The Maritimes Scanning Site

CANADIAN VHF BAND PLAN

 

Last updated November 24, 2007

 

 

This is an unofficial description not in general taken from official sources but rather is based on my observations over 40 years of scanning. This may only be of interest to myself, or indeed make any sense to myself.  The charts are posted primarily for my own use but the explanation is added just in case you find it interesting or useful.

 

The VHF portion of the spectrum extends from 30 MHz to 300 MHz, but for most listeners the upper limit is usually considered to be 225 MHz.   The 225 MHz to 300 MHz segment is, for convenience, included with the rest of the 225-400 MHz Military Band with the UHF band.

 

Overall division of the band, and Canada/USA differences:

 

First, a general comment that Canada conforms to the North American (joint Canada-USA-Mexico) allocations for VHF TV and FM broadcasting, for the cordless phone band, as well as for 6 metre and 2 metre amateur radio.  It is very similar but not identical for the railroad sub-band, the weather sub-band, and the marine band.   These similarities and differences are that channelization is the same but the band edges may be different.

 

Major differences between Canadian usage and American usage lie in the other segments.   The term “Land mobile” in Canada implies all usage that involves base and mobile stations, or just mobile stations, and notably includes Fire, Police, Ambulance, and Commercial.  The major difference between the countries is that the USA has set aside major sections for use by the military only (all the non-amateur frequencies from 138 to 150 MHz) or for the federal government, including military and civilian, from 162 MHz to 174 MHz, with a few low-power exceptions, such as cordless microphones.

 

In Canada, the federal government is just another user, and the frequencies from 30 MHz to 174 MHz (outside of the specialty bands) are open to all the various users including commercial and local government and public safety, as well as provincial and federal government.  In reality, there is no portion of the VHF band assigned to or used by the military in Canada, other than in the Marine and aero bands for liaison with civilian authorities, except that the army does use the low band (30-50 MHZ) to some extent.

 

The other major difference is that within the USA, the VHF segments open to non-military/non-federal use have traditionally been allocated frequency by frequency, to particular user types, such as ambulance, police, local government, fire, press, towing, etc.   In Canada, any of these services can in theory be found on any frequency, though there has been a concentration of fire and police services in the 153 to 155 MHz segments as well as 158 MHz.   Having said that, I would warn you that they might also be found elsewhere in the band.  Of course, in recent years there has been a mass abandonment of the band by such services to the UHF (400 MHz) band and more recently the 800 MHz band.   It is often said that there is a great shortage of VHF frequencies and that may still be true in the large cities of Canada; however in the Maritimes there are many frequencies now with little or no use.

 

Unlike the higher frequency bands, the Canadian VHF Land Mobile bands have no standard offset plan.  What this means is that in a repeater system there is no standard pairing of input and output frequencies.  This is true in both Canada and the USA; except that the government and military segments in the USA do have standard pairs.

 

This chart shows the basic divisions in the Canadian VHF spectrum.  Within each there are of course channelizations and sub-users.  There may be some fuzziness at the edges of segments – in some cases the borders are shown, in some cases the last or first channel center frequencies.  But this will give you the idea.

 

Segment

Usage

30 – 50 MHz 

Land Mobile/Military

50 – 54 MHz 

6-metre amateur radio

54 – 72 MHz 

TV channels 2 to 4

72 -  76 MHz 

Miscl Industrial, Remote, Land Mobile

76 – 88 MHz 

TV channels 5 and 6

88 – 108 MHz 

FM Radio broadcasting

108 – 138  MHz

Aeronautical  (136 – 138 added recently)

138 – 144 MHz

Land Mobile  (this is a military sub-band in the USA)

144 – 148 MHz

2-metre amateur radio

148 – 156.24 MHz

Land Mobile (overlap with Marine)

156 – 157.3 MHz

Marine

157.44 – 161.625 MHz

Land Mobile (includes Railroad Band)

