Canadian Forces Station Masset (french: Station des forces canadiennes Masset) was a

Canadian Forces station A Canadian Forces base or CFB (french: links=no, base des Forces canadiennes, BFC) is a military installation of the Canadian Armed Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces base, it must station one or more major units (e.g., army r ...

and signals intercept facility located near

Masset Masset , formerly ''Massett'', is a village in Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Masset Sound on the northern coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately west of mainland British Col ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The station was officially stood-down on 1 April 1997 and re-established as

Canadian Forces Station Leitrim Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, also referred to as CFS Leitrim, is a Canadian Forces Station located in the neighbourhood of Leitrim in Ottawa, Ontario. It is concerned with the interception, decrypting and processing of communication for the ...

Detachment Masset.

History

Naval Radio Station Masset (1943 - 1968)

The station was constructed in 1942 as Naval Radio Station (NRS) Masset and became active on 23 February 1943. NRS Masset was used as a

high-frequency direction finding High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF or nickname huff-duff, is a type of radio direction finder (RDF) introduced in World War II. High frequency (HF) refers to a radio band that can effectively communicate over ...

(HFDF) intercept station and a relay station for ship-to-shore communications. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

NRS Masset was placed into caretaker status until reactivation in 1949, however an earthquake damaged the station and operations were suspended until 1951 when Masset became part of the military's SUPRAD (supplementary radio) system.

Canadian Forces Station Masset (1968 - 1997)

The station was re-designated as Canadian Forces Station Masset following the

unification of the Canadian Forces The unification of the Canadian Armed Forces took place on 1 February 1968, when the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force were merged to form the Canadian Armed Forces. History A white paper was tabled in the Parliame ...

in 1968. In 1971, a

Wullenweber The Wullenweber (the original name introduced by Dr. Hans Rindfleisch was Wullenwever) is a type of Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA) sometimes referred to as a Circularly Disposed Dipole Array (CDDA). It is a large circular antenna array ...

AN/FRD-10 The AN/FRD-10 Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA) is a United States Navy circular "Wullenweber" antenna array, built at a number of locations during the cold war for high frequency radio direction finding (HF/DF) and signals intelligence. ...

antenna was built as part of a larger shore-based HFDF system to locate and classify enemy ships (known as Project Clarinet Bullseye). The FRD-10 at CFS Masset remained in use after the end of Clarinet Bullseye.

CFS Leitrim Detachment Masset (1997 - )

CFS Masset was stood down and made a detachment of

CFS Leitrim Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, also referred to as CFS Leitrim, is a Canadian Forces Station located in the neighbourhood of Leitrim in Ottawa, Ontario. It is concerned with the interception, decrypting and processing of communication for the ...

in 1997. Equipment at the facility is operated remotely from Leitrim to gather

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

for the Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch and the

Communications Security Establishment The Communications Security Establishment (CSE; french: Centre de la sécurité des télécommunications, ''CST''), formerly (from 2008-2014) called the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), is the Government of Canada's national ...

References

External links

BadgeOperations site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Masset Canadian Forces bases in Canada (closed)

Canadian Forces Supplementary Radio System