[Vintage-Radio] Museum collection of historic radio equipment about to be dumped. Can it be saved?

[Donald Chester]

The following message was forwarded to me from Jerry Proc VE3FAB (E-mail: jerry.proc at sympatico.ca Web: http://jproc.ca )

This is a distress call to all enthusiasts of radio and radio history. The Radio Museum of Québec located in Sorel, Québec is in deep trouble. Some time ago , they had to vacate the existing premises where the radio collection was located. All artefacts were put into storage but no suitable site was ever found. Now the owner wants his tractor trailers back, all six of them.

The message below, sent a few weeks ago, did not result in a solution to save the radio collection at Musée Québécois de la radio inc. If a solution is not found within the next few days, the complete collection will go to the trash and will disappear at the end of the month. The collection is impressive. It contains over 1900 pieces of radio equipment and over three quarters of a million pages of documentation. The collection is presently stored on 130 pallets in six 53-foot trailers. The trailers are on loan and must be returned on the 31st of May. If storage space is not found, the entire collection could end up in the landfill. It was impossible to find a temporary warehouse for the collection. One solution was to purchase three or four used 53-foot trailers but the fund raising attempt did not generate enough funds. That option would have required at least $7,500.

Does anyone have any suggestions ? If no solution is found, can we save the collection by offering it to other museums in Canada? What to do on the 31st of May ? Open the trailers, let anyone take anything they want, and let the rest go to the dump? Return the trailers to the owners with the collection inside? The owner will certainly take the collection to the dump and invoice the Museum for the cost of disposal.

Here are the options:

Find a storage solution before the end of May

Donate the collection to other museums (must be picked up before the end of May)

Let anyone take what they want and send the rest to the dump

Send the entire collection to the dump

Abandoning the collection by returning the trailers with the collection inside

If you have any suggestions, or if you can help, please contact Jacques Hamel, VE2DJQ at: museeradio at videotron.ca  Sorel-Tracy is within 75 kilometres (47 mi) of both Montréap and Trois-Rivières, and is easily accessible via Autoroute 30 from the west and via Route 132 from the east and west.

A similar situation arose in Adelaide, South Australia two years ago when a local Council refused to renew an Aircraft & Radio Communications museum building lease because the dated building (owned by the Council!!) did not comply with 2012 Workplace Health & Safety Regulations. The cost of any alterations was expected to be borne by the museum; same situation: not enough funds raised to do that. The outcome was that the museum was closed on the due date; the museum committee contacted other museums around Australia plus authentic amateur radio clubs & some ''selected individuals'' (so items did not finish up on eBay!!) & as many items as possible were dispersed that way. The remainder was dumped. That was the second wireless/radio/communications museum in this State to go that route. The Postmaster Generals Department wireless, signalling & communication museum right in the middle of the Adelaide CBD was evicted due to property demand. The collection was broken up with most still stored in a caring individual's warehouse some 20 years later.


Don k4kyv