Surrey\u2019s ham operators put their emergency communication skills to the test<\/p>\n
Published 3:47 pm Saturday, June 27, 2026<\/p>\n
The one consistent communications service that has never failed has been amateur radio.<\/p>\n
Federally licensed radio operators, often called \u201chams,\u201d provide back-up communications for everything from community events to local emergency operation centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has no single point of failure\u2014no reliance on the Internet, power utilities, or cell towers. It works when nothing else is available. In partnership with SARC, we provide funding, advanced equipment, and thousands of volunteer hours to support Surrey\u2019s Emergency Program,\u201d said Gordon Kirk, volunteer coordinator for the Surrey Emergency Program.<\/p>\n
The program in Surrey is totally volunteer-based and is under the Surrey Fire Service.<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Shelley Morris of the Surrey Fire Service said, \u201cAmateur Radio plays an integral role in emergency preparedness for Surrey. These operators train extensively and maintain a communications room at our Number One fire hall, ensuring backup communications for our operations centre during major disasters, enhancing life safety for our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ron Casey, a volunteer, added that there are two kinds of disasters: one where you can call someone for help, like 9-1-1 or an emergency plumber, but then there\u2019s a disaster where major communications lines go down.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where radio comes in. \u201cIf you can\u2019t get a hold of somebody in one channel, you have a couple of 100 to pick from,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n
While cell phones are an important tool in our everyday lives, they can be expensive, and things can go wrong with them or with the phone networks.<\/p>\n
With a with $60 radio, you can hook it up to a laptop and access the internet. \u201cIf the internet goes down here, I can hitchhike onto the laptop or the internet down in Seattle,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday (June 27) and Sunday (June 28), the federally certified amateur radio operators will put their skills to the test.<\/p>\n
The radio operators from the Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR) and Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) set up in a private field in Cloverdale on Saturday (June 27) to participate in the annual 24-hour field day exercise, which tests emergency communication capabilities.<\/p>\n
Thousands of \u201chams\u201d across North America are expected to take part in the exercise, which is held during Amateur Radio Week (June 21-27).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set up our equipment and it\u2019s a contest to see how many contacts and different methods you can use to make that communication, so it would be voice contacts on different frequencies, bouncing signals off of satellites, sending email without the internet,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n
Kird said they expect to make \u201cseveral thousand\u201d contacts during the exercise.<\/p>\n
The volunteers are also hoping to contact the International Space Station as it passes over Surrey at around 3 a.m. on Sunday, June 28.<\/p>\n
Volunteers in this year\u2019s event include recent graduates of the amateur radio certification course at a Surrey secondary school. A teacher at the school had completed his licensing classes and wanted his students to learn what he had learned.<\/p>\n
The first RF electronics course was taught in the summer of 2024 at Kwantlen Park Secondary by electronics teacher Adam Drake. The course was offered again this past semester.<\/p>\n
For Kirk, being a radio operator runs in the family; his father did it before him. As a former paramedic, Kirk especially understands the importance of radios in emergency services.<\/p>\n
As a paramedic, \u201cI got moved into the dispatch, and being that I had some understanding of how the radio systems actually worked in the background, the next thing I knew, I was the interim executive director for the province for communications,\u201d he said. \u201cI subsequently retired from that, and then E-Comm 911 recruited me. So I look after the radio system for police, fire, and ambulance, and transit in the entire region. Now I\u2019m the liaison, the senior manager responsible for making sure our system is working for all of our responders in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n