In 1992, several High River Amateurs including Stan Winters VE6CAA, Sid Barton VE6CIB, Wally Gardiner VE6BGL, and Gene Weirmeir VE6CKW (now VE6WD) established the High River Amateur Repeater Group . Using a donated GE VHF repeater converted by Wally Gardiner and Sid Barton and space donated by the Town of High River the equipment was installed the water tower in High River. Various community service projects involving 2 meter repeater operations were conducted. Amateur Radio Basic Classes were initiated by Wally Gardiner VE6BGL the fall of 1993. He arranged for an instructor from Calgary to travel to High River once a week. From that course nine people in the area obtained their Ham license: Val Porth VE6THS (High River), Jim McColeman VE6JMA (Black Diamond), Sandy Sandbeck VE6ELS (Nanton), Gwen Lyons VE6EGL (Nanton), Sheldon Annett VE6SMA (Nanton), Steve Belmore VE6VL (Calgary), Leigh Wheeler VE6LRW (High River), Dr.Arnold Smith VE6SMI (High River), and Jim Christie VE6JEJ (Calgary) were among the first graduates. During the 1995 High River flood, members of the Amateur Group worked around the clock helping with communications between the Emergency Operations Center at the Fire Hall and different flood zones in town. In August 1995, the group installed a new VHF Repeater (VE6HRB) south west of Nanton using a controller built by Joel Weder VE6VOX(Calgary). The group became an Alberta registered society known as the HIGH RIVER AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY in order to be eligible for a donation of used U.H.F. radio equipment that A.G.T.(now TELUS) made available to registered amateur radio clubs and changed their name to FOOTHILLS AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY (F.A.R.S.) in 1998 in order to better recognize the expanded area of coverage of the new repeater system.