161.65 – 162.025 MHz

Marine

162.03 – 173.985 MHz

Land Mobile (Weather band channels are superimposed on this band)  [this band is used exclusively by the US government in the USA and the wx channels match the American channel spacing, not the Canadian]

174 – 216 MHz

TV channels 7 to 13

216 – 225 MHz

this segment varies.. amateur radio and Land Mobile uses. (info to be determined) 

 

 

Occasionally I see queries about the term “valid frequency”.  Valid frequencies in any particular band are those that fit the channelization scheme promulgated by Industry Canada or its predecessor.   With the caveat that some agencies such as the military might use non-standard (“invalid”) frequencies on occasion, it is generally safe to assume that VHF frequencies in Canada will adhere to the following scheme.

 

Channelization Scheme:

 

The VHF Lo band from 30 to 49.98 MHz has a spacing of 200 kHz, so that the frequencies normally progress as follows:

 

30.0

30.2

30.4

etc

 

It is certainly possible that the military users might employ whatever spacing they want, and in addition the low power uses in the range 44 to 50 MHz (cordless phones, walkie talkies, baby monitors) do use in-between (odd and split) frequencies.

 

Most of the VHF Hi band from 138 to 174 MHz uses a spacing of 15 kHz.  Originally, years ago, the spacing was 30 kHz and in fact, in any one area the spacing remains that way for the most part.  In the USA there has been a recent move towards 7.5 kHz spacing but there seems to be little need in this country.

 

With 15 kHz spacing there is a definite progression of frequencies starting at 138.00 MHz as follows:

 

138.00     “A” sequence

138.015

138.03

138.045

138.06

to

138.99

139.005  “B” suffixes

139.02

139.035

139.05

to

139.995

140.01    “C” suffixes

140.025

140.04

to

140.985

141.00    “A” suffixes

141.015

 

Notice how the decimal part of the frequencies (that I will call “suffixes”) has a pattern of three types that begins to repeat after 3 MHz, so that 138, 139 and 140 have different suffixes but 141 has the same suffixes as 138.  I call the three sets of suffixes A, B, C but they are really one repeating sequence. I would like to say that this continues seamlessly to 174 MHz but it doesn’t.   Of course, one situation is that the 2 metre amateur band lies along the way, and so does the international VHF marine band.   Neither of these conform to the progression.    The other situation is that for a reason I do not know, there are a couple of discontinuities or spacing changes encountered, perhaps made purposely for a technical reason.

 

Here is how things go:

 

138 to 144 is seamless (“seamless” means continuous 15 kHz spacing)

 

At 148 the sequende begins over again with 148.015 and continues seamlessly to 149.995

 

150 starts over again at 150.005 but only as far as 150.275

 

150 restarts at 150.28 and it is seamless to 154.5

 

154.54, 154.57, 154.60 are low power (esp fast food) (may be in-betweens such as 154.555, etc. but I haven’t seen them)

 

154 begins over at 154.62 and continues seamlessly to 156.24

(The international marine band begins at 156.00 but there is some overlap with land mobile – there certainly are some parts of the USA using the segment above 156 for land mobile, and this is possibly true in Canada as well, far from navigable waters, and conversely, although the international marine band begins at 156 MHz, some of the lower channels such as 80, 1, 81, 2, etc are not authorized in at least some Canadian waters.)

 

At the top end of this part of the marine band, land mobile begins again at 157.44 and this continues seamlessly to 161.625.

 

The upper part of the marine band extends from 161.65 to 162.025 – this part of the marine band is used for coast stations only, either broadcasting information or in duplex (2-frequency mode) with ship stations using the 156/157 portion.

 

Land mobile continues on from 162.03 and all the way to 173.995. (The weather sub-band is superimposed on the Canadian land mobile band, even though it has different spacing).   This is a huge section that is not available to commercial and local government users in the USA.   My experience is that outside of a few government users (often used by provincial forest services) that it is mostly commercial in Canada.   Once in a while you will note a fire department or police department in this segment, but usually a small department with one or two frequencies only.

