Manotick was host to a Royal Canadian Navy experimental ionospheric laboratory, the Radio Propagation Laboratory (RPL) on the Prescott Highway. The RPL evolved from Section 6 of the Operational Intelligence Centre (OIC/6) of the navu during World War II. It originally occupied small huts on the Prescott Highway, which from 1944 to 1947 housed a naval high-frequency radio station, operating under the call sign CFF. The station received and transmitted messages between Naval Service Headquarters, Allied Authorities, and ships at sea, and frequently intercepted enemy transmissions. A name plate now marks the site, which is located south of the Experimental Farm's Arboretum in Ottawa, between the Rideau Canal and the Prescott Highway.