AUGUST 1, 1958

Walt and I cut 6,000 feet of line south 20 degrees west from swamp camp.  I think  we hit our destination within 100 feet of spot 

located on our aerial photo. We struck a creek at the precise place on the photo.

In the evening I  patched my clothes with medical  tape and canvas patches (plus some glue).  It’s  getting difficult to distinguish 

pants from patches.

Distance   12,200 feet (around 2 miles)

August 2, 1958

Although the  northern anomaly is not quite as detailed as desirable we cannot spend  another day working there.

I caught a baby rabbit this morning and  we placed him in a bag and hung it on a tree intending to keep him as a pet

but while we were away he escaped.

As we returned  to camp a hurricane-like storm hit suddenly.  The sun was completely blackened out and then came high

velocity winds strong enough to tear trees  out by their roots throwing them around  as if they were match sticks.  Some

of these new windfalls  blocked our trail.   I have never in my life seen such a storm.  Ferocious.  Nature weeding out the

sick and the dead I suppose.

Distance covered    30,000 feet  (6 miles)

August 3, 1958

The storm railed  all night…including lightning and torrential rain.  Frightening but wonderful at same time.  Good thing too for now

our water supply has been replenished and, more important, the supply plane will be able to land  back at our base camp

on the Groundhog River maybe although not expected  until August 8.

In the afternoon Walt and I hiked  out of the swamp camp to our base camp for more food.  So many trees across our trail that

we had to cut new  bypasses.

Distance travelled   21,000 feet (4 miles)

August 4, 1958

Completed Ronka survey of anomaly 18 south of swamp camp #1.  Sure must be something beneath us since the compass seemed

very slow and  contradicted  itself on the backsights.  Probable magnetite ore body as  airborne mag suggested.  We cut 5,000 feet of 

new line.

Tired at night but relaxed as we traded stories around the campfire.  There is  a feeling of exhilaration when living this close to nature.

Our plotted data profiles showed clear presence of something since both instruments reacted…the X ray magnetometer and the 

horizontal loop Ronka EM unit.  “How did the Ronka get its name?” “Inventor guy…physicist…works for Huntec…his machine.”

The Ronka Electro Magnetic Instrument was the most important part of our survey work.  And it was heavy consisting of two large

hoops of closely wound copper wire (see above) . Both hoops were attached together by a 100 foot electric cable and signals 

were received by a console carried by one of the men.  On ordinary surveys this instrument was heavy.  Our survey work meant 

we had to carry a  hell of lot more than the Ronka…tents, sleeping bags, food, clothes, first aid  kits,  axes, a buck saw, pots and  pans…etc.

Vaino Ronka

ADVERTISEMENT

Vaino Ronka

The most powerful instrument is the one that is used. If that motto is true, then Vaino Ronka invented the most powerful electrical geophysical instrument. More of his VLF electromagnetic survey instruments have been used around the world than any other electrical prospecting tool. 

Biography

A native of Finland, Ronka studied communications engineering and later geophysics at a university in Helsinki. After graduating, he worked for the Geological Survey of Finland and, in the early 1950s, was hired by Aeromagnetic Surveys, a division of Hunting Survey Corp., then based in Toronto. 

Yet the VLF-EM was only one of Vaino’s many successful geophysical instrument designs. In the 1960s, a list was published of all the mines discovered in Canada during the previous 10 years. Out of 15 mines on the list, about 75 percent were discovered by Ronka-designed instruments.

Vaino Ronka began his work in geophysics as a research assistant on a new fixed-wing, quadrature-phase, airborne electromagnetic system at the Geological Survey of Finland. When the Hunting Group in Toronto purchased the system in 1953, Vaino moved to Toronto to help design a two-frequency version of it for commercial use. Nine months later, in September 1954, it was in operation, and won the Blue Ribbon Mining Award. 

In July 1954, Vaino applied for a patent for an in-phase and quadrature towed bird helicopter EM system. When the system went into operation in 1955, it included a built-in scintillation counter, also of his design, and was one of the first transistorized commercial instruments of any kind. It again won the Blue Ribbon Award. About this time, Vaino began to think of an improved horizontal-loop ground EM system. When it appeared in the field in 1957, it set the standard for ground-based EM systems. At the end of 1958, Vaino started independent design services for geophysical instruments. One of the projects was instrumentation for Hunting’s “hydrosonde.” He also designed Hunting’s FS-I and FS2 portable seismographs and the popular Hunting time-domain IP receiver. 

In 1962, Vaino founded Geonics Ltd in Toronto with partner Alex Herz. While they were in the field near Bancroft, Ontario, doing tests on the EM-IS ground EM instrument, they started picking up Morse code from VLF radio transmitters used to communicate with submarines. If these signals could be picked up as noise, Vaino figured that they could also be used as signal. Thus instead of tediously erecting a heavy, cumbersome, local transmitting station for every small piece of survey line, explorationists might simply tune in to distant VLF radio stations and use those fields to detect mineral deposits. This was the basis of his EM-16 VLF-EM receiver, which was first sold in 1965. Because of its very small size and low price the EM-16 became the best-selling electrical geophysical instrument of all time, and is still selling briskly today, under the same model name, 25 years later. Its tendency to detect weaker conductors has recently been put to very good advantage, as gold mineralization is often associated with poorly conducting fault zones. 

