The Movie, The Radio and VEC3CWM: Canada's Doomsday Station

Say you were on a remote science base, being attacked by a blood-thirsty alien, zombie, or alien-zombie. Wouldn't you want to have a realistic working radio to call for backup? Well according to most Hollywood directors, the answer is no...   

The Radio Room in the Diefenbunker, callsign VEC3CWM

As a HAM radio operator and certified movie buff, I'm often annoyed by the inaccuracies I find in films when it comes to radio communication. It's a bit pedantic, I know, but far too often the radio is simply a plot device, rather than a specific technology. Get on the radio, push the talk button, and say "come in x, over!"; take your store-bought walkie talkie, and call someone around the world (riiight). 

Possibly the worst example I saw was in the big budget Netflix thriller "Zero Day", where the bad guys used a "long range AM radio" to broadcast their secret plans. All the good guy needed to do was buy an AM receiver at the radio store, and the terrorists' plans were dashed. With a budget big enough to pay Jesse Plemons, Robert De Nero and Lizzy Caplan, I wish the producers would've spent an hour reading about HF radio, given that it was so integral to the plot (which also left a lot to be desired). But I digress, not every movie can be a Five-Popcorn Bag hit and get the finer technical details correct. 

But, I did find a good, accurate depiction of a radio room in the 2024 sci-fi horror film "Blood and Snow." While the film itself is just a low-budget slasher, very similar to John Carpenter's 1986 cult classic, "The Thing", Blood and Snow featured a remarkably accurate radio room set. In fact, the radio room scenes weren't filmed on a set at all. They were filmed in the actual, operational communications room of the "Diefenbunker," or Canadian Forces Station Carp, the Canadian government's old nuclear doomsday shelter, similar to the United States' Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

Blood and Snow mostly takes place in a remote arctic base in far northern Canada, where a member of the crew is infected by an alien pathogen, and starts killing the rest of the cast. (Just like in The Thing...) However, the radio room caught my attention. The radio looked to be an actual Yaesu HF base station, and shots of the desks show real user manuals for Yaesu radios. Yaesu is one of the most recognizable brands in radio, so seeing an actual HF radio, and not just a prop with random knobs and buttons was refreshing. Additionally, I noticed a Canadian amateur radio callsign in the room, VEC3CWM. 

Blood and Snow Poster

Of course, as a HAM, I immediately had to pause the film and look up the callsign. As it turns out, VEC3CWM is a vanity callsign belonging to Canada's Cold War museum, and former home of the "Diefenbunker", in Carp, Ontario just north of Ottawa. The Diefenbunker was once the emergency headquarters for Canada's government, an underground complex meant to be used in the event of nuclear war. It was dubbed "Diefenbunker" because it was Prime Minister John Diefenbaker who authorized it's construction in 1957. 

The Deifenbunker was operational from 1961 to 1994 when it was decommissioned. During that time it was heavily-guarded and shrouded in secrecy and myth -sort of like the the States' Area 51, or various cold war missile and fallout bases. In 1994, it was opened to the public as a museum. One neat exhibit of The Cold War museum in Carp is the radio room. It's an operational radio room with both modern equipment as well as working antique period-specific radio equipment used throughout Deifenbunker's operational lifespan. The station is designated callsign VEC3CWM, CMW standing for "Cold War Museum." The Diefenbunker Amateur Radio Club (DARC) operates the station, so it's still possible for licensed amateurs to make contact with the Deifenbunker using the HF bands. Like any amateur radio station in someones home or at a club site, it also serves as a possible hub for emergency communication if traditional landline, cellular, or Internet services are compromised due to natural disaster.  Plus, it provides a neat opportunity for guests to see a real HF radio rig in action. 

An underground tunnel in Canada's "Diefenbunker"

Because Canada has so much remote wilderness, amateur radio is not only a popular hobby but a necessary method of communication. Stations like VEC3CWM act as a critical back-up when other communication mediums are unavailable. And, just like in the States', Canada has an Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), a network of amateur volunteer operators who practice regularly, and activate during emergencies to relay communications between citizens and government services. Due to the remoteness of Canada's geography, some of the population still does not have access to high-speed Internet, and while the Government is making a significant investment to providing Internet to everyone, they don't expect 100 percent coverage until at least 2030. So, along with non-traditional communications like satellite Internet, radio remains an important method for keeping rural towns, Indigenous communities, commercial installations, and research stations in Canada connected. 

So, while the characters in Blood and Snow were trying desperately to make an emergency call from their command center (while getting hunted down by a killer alien), the actors were actually just in an educational museum exhibit, and amateur radio club site. They didn't really even make an attempt to spice it up with extra props! They just filmed those scenes at the museum as is, which I thought was funny.  

So, what could've been a forgettable movie, turned out to be memorable for me due to the unique nature of the filming location. 

If I ever visit the Cold War Museum in Carp, or make a QSO with VEC3CWM, I can say it was because I was bored over Winter break and watched Blood and Snow, directed by Jesse Palangio and starring Anne-Carolyne Binette, Michael Swatton and Vernon Wells.  

Pelangio, Jesse. Blood and Snow, Department M Productions, Los, Angeles California. 2024.