ig wrote:

 
 BTW I sit corrected, the original mandate was to make CFRB available to the North but over time, the pattern was changed to cover the excited states.
 

From conversations with RB technical personnel in the early 70s, the two element directional array was a simple cardioid designed not so much to serve the north, but to minimize the onslaught of QSL card requests from the United States. The second element was eventually abandoned to avoid having to maintain the phased array.
 

darcyh wrote:

I've heard that CFRX is a 'labour of love' for the engineers and perhaps ham operators who keep it going. They don't charge the company for their work. Still an old 1KW transmitter will probably consume 2 or more kilowatts of electricity which over time adds up. At 18 cents a kilowatt hour this equates to about $8.64 a day or $267 per month.  

Yes, but the transmitter is over 40 yeaes old. Eventually it will need to be replaced.