Hello everyone and welcome to 2025.
The Calgary chapter of the Morse Telegraph Club says goodbye to the old year and hello to the new on a high note indeed.
Membership continues to climb with the addition of several new members including one young girl who is a junior high school student and is the youngest member in all of the MTC. She joined the CG chapter after attending a telegraphy camp at Calgary’s Heritage Park.
The Calgary chapter initiated a junior telegrapher program at Heritage Park in the fall of 2023. The program now has ten young lightning slingers learning the trade through that program, with more to come I’m sure. My thanks to chapter secretary-treasurer and MTC Board member Marilyn Maguire, and Janice Povey, for their stewardship and mentoring of the next generation.
On a sad note we had to say goodbye to two members last year with the passing of Bill Atkinson in February and Nick Bobrownik in August. We also noted the passing of Edmonton chapter member Jim Crone in May who assisted Calgary chapter members at Heritage Park’s Railway Days in 2023. May they rest in peace.
The Calgary chapter will be holding our annual general meeting in late March. While the date has not yet been determined, I expect it will be held once again at the Nichols public library.
Chapter members will again be attending Supertrain, Calgary’s annual and Canada’s largest model railway show. The show will go on Saturday April 5 and Sunday April 6, in the Olympic oval at the University of Calgary. Our booth will feature information on the art and science that is Morse and we will host a working, multi-station landline Morse network as we did last year. It’s our expectation that we will connect it to the Alberta MTC line as well. Please visit: https://www.supertrain.ca/ for more information on the show.
And speaking of the Alberta MTC Line, as of the end of 2024 we had 5 active stations on the line. A sixth site, in BC, will be connected later this month. Kevin Jepson, the project’s Wire Chief and network administrator, tells me that he has more than two dozen museums wanting to join or wanting more info. The concept of connecting museums with landline Morse telegraph equipment to a working network is proving to be popular. My thanks to Kevin, and Tim Taylor, for moving the project along so well. If you would like more information on the line project please visit: https://alberta-mtc.blogspot.com/.
Lastly I want to mention that members of the Calgary chapter, and members of the Heritage Park Morse Telegraph Club, will again be demonstrating landline Morse at Heritage Park on Tuesdays and Saturdays from May to September. For more information on the park please visit: https://heritagepark.ca/.
That’s all I have for now. Until next time stay well.
73
Ken Ashmead, President
Morse Telegraph Club, Calgary “CG" Chapter
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