The CFS Carp Richardson Detachment was a military operated radio communications transmitter station linked by landline to CFS Carp located off Lanark Country Road 10 East of Perth, Ontario. The detachment was built with a hardened two story underground bunker built to accommodate the Signals personnel needed to operate the transmitter in case of war, but did have a mess hall, sleeping quarters, offices, decontamination facilities, and its own power generation facilities. Its location was chosen to be far enough away from CFS Carp to ensure survivability in the case of a nuclear strike against CFS Carp, and to reduce the risk of interference from its twenty powerful radio transmitters. The two-story communications bunker was constructed near Perth to the same nuclear bomb protection levels as the main bunker in Carp. There were no government officials to be located there. It was staffed exclusively by members of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (RCCS), later 701 Communications Squadron post-Unification.
Separate radio receiver detachments were located and administered by CFS Carp in the region; the CFS Carp Almonte Detachment and the CFS Carp, Dunrobin Detachment were linked to CFS Carp by land line also.
In its first Canadian Forces Organization Order 1.16, dated 27 May 1968, the Experimental Army Signal Establishment was re designated as Canadian Forces Station Carp. On 14 September 1970 the stations consisted of a receiver site at Carp and a transmitter site at Richardson, Ontario, reporting to Canadian Forces Communication Command. CFS Carp was to provide the administration, security and housekeeping services needed to maintain a constant state of operational readiness for all sites under its command; most importantly, the communication facilities at Carp, Richardson, Almonte and Dunrobin. It also administered support services to terminal stations at Renfrew, Arnprior, Carleton Place, Smith Falls and Kemptville.
Layout of antenna towers at the Richardson Tx location site (as marked on a topographic map)
On 1 July 1971 CFS Carp was disbanded and reformed by amalgamating 701 Communication Squadron (formed on 1 April 1965) whereby it was given an increased operational emphasis on providing strategic communications for the Canadian Forces. The NATO Satellite Ground Terminal and some elements of the Canadian Emergency Measures Organization at Carp were ‘lodger’ organisations at CFS Carp, The Station was closed in 1994. Although the bunker was never used for its intended purpose, it did serve a valuable function as a government communications station staffed by RCCS personnel No. 1 Army Signals Troop.
Following the end of the Cold War, most of the emergency government headquarters were decommissioned, including CFS Carp and the Richardson Detachment in 1994. Those telecommunications functions were taken over by CFS Leitrim outside of Ottawa.
Remnants of a radio tower base at the former location of the Richardson Detachment, near Perth, Ontario
A paper discussing the site location origins of the Richardson bunker transmitter site has recently been forwarded to me by one of the bunker’s volunteers. A History of Canadian Forces Station Carp, Richardson Detachment – by L.A. Palmer MCpl., seems to confirm that construction of the transmitter site was initially begun in the Cedar Hill area (see Mystery Square Lake article), but engineers ran into quality of rock and/or flooding problems causing them to abandon that site and relocate to the Richardson location.
NEW – This CEGHQ (Richardson Site) is for sale. Check out this recent article by Journalist Andrew King. https://ottawarewind.com/2023/01/31/bunker-debunked-a-secret-government-facility-revealed/
