Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System


The Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System was established in 1978. The programme enlists amateur radio volunteer operators and equipment but uses neither standard radioamateur frequencies nor callsigns as CFARS is allocated its own specific official frequencies and identifiers.
During the Cold War, Canadian troops deployed CFARS radio to military outposts in West Germany. In the 1991 Gulf War, CFARS provided a means for Canadian soldiers stationed in Qatar to call home, boosting morale. On October 6, 2011, a malfunction of Telesat's Anik F2 satellite disrupted communications to Canada's high Arctic region for several hours; CFARS operators were called upon to provide emergency backup communication.
CFARS consists of a mix of military stations, military unit/club amateur radio stations and individual affiliate radio stations. Historically, CFARS stations have also been deployed on Canadian Coast Guard vessels for use during search and rescue deployments.
Agencies actively served by CFARS include the military, Public Safety Canada, Transport Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
A counterpart to CFARS exists in the United States of America as the Military Auxiliary Radio System; established procedure is designed to facilitate interoperation between the two systems. While the use of CFARS phone patch traffic in its traditional role as a means for soldiers to contact loved ones is declining with the growing access to communications satellites by military units in the field, the amount of digital radio traffic carried has been increasing.
A working Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System station is on exhibit as part of the Military Communications and Electronics Museum at CFB Kingston in Kingston, Ontario.

Frequencies

The following frequencies are in use by the Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System worldwide:
6978 kHzAlpha
14386 kHzBravo
14460 kHzCharlie
14463 kHzDelta
14446 kHzEcho
20971 kHzFoxtrot
20963 kHzGolf
29715 kHzHotel
14454 kHzJuliet
14449 kHzKilo
20977 kHzLima
13954 kHzMike
6982 kHzWhiskey
6962 kHzXray
4052 kHzYankee
4023 kHzZulu