This excerpt from Joe Costello's RC Sigs Militaria web page provides some background on Hartlen Point.

"The Department of Transport's (DOT) commitment to the Navy's cause was strong enough for them to build an additional station near Halifax known as Hartlen Point. Built on a strip of land located at the eastern gateway to Halifax harbour, this station allowed for an entire view of the sea in every direction. This site which began operations in late 1941 or early 1942, was tasked with Direction Finding, specifically U-boat targets. No Navy personnel were employed here, only experienced DOT operators. By June 1942, fourteen operators were handling the Naval tasks at Hartlen Point. Four of them were DF operators and the remainder utilized five receivers to intercept German U-boat transmissions. The operators rotated through all positions on a daily basis, each operator working the D/F watch in succession".

It is believed that RCN operations concluded in 1946(?).  Hartlen Point assumed the function of a DOT radio spectrum monitoring station and in July 1961, those functions were moved to Montague, PEI.

 

Map courtesy Mapquest.com

Hartlen Point is within the red circle in the top photo. The Hartlen Point Forces Golf Course now occupies the site of the former monitoring station. (Photo courtesy Google Maps)

Photo 1: Department of Transport employee, Mr. P Ritcey, is operating a Marconi (UK) model DFG12 direction finding set. (National Archives photo #PA105724 submitted by Doug Stewart).

Photo 2: This is a very different direction finding arrangement. Here, the Adcock array surrounds the shack. Attached to the top of the whips are guy wires which support the 'sense' aerial which in turn attaches to the insulator at the top of the shack. The wire is not visible in the original, so its been added into the photo. Despite its modest appearance, Hartlen Point was acknowledged to be one of the most accurate stations in the Atlantic network. (National Archives photo #PA105719 submitted by Doug Stewart).

Photo 3: An intercept operator at Hartlen Point is using a Canadian Marconi CSR-4 receiver. At the left side is a Hammarlund receiver most likely  the SP-200. (Photo submitted by Laval Desbiens VE2QM)

Credits and References:

1) Joe Costello.  http://www.rcsigs.ca/ViewPage/History/Canadian-CESM-History/Page/2/.
2) Doug Steward <dougjoy(at)ns.sympatico.ca
3) Laval Desbiens VE2QM  <desbiens.laval(at)videotron.ca>
4) Don Cameron papers. Part 4

May 9/13