Military Communications and Electronics Museum
{{Infobox museum
| name = Military Communications and Electronics Museum
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image = Greatwar-switchboard.jpg
| imagesize = 200
| caption =
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| coordinates = {{coord|44.2423|-76.4399|region:CA-ON|display=inline,title}}
| established = {{start date|1961}}
| dissolved =
| location = Hwy 2 at Craftsman Blvd, Kingston, Ontario
| type = military museum
| collection = 5000 items, 10000 square feet
| visitors =
| director = Karen Young
| curator = Annette Elizabeth Gillis VA3VAI
| owner = CFB Kingston
| publictransit = 12A, E12
| car_park = on-site
| network =
| website = {{URL|http://www.candemuseum.org}}
}}
The Military Communications and Electronics Museum (Musée de l'électronique et des communications militaires) is a military signals museum on Ontario Highway 2 at CFB Kingston in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. A member organisation of the Organization of Military Museums of Canada, the communications museum was established at the base in 1961 and moved to its current purpose-built building in 1996.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBC2nY1rp5MC&pg=PA532 |title=Military Communications: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century |author=Christopher H. Sterling |page=532 |accessdate=2012-05-13|isbn=9781851097326|year=2008}}
Described by Lonely Planet as "a comprehensive and well-designed museum offering chronological displays on communications technology and sundry military gadgets",{{cite web|url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/canada/ontario/kingston/sights/museum/military-communications-electronics |title=Military Communications & Electronics Museum in Kingston, Canada |publisher=Lonely Planet |date= |accessdate=2012-05-13}} the museum traces the development of military communications from 1903 onward,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NXpGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bOkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1269,2434481 |title=Military history proudly displayed at sites throughout city |publisher=The Daily Gazette, Albany, New York |page=A9 |date=Feb 11, 1996 |accessdate=2012-05-13}} through World War I and II, the Korean War and various NATO and United Nations peacekeeping missions to the modern era of communications satellites.{{cite news|title=Military museum of communications: sunbeam to satellite|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=May 23, 1987|page=E16}}
Exhibits
Canadian soldiers are represented by mannequins in military uniform of the appropriate eras manning fixed communications posts, heavily sandbagged underground dugouts and military vehicles while operating military communications equipment. The history of Canadian electronic military signals dates from 1903, when the militia-based Canadian Signal Corps was established as the first of its kind in the Commonwealth.{{cite news|last=Coughlar |first=Kristen |url=http://www.emckingston.ca/20110512/news/Inside+the+Military+Communications+and+Electronics+Museum |title=Inside the Military Communications and Electronics Museum |publisher=EMC Kingston |date=2011-05-12 |accessdate=2012-05-13}} Exhibits are arranged chronologically from the World War I era to the recent International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan.
Artefacts of the Great War include a cable wagon restored by local signallers, a switchboard from the first deployments of telephone communications in directing artillery, Morse code equipment and gas masks which signallers would have had to keep at the ready in the event of chemical attack.{{cite news |url=http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1576603&archive=true |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204080722/http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1576603&archive=true |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 4, 2013 |title=Exhibit gets reinforcements |publisher=The Whig Standard, Kingston, Ontario |year=2010 |accessdate=2012-05-13 }}
The use of encryption, signals intelligence and counterintelligence is also documented, particularly in the World War II era where a break in the Enigma machine cipher by Allied forces would prove to be of decisive strategic value.{{cite journal|title=Military Communications and Electronics Museum|author=Ron Walsh VE3GO|publisher=Monitoring Times magazine|volume=29-6|date=June 2010|pages=8–9}}, see also [http://www.ve3kbr.com/newsletters/KAN_May_2010.pdf same title and author here].
Two of the radar antennas from CFS Ramore were donated to the Military Communications and Electronics Museum in Kingston upon Ramore’s closure.
=Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System=
The museum also displays a complete, working radioamateur station as a gateway in the Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System (CFARS);{{cite web|url=http://www.cfars.ca/about_cfars-eng.html|title=About CFARS|publisher=Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System|accessdate=2012-05-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310195206/http://www.cfars.ca/about_cfars-eng.html|archive-date=2012-03-10}}{{cite journal|url=http://www.commelec.forces.gc.ca/inf/new-bul/vol56/article-17-eng.asp|title=CFARS: Why Should I Become Aware and Consider Being A Member|publisher=DND Communications & Electronics Branch newsletter — Volume 56|author=Major D.J.W. Bergeron|date=December 15, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927001210/http://www.commelec.forces.gc.ca/inf/new-bul/vol56/article-17-eng.asp|archive-date=September 27, 2012}} the station's callsigns are CIW64 (CFARS), CIW964 (CFARS gateway) and VE3RCS (radioamateur service). The Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System was established in 1978. The programme enlists amateur radio volunteer operators and equipment but uses neither standard radioamateur frequencies nor callsigns as CFARS is allocated its own specific official frequencies and identifiers
=Canada mourning her fallen sons=
A war memorial "Canada mourning her fallen sons" is part of the museum and incorporates three plaster models created by sculptor Walter Allward during the design of the Vimy Memorial in France.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLKqAyUl6TAC&pg=PA203 |title=Canada and the Great War: Western Front Association Papers |author=Briton Cooper Busch |publisher=Western Front Association |pages=203–207 |date= 2003-05-08|accessdate=2012-05-13|isbn=9780773525702}}
=Semaphore to Satellite=
A book "Semaphore to Satellite" covering the history of the Canadian Forces Communications and Electronics Branch and its founding elements (Canadian Signalling Corps, Canada Naval Supplementary Radio System and Royal Canadian Air Force Telecommunication Branch) was published in 2013.{{cite web|url=http://www.semaphore-to-satellite.ca |title=Semaphore to Satellite |publisher=Military Communications and Electronics Museum, Kingston |date= |accessdate=2012-05-13}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|2}}
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Category:Military and war museums in Canada