On March 4, 1946, a sum of $500,000 was approved by the Province for the installation of a modern Frequency Modulated radio communication system for the OPP. Professor J.E. Reid, a professional engineer and consultant was retained by the government to conduct a survey and advise for a radio communication system for the OPP in Southern Ontario.
On August 12, 1946, specifications for the proposed radio system were tendered for consideration. The OPP radio system will cover most of southern Ontario and later parts of northern Ontario.
January 30, 1947, the Province enters an agreement with Canadian General Electric Company to supply, install and maintain a radio communications system to cover 11 Districts in Southern Ontario. 260 department vehicles and 11–250-watt fixed stations, 30–60-watt fixed stations.
On November 27, 1947, at 3:00 pm the OPP went on the air with the world’s largest FM police radio network.
So a tidbit of info added from VE3OPD from his days on the old Low Band OPP Radio in the far north.
Yes it was on 42.060 mhz (what is called Low Band VHF) dispatch transmit frequency and 42.220 mhz receive from the cruisers and portables. (Ch2) on the Low Band VHF cruiser mobile radios or portables which were much like the radios slung over the railway car man and brake mans’ shoulders. (this Car to Car frequency allowed cruisers to speak to each other within close range while the closest dispatch centre could monitor them. The 42.220 mhz frequency was the receive frequency at the tower sites and sent back to the District Headquarters and Detachments on dedicated telephone lines (what we hams would call 4 Wire Audio on a Repeater). Much like the original system used by NASA for the Apollo Missions with listening stations all over the earth ( 6 or so I think) relayed on dedicated phone lines back to Mission Control in Houston. The NASA system was on UHF AM with High Gain UHF arrays strategically located around the earth as the Spacecraft orbited the earth. This NASA system remained in place until the first Space Shuttles were launched and deployed the first TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) which was a shared venture for use with the US Military. ( EOL 2024 )
The first OPP Radio system had one major drawback and that was interference from our southern neighbors and State Police Agencies who were on the same frequency allocations. When propagation or ducting in the cloud layer occurred, State Police and Sheriff Departments from all over the US would wipe out our local dispatch. It is a phenomenon used in ham radio widely for our 6m Band (50-54 mhz). It would get so bad at times that the US stations would relay to our OPP dispatchers the information. While in FNP and stationed in Bearskin Lake FNT, I would often talk on the old radio system from my cruiser 22-347 to Long Sault and Rockland. That is approximately 1,450 km away. The OPP Radio served little other purpose up north as it was only in the police vehicle to talk with OPP Aircraft and in particular the NWPU Turbo Beaver C-FOPD. I did in fact make a tape recording one night in my cruiser when we had an opening in the band (ham radio lingo lol) and I was speaking to Long Sault. If I ever find it I will post it.
Most commonly though in the NW Region (17 and 16 Districts) we would do battle with the Missouri State Police (MSP) in Poplar Bluffs Missouri. MSP has apparently left most of their Low Band VHF system in place as a back up to their modern day 700 mhz system as last reported online in 2023. Their Low Band VHF tower transmitters were licensed with the FCC for some insane amount of transmit power like 1 KW transmitter output. All this interference was due to what is called CSQ or Carrier Squelch. Any station on the same frequency would be heard on the others receivers. In 1952 Tone Squelch was invented and started out with 10 different Sub Audible Tones that were basically filters. If the signal didn’t have the correct PL Tone (Motorola Term Private Line) than it could not theoretically interfere but thats in theory. The system expanded to 38 tones so that allowed for some versatility in avoiding a neighboring transmitter from having the same tone. The system was also called CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch Sytem).
I imagine that the OPP never went with the Tone Squelch System because it was invented after the OPP System rolled out and adding it would have been a logistical nightmare with non compliant equipment in service which would have been an officer safety issue if they could not be heard. By the late 1960s it could have been implemented as it was available on VHF Radios in production but it would have required dual Receivers at all the Tower Sites to ensure that all the old and new radios with or without the tone squelch could be heard until everything was switched over. The expense and extra dedicated phone lines must have proved cost prohibitive as a Dedicated Line to from a Tower Site back to Dispatch Centre can cost 10s of thousands of dollars a month in todays equivalent dollars. You basically pay by the mile for the privilege of having dedicated phone or what we call Wire Line / Trunk Lines etc basically your Backhaul in Radio Jargon. Thats it in a nutshell and if you are interested in radio check out your local Amateur Radio / Ham Radio websites. Locally here in Thunder Bay we have the Lakehead Amateur Radio Club at ve3fw.com Thats all for now from PC StCyr aka VE3OPD *Note: Some editing was done to spruce this up for ham viewers.
