldlng
poles is well adv'anced" Erection of the poles and installatlon of the line
ls being done by three C ,N.T ^ crews " At strategtc locatlons, landtng
strlps have been cleared for srnall aircraft" Snowmoblles wilt be used
to patrol the line durlng the winter"
The project witl require lB repeater or rlboostertt statlons,
wlth those at Fort Slmpson, Norman 'W'ells, and Inuvlk etaffed by
C.N.T. technicians, The oihers wi.ll be unattended unlts operated
by local power or llne-fed powera Twelve of the repeater stations
wlll be supplied with 440-voit pov/er carrled over the telephone llne
itself . All repeaters wlll have a battery fall-back system should
regular power fail" The radio Links between Inuvik and Aklavikr Fort
McPherson, and Arctl,c Red River should be inetalled by midsumryrer
1965. They will provi.de long distance servl.ce from these points when
the pole line has reached inuvik"
Scatte: -wavg, syst_ejn_to V_lctorla Iq hn9
Canadian iriational Telecommunications has completed a
$ 5,000 ,000 communications system between Hay River, their
communLcations centre In the Northwest Territories , and Lady
Franklin Point on Vlctoria Island" It ls a 554-mile tropospheric
scatter-wave system with two intermediate relay statlons, one at
Snare Rlver and the other at Fort Radium. Sorne channels of the
eystem witl be Lrter-connected with the North Arnerican Defence
Network,
Unlike conventionat microwave systems which require statlons
to be in tine of sight, and therefore spaced every 30 miles or so t
scatter-wave is capable of skipping distances up to 200 mlles without
lntermediate relay equipment, One-thousapd-vratt radio slgnals are
generated and beamed s kvrn'ard f rom parabolic , reflector -type
antennae" These antennae are 60 f eet in dlameter and orientated
tn the direction of the next station. The stgnal is reflected by the
troposphere and picked up at the next station where it is amplified
and repeated along the chai,n of stations " The scatter-wave system
has higher reliability under adverse atmospheric condltions than
normal raC{o transmleeions ,