Pic: Submitted.
By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: May 8, 2014
The sleekest cell phone is useless if there is no coverage, and it’s a fact well-known to those who organise races in Squamish.
So, every summer as organisers prepare for the Gear Jammer, Test of Metal and Bob McIntosh Triathlon, John Powell, the president of Squamish Amateur Radio Club, gets a phone call.
“If there is a big earthquake in Squamish, we will be plugged in with emergency management.” John Powell.
And for the last 24 years, he knows the call means the services of the Squamish Amateur Radio Club are needed.
With little phone coverage on race course, organisers have to forsake cell phones for radios.
And yielding the radios are members of the Squamish Amateur Radio Club members are more than happy to help at no cost to the organisers.
Once they tune in to the same frequencies, hams (as the radio hobbyists are sometimes called) keep the base stations informed about who passes first through the stations.
They coordinate the traffic. They keep the base station informed about transitions and other unexpected issues that might come up in the race.
Test of Metal organiser, Cliff Miller, said the radio club has been helping the race since 1996.
Miller said the race course is spread far into the back country, and the radio is only way to ensure radio coverage in case of an emergency.
“Their contribution is in no way insignificant to the success of the event,” he said.
Being part of the amateur radio club, however, isn’t more than just a cool hobby for the members.
The amateur radio club also serves the community as an integral resource for the provincial emergency program.
The members practice with other lower mainland radio teams so they are well prepared to support emergency communications for the community.
“If there is a big earthquake in Squamish, we will be plugged in with emergency management,” says John Powell.
Loneliness is an affliction that amateur radio operators find it easy to ward off.
Using a calling channel, radio operators can talk to anyone in the world provided the other person holding a radio tuned to the same frequency.
John Powell has spoken to people as far away as Scotland and Nova Scotia, sometimes using radio to save people’s lives.
Another club member Mike Johnson has even used his radio to speak to astronauts in space.
Bob Walsh, Wayne Sydsworth, Tom Gilchrist, Debbie Rafuse, and Russel Pierce are some other member of the Squamish Amateur Radio
