NAME	PENDANT	LAUNCHED	COMMISSIONED	PAID OFF
Ontario	53	29 July 1943	25 May 1945	15 Oct 1958
Uganda	66	7 August 1941	Jan 14/52 (as RCN)	13 June 1956

HMCS ONTARIO was a Minotaur class light cruiser while Uganda was a  Crown Colony class light cruiser. Both ships first saw service with the Royal Navy before being transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as shown in the commissioning dates. In UGANDA, two Supermarine Walrus (Photo courtesy Wikipedia) aircraft were  removed in November 1943 while the ship was still in service with the Royal Navy. By that time, radar had replaced the seaplane as a means or early detection.  By the time Minotaur/Ontario was built, the Minotaur class represented a substantial advance towards more sophisticated weapon control and integration of command and control and AIO functions  in support of operation room control of fighting ship and aircraft.

Once commissioned with the RCN, neither ship was fitted with an operational aircraft so the hangar in ONTARIO was eventually used as the practice room for the ship's band.  It was probably the same case for QUEBEC.

The data in the tables below was extracted from BR 299, a Royal Navy publication dated 1947.  Photos and specs for some of this equipment can be found in this document including the specs for all 60 series transmitters .  Any numeric suffixes which appear for American made equipment, denote the procurement contract number. A TBL-4 is identical to a TBL-12  but was made under a different contract number or even a different contractor. Note that Uganda has an additional compartment , namely Radio Telephone Office No. 2.  Each ship used a different designator for the transmitting rooms.

Both vessels spent most of their service lives as training ships.

HMCS Ontario - a  Minotaur class cruiser.  Click on image to enlarge. (Via RCN History list)

NOTES:

#1 -  This room could be used to track all aircraft, friend and foe alike.

#2 - So what's an SCR-608 doing aboard Uganda since this is a mobile set made for the US Army? One application for this radio was to to report the fall of shot back to the ship's gunners during a bombardment.   As part of Uganda’s WWII operations, she was dispatched to the Pacific in January 1944 and in June of that year, she participated in the bombardment of Truk Island with US Forces.  This would be the most plausible use for the SCR-608. After WWII ended the radio way probably left in the Aircraft Direction Room.

#3 - The ARC-1 would be used to communicate with aircraft.

HMCS Uganda at 'D' Jetty,   Esquimalt. Here she is being comissioned on January 14, 1952. Click on image to enlarge. (Photo provided by Alex Loy).

Contributors and Credits:

1) Clive Kidd, Collingwood Heritage Museum <cjckidd(at)waitrose.com>
2) BR299  dated 1947, Royal Navy
3) http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/Transmitters%20Late%201920%20to%20Early%201950.pdf
4) Wavemeters http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/WAVEMETERS%20ETC%201938.pdf
6)  KC series  http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/THE_KC_AND_KF_CONTROL_SYSTEMS.html
7) Darren Scannell <hawkone(at)hawk-graphics.com>
8) David Freeman <djfreeman(at)shaw.ca>
9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaur-class_cruiser_(1943)
10) Type 57 http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/57.pdf
11) CDU receiver http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/CDU%20P104.pdf
12) Dave Shirlaw <djshirlaw(at)shaw.ca>
13) TCS radio http://www.n6cc.com/tcs-radio-set
14) M651, Nomenclature of Radio Equipment September 1944 at amendment 6 3/1/49. The book was produced and distributed by Admiralty Signals Establishment
15) http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/B50.pdf
16) Receivers http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/Receivers%20Late%201920%20to%20Early%201950.pdf
 
 
 

Feb 14/21