 

To summarize, even though this may be confusing and adds up to a lot of frequencies, it is still true that there are only certain possible frequencies that are normally allocated in Canada.  The following chart will tell you which suffixes are the norm.

 

I fully realize that other allocations (outside of what I list below) can be made at Industry Canada’s discretion but I believe these to be rather rare.  One I know of occurred here in the Halifax area, though it is now discontinued.  The RCMP I believe originally used 155.40 but this was divided into allocations of 155.39 and 155.405.  This continued for several years until the areas using 155.39 were reassigned to 155.805 and 155.40 was reactivated.   I think that situations like this are rare and therefore when I see frequencies in directories that don’t meet the standard I am skeptical to say the least.

 

CANADIAN VHF HIGH BAND LAND MOBILE FREQUENCIES

SEE NOTES FOLLOWING TABLE

 

“A” suffixes

 

“B” suffixes

 

“C” suffixes

 

MHz: 138, 141, 148, 152, 154*, 156**, 159, 162***, 165M 168, 171

 

MHz: 139, 142,149, 150+,153, 154++,157+++, 160, 163, 166, 169, 172

 

MHz: 140, 143, 150^, 151, 154^^, 155, 158, 161^^^, 164, 167, 170, 173

 

0

0.015

0.03

0.045

0.06

0.075

0.09

0.105

0.12

0.135

0.15

0.165

0.18

0.195

0.21

0.225

0.24

0.255

0.27

0.285

0.3

0.315

0.33

0.345

0.36

0.375

0.39

0.405

0.42

0.435

0.45

0.465

0.48

0.495

0.51

0.525

0.54

0.555

0.57

0.585

0.6

0.615

0.63

0.645

0.66

0.675

0.69

0.705

0.72

0.735

0.75

0.765

0.78

0.795

0.81

0.825

0.84

0.855

0.87

0.885

0.9

0.915

0.93

0.945

0.96

0.975

0.99

 

0.005

0.02

0.035

0.05

0.065

0.08

0.095

0.11

0.125

0.14

0.155

0.17

0.185

0.2

0.215

0.23

0.245

0.26

0.275

0.29

0.305

0.32

0.335

0.35

0.365

0.38

0.395

0.41

0.425

0.44

0.455

0.47

0.485

0.5

0.515

0.53

0.545

0.56

0.575

0.59

0.605

0.62

0.635

0.65

0.665

0.68

0.695

0.71

0.725

0.74

0.755

0.77

0.785

0.8

0.815

0.83

0.845

0.86

0.875

0.89

0.905

0.92

0.935

0.95

0.965

0.98

0.995

 

0.01

0.025

0.04

0.055

0.07

0.085

0.1

0.115

0.13

0.145

0.16

0.175

0.19

0.205

0.22

0.235

0.25

0.265

0.28

0.295

0.31

0.325

0.34

0.355

0.37

0.385

0.4

0.415

0.43

0.445

0.46

0.475

0.49

0.505

0.52

0.535

0.55

0.565

0.58

0.595

0.61

0.625

0.64

0.655

0.67

0.685

0.7

0.715

0.73

0.745

0.76

0.775

0.79

0.805

0.82

0.835

0.85

0.865

0.88

0.895

0.91

0.925

0.94

0.955

0.97

0.985

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes to accompany table:

 

* 154.54 to 154.60 only

** 156.00 to 156.24 only

*** 162.03 and upwards (the 162 range also includes the Wx band superimposed with different spacing)

+ up to and including 150.275 only AND from 150.81 upwards

++ from 154.62 upwards

+++ from 157.44 upwards

^ 150.28 to 150.805

^^ up to 154.52

^^^ 161 range excludes Marine segments

 

Finally, in regard to the VHF high band (138 to 174 MHz), a final reminder that there are 3 specific service segments within these boundaries that do not follow a set 15 kHz spacing system:    2 metre amateur radio 144 to 148 MHz, the VHF Marine Band in several segments in the range 156 to 162 MHz, and the Weather band consisting of the frequencies imported from the USA in the 162 MHz range, such as the most common 162.55 MHz.