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.
SEE NOTES FOLLOWING
TABLE
“A” suffixes |
|
“B” suffixes |
|
“C” suffixes |
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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 |
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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.