Moisie is a district (secteur) of the city of Sept-Îles, Quebec. Prior to February 12, 2003 it was an independent city; on that date, it and Gallix, Quebec were merged into Sept-Îles.
Quebec is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is bordered to the west by the province of Ontario and the bodies of water James Bay and Hudson Bay; to the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay; to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador; and to the south by the province of New Brunswick and the US states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger. It is historically and politically considered to be part of Central Canada.
It was operational as a Pinetree Line radar station from June 1953 to 1988.
The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), over half were manned by United States Air Force personnel with the balance operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The line was the first coordinated system for early detection of a Soviet bomber attack on North America, but before the early 1950s radar technology quickly became outdated and the line was in full operation only for a short time.
The Royal Canadian Air Force began construction of RCAF Station Moisie in 1952 at a location approximately 25km (16mi) east of the centre of Sept-Îles. The station was situated at Pointe Moisie, which is on the west bank of the Moisie River where it met the St. Lawrence River. At the time of construction, the RCAF had been calling the facility RCAF Station Clarke City, however, since the actual town of Clarke City was located 50km (31mi) west of the site, on the Sainte-Marguerite River, the RCAF decided to name the site after the adjacent community of Moisie.
The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2013, the Royal Canadian Air Force consists of 14,500 Regular Force and 2,600 Primary Reserve personnel, supported by 2,500 civilians, and operates 258 manned aircraft and 9 unmanned aerial vehicles. Lieutenant-General Al Meinzinger is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force and Chief of the Air Force Staff.
Sept-Îles is a city in the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec, Canada. It is among the northernmost locales with a paved connection to the rest of Quebec's road network. The population was 25,686 as of the Canada 2011 Census. The town is called Uashau, meaning "bay," in the Innu language.
The Moisie River is a river in eastern Quebec. Known as the Nahanni of the East, it is a wild river of North America. It flows south from Lake Opocopa near the Labrador border to the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River east of Sept-Îles, Quebec. The town of Moisie is located at its mouth. The river is 410 km in length and drains an area of 19,200 km2. The length calculated from most commonly used starting point of canoe trips, bridge of highway 389 over Pékans River is 373 km.
As construction neared completion, an advance party consisting of one officer and nine airmen arrived on a Trans-Canada Air LinesNorth Star at the Sept-Îles Airport on 25 May 1953. The RCAF formally took over the site on 30 June 1953 and on 15 September 1953 the site was made operational under the RCAF's Air Defence Command as part of the Pinetree Line network of radar stations.
Trans-Canada Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated as the country's flag carrier. Its corporate headquarters were in Montreal, Quebec. Its first president was Gordon Roy McGregor.
The Canadair North Star is a 1940s Canadian development, for Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA), of the Douglas DC-4. Instead of radial piston engines used by the Douglas design, Canadair used Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engines to achieve a higher cruising speed of 325 mph (523 km/h) compared with the 227 mph (365 km/h) of the standard DC-4. Requested by TCA in 1944, the prototype flew on 15 July 1946. The type was used by various airlines and by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). It proved to be reliable but noisy when in service through the 1950s and into the 1960s. Some examples continued to fly into the 1970s, converted to cargo aircraft.
Sept-Îles Airport is situated 4.5 nautical miles east of the town of Sept-Îles, Quebec, Canada.
The location of the station along the north shore of the lower St. Lawrence River (part of the Côte-Nord region) provided coverage of a large portion of eastern Quebec, western Labrador, the Gaspé Peninsula and the western Gulf of St. Lawrence. This location complemented the USAF operated Pinetree Line stations at Stephenville, NL to the east and Goose Bay, NL to the north, as well as the RCAF operated Pinetree Line stations at RCAF Station Sydney to the east, RCAF Station Chibougamau to the west, and RCAF Station St. Margarets to the south. The early 1950s was a period of significant industrial development in the Côte-Nord region, with construction of iron ore loading facilities at Sept-Îles, connected by the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador Railway to iron ore mines in Schefferville, QC and several years later in Labrador City, NL. Further iron ore loading facilities opened in 1965 at Pointe-Noire, connected by the Arnaud Railway. The opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 also saw an increase in commercial shipping traffic using the St. Lawrence River. Consequently, RCAF Station Moisie was deemed essential to protecting these assets from potential aerial attack.
Côte-Nord is the second largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec. It covers much of the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River estuary and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence past Tadoussac.
Labrador is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of the province's population. It is separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle. It is the largest and northernmost geographical region in Atlantic Canada.
The Gaspésie, or Gaspé Peninsula, the Gaspé or Gaspesia, is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River to the east of the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, that extends into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick on its southern side by the Baie des Chaleurs and the Restigouche River. The name Gaspé comes from the Mi'kmaq word gespe'g, meaning "end", referring to the end of the land.
Using the radio callsign "CROWBAR", the Moisie station consisted of three sites: the Operation Site (OPS), the Ground-Air-Transmission-Reception (GATR) and the Transmission Site (TX). A large radome housed the early warning and ground control intercept radars. Support buildings were constructed, including residences for personnel. The primary lodger unit established at the station was No. 211 Aircraft Warning Squadron; this unit formed at Moisie on June 30, 1953, while the station was under construction. Search radars installed included models FPS-3, FPS-502, FPS-27; TPS-502, FPS-6, and FPS-26.
