I
graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1967 with a
Diploma of Technology in electronics.
Hired by the Department of Transport at graduation and was posted to Sandspit
Marine/Air for the summer. In the fall I was transferred to the Victoria Ship
Electronics Workshop and did the electronic maintenance on the Coast Guard
vessels, both ashore and at sea. At that time the shop was responsible for all
the radio beacons and lighthouse radio equipment on Vancouver Island. The shop,
under the Telecom Area Manager, also included Victoria Airport, Tofino Airport
and Victoria Radio.
Did
voyages on the weather ships and icebreakers.
In
1975 I won the Marine Maintenance Officer competition and commuted weekly to the
Vancouver Regional Office. During this time the Vessel Traffic and Loran C was
installed along the coast and the position I held was kept busy ensuring the
systems met standards.
In
the late 1970's the Coast Guard become a separate entity and I transferred into
that organization. In 1980 I returned to the Victoria shop and carried on with
maintenance work as before. About that time the Victoria Shop lost some of its
work to the new NavCanada organization which was now operating the electronics
at the airports.
I
did several tours of duty to Hay River and Inuvik, plus a few more arctic and
weather ship trips. By 1985 personal computer equipment was becoming more common
and I started spending more time working as a support tech in that area.
Eventually I was responsible for all the IT gear on the base and at sea, some
250 machines and associated email, sql and storage servers.
In
the summer of 2001 I retired as a regional office supervisor (the title of which
I've forgotten!).
Frank Statham at Inuvik in 1990
Frank Statham at Inuvik in 1994
