Yellowknife (Sep 05/03) - During Yellowknife's early days, one of the few links the city had to the outside world was a small Canadian Forces signal station located in the heart of Old Town.

The station, like dozens of others across the NWT, provided everything from weather information to aircraft traffic control for the city's burgeoning prospecting population.

It was manned by a devoted corps of army signal callers, many of whom took on dual roles as magistrates, paramedics and even judges during the city's infancy.

Now, more than 40 years after the Canadian Forces relinquished control of the signal station, Michael Martin is trying to piece together its history and that of the men who staffed the remote outpost.

"Signal callers and signal stations played an extremely important role in the development of the NWT and the Yukon," said Martin, a retired signal caller who lives in Merrickville, Ont.

"And yet there's no real history that the public can access."

A few years ago Martin launched a Web site with the hopes of cobbling together the missing history of signal callers in the NWT.

So far, he has information and pictures on 33 stations and over 100 callers.

"It's a monumental task, but so far the site has been a success," said Martin, who estimates that he's roughly one-third of the way through his research. He's still looking for pictures of eight NWT stations -- including the one in Inuvik -- and information on close to 400 officers.

Yellowknife's signal station opened in 1937 at a time when the only means of communication with the South was via dog sled and the occasional transport ship.

Most of parts used in its construction were transferred from the station in Fort Rae, which was abandoned a few months earlier.

"The boys had even been far-sighted enough to bring the outdoor privy, none too sure what facilities existed in Yellowknife," wrote Martin.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s the government installed low power broadcasting transmitters and Canadian Forces signal callers became the first disc jockeys in Yellowknife history.

In 1958, the station --known then as CFYK -- was turned over to the CBC as were a number of other outlets from Aklavik to Fort Smith.

"These signal callers helped build the NWT," said Martin. "There should be something to remember them by."

If you have any information or anecdotes about signal callers in the NWT you can e-mail Michael Martin at nwtandy@rcigs.ca.