A radome is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material that minimally attenuates the electromagnetic signal transmitted or received by the antenna, effectively transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal antenna electronic equipment from view. They also protect nearby personnel from being accidentally struck by quickly rotating antennas.
No. 211 Squadron was operationally controlled by Sector Commander 2 ADCC, RCAF Station Chatham. The RCAF air bases at RCAF Station Chatham and RCAF Station Bagotville, as well as the USAF's Ernest Harmon AFB in Stephenville were the nearest bases for interceptor aircraft that would respond to anything detected by the Moisie main radar.
Following the 1958 partnership between the USAF and RCAF to form the North American Aerospace Defence Command or NORAD, many Pinetree Line radar stations were upgraded for automation and consolidation of intercept data. No. 211 Aircraft Warning Squadron became No. 211 Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron in November 1956. In July 1958 RCAF Station Moisie was placed on increased alert due to the 1958 Lebanon crisis. In May 1959, RCAF Station Moisie transitioned from a strictly early warning and identification site to that of an air defence ground control interceptor site. Consequently, RCAF Station Moisie's radar equipment underwent an upgrade in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the operational implementation of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) System on 1 November 1963, designated with SAGE ID C-33. Under SAGE, the Moisie station collected, discriminated and transmitted its radar coverage data to the designated SAGE Control Centre in the Bangor NORAD sector, located at Topsham AFS in Maine.
CFS Moisie
On February 1, 1968, the RCAF merged with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Canadian Army to form the Canadian Armed Forces. As part of the unification, RCAF Station Moisie was renamed to Canadian Forces Station Moisie, or CFS Moisie.
The end of the Cold War and obsolescence of the Pinetree Line radar stations saw CFS Moisie's radar cease operations in 1986 and the site was declared surplus by the Canadian Forces.
Canadian Forces Station Barrington, also referred to as CFS Barrington, was a Canadian Forces Station located in the unincorporated community of Baccaro, Nova Scotia at Baccaro Point near the southwestern-most point of the province.
Canadian Forces Base Gander, is a Canadian Forces base located in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is operated as an air force base by the Royal Canadian Air Force and is home to air/marine search and rescue operations that cover a vast swath of the western North Atlantic and southern Arctic. Its primary RCAF lodger unit is 9 Wing, commonly referred to as 9 Wing Gander.
Canadian Forces Station Saglek is a Canadian Forces Air Command radar base in the former Pinetree Line and currently part of the North Warning System, located near Saglek Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador, 367.7 miles (591.8 km) north-northwest of CFB Goose Bay.
Canadian Forces Station Armstrong is a former General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 1.1 miles (1.8 km) east of Armstrong, Thunder Bay District, Ontario. It was closed in 1974.
Canadian Forces Station Lowther is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 12.7 miles (20.4 km) east-southeast of Mattice-Val Côté, Ontario. It was closed in 1987.
Canadian Forces Station Lac St. Denis is a former Canadian Forces Station that was located by Lac St. Denis, 60 miles north of Montreal in the Laurentian Mountains.
Canadian Forces Station Sydney, also known as CFS Sydney, is a former Canadian Forces Station located in the community of Lingan Road, Nova Scotia.
RCAF Station St. Margarets is a former Royal Canadian Air Force station and later a Canadian Forces detachment located in the community of St. Margarets, New Brunswick.
Hopedale Air Station is a General Surveillance Radar station that the USAF closed in 1968. It is located north of the community of Hopedale, Newfoundland and Labrador 147.8 miles (237.9 km) west-northwest of CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Canadian Forces Station Ramore is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Ramore, Ontario. It was closed in 1974. It was operated as part of the Pinetree Line network controlled by NORAD. It has since been sold and is now private property.
Canadian Forces Station Sioux Lookout is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 3.7 miles (6.0 km) west of Sioux Lookout, Ontario. It was closed in 1987.
CFS Resolution Island (BAF-5) is a short-range radar site. It is located 593 miles (954 km) north-northwest of CFB Goose Bay, Labrador. It is part of the North Warning System. During the Cold War, it was operated as part of the Pinetree Line network controlled by NORAD.
Canadian Forces Station Beaverlodge is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 4.9 miles (7.9 km) east-northeast of Beaverlodge, Alberta. It was closed in 1988.
Canadian Forces Station Beausejour is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 45.1 miles (72.6 km) east-northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was closed in 1986.
Canadian Forces Station Baldy Hughes is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 22.3 miles (35.9 km) south-southwest of Prince George, British Columbia. It was closed in 1988.
Canadian Forces Station Kamloops is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 12.8 miles (20.6 km) northeast of Kamloops, British Columbia. It was closed in 1988.
Royal Canadian Air Force Station Yorkton was a Long Range Radar (LRR) and Ground Air Transmitter Receiver (GATR) facility of the Pinetree Line. The site was SAGE compatible from day one. It was located near Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Royal Canadian Air Force Station St. Sylvestre was a Radar station of the Canadian Pinetree Line, located at Saint-Sylvestre, Quebec, in the Lotbinière Region, sixty-nine kilometres south Quebec City. Construction starting in 1952, the Station opened on 15 September 1953, first as RCAF Station Ste-Marie, being renamed RCAF Station St. Sylvestre, on 1 August 1955.
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