Vaino went on to design the EM-18 as an airborne VLF instrument. Another airborne survey system, the EM-30 of Hudson Bay Mining, was also based on Vaino’s patent and ideas. In 1969, Vaino had a heart attack. It was a warning to slow down a little. He sold Geonics, and in 1973 he escaped west to Vancouver. There he designed the successful “Totem VLF-EM system which was further developed by Alex Herz. Vaino did not like the “black box” airborne gravimeter that was in use in Toronto geophysical community during 1960. He built his own gravimeter with a simple galvanometer to measure electrostatic potential between the plane and the outside air. 

Vaino was recognized by SEG for his major contributions to the geophysical profession with the Fessenden Award in 1990.

August 5, 1958

Walt and I began blazing trail west 248 degrees but rain began after we had gone 600 feet forcing us back to camp.

“Your turn to hike back to base camps for food, Al.” I wonder if the other guys  get scared when they are alone

in this  dense forest?  Do they imagine wild things are watching them?  Do they hear strange noises?  Do they run?

Do they stop and slowly rotate around  360 just in case there is something?  They never say, so I best keep my mouth

shut as well.   Back at base camp I tested  the  radio transmitter  which receives fine  but just will not transmit.  If we

ever have a  serious injury, how the hell are we going to get help?  Since Walt and I are swinging blazing axes almost

every day, the odds of an accident are possible.

Arrived  at base camp about five and  cooked myself a  big supper…2 cans of stew,  1 can of peaches, 1 box cookies and  3 cans

of orange juice.   Then packed  up a lot of dry goods to carry back to Swamp Camp #1.  No  canned goods allowed  as they

are too heavy so the guys will have to make do with a  lot of rolled  oats and  pancakes and my favourite French toast.  One 

heavy item is allowed.  Peanut butter…we eat lots of that.

Slung the pack on my back and headed  west again hoping it would not get dark before I reached Swamp Camp #1.

Arrived at 9 p.m.

Distance travelled:  22,200 feet (4  miles)

August 6, 1958

Walt and I continued blazing our trail to Anomaly #16…west 248 degrees from Swamp Camp #1.  This  section of the bush is

woven with windfalls  like a broken box of pick up sticks.  At western edge we struck two creeks needing bridges. Construction

took a long enjoyable time.  Enjoyable?  Yes,  weather was perfect so  we took our time.  Waded in our bare feet.  Then we 

continued to point of the anomaly.

That night I collected some very strange luminous wood that we had been noticing all around  Swamp Camp #1.  Eerie effect looking

out of our tent at the pin pricks of light.  It seems to be some kind of fungus  acting upon rotting wood.  Dark nights give our camp

a ghost-like appearance.  My luminous collection was a failure though.

Distance covered:  13,000 feet (2.5 miles or thereabouts)

Walt and  I built two of these bridges.  The construction project was enjoyable … especially for our feet.

August 7, 1958

Tiring day as usual.

Finished blazing grid for Anomaly #16, then did survey with the Ronka which gave us some high readings

that checked out with the magnetometer.  We are here in secret … wonder if any of these anomalies have been

   staked as mining claims.  Dr. Paterson said our crew was sent in hope that no one would know we are here.  Hardly

Distance covered: 20,500 feet (about 4 miles)

August 8, 1958

Big day today.  Austin Airways Beaver arrived.  Floyd and Bob packed out to Base Camp to meet the plane while

Walt and I were left behind to break up Swamp Camp #1 and follow them later.  We had to sort things into two piles…those 

worth taking and those to be abandoned and burned.  

We arrived in afternoon and were shocked to find  Floyd  gone.  He was being sent to a new project

in Michigan.  That changes things.  We will be leaderless it seems.  But Bob will take over.  I have been elevated a notch to second  in command  which means darn little.

During our absence from Base Camp a black bear paid a visit and managed to get our twenty point ham which we had strung

up high in a tree.  Then for some reason the bear decided to get into the cook tent and rummage around.  He did  not use

the front door of the tent but ripped  a big hole in the side.

This was a really eventful day for not only did we get a new supply of food  but also a big pile of mail.

Why did  I get so many letters?…huge pile of them.  Most had American stamps and I do not know that many Americans.

Some smelled  of perfume.  At first I thought they had been sent to the wrong person but opening the first one read 

“Dear Alan”.  These were some kind  of love letters…maybe 30 or 40 from all over the United States.   One girl, writing in

pencil, wanted to live  with me if I could send  her the fare to get here.  That was a laugh.  Imagine the shock she would

find.  Perhaps I would have the greater shock though.   A lot were from nurses and  some of them were damn interesting…well written…lonely hearts stuff.

Some of the girls  told horrifying stories about their living conditions   Abuse, poverty, desire to escape no matter what.

How  come?   Why send these letters  to me?  Mystery was solved.  In the mail pack were two letters from Russ Vanstone and Jim Romaniuk…they had  sent my

name and address  to a lonely hearts club in the U.S.   Bob, Walt and  I enjoyed all the letters…read them over and over

again for the rest of the summer.  Most of them made me feel sad…there were strong overtones of desperation.

Distance Covered:  10,500 feet

Pilot delivering mail and  taking Floyd out of the bush to a new job in Michigan.