Page 51 May June 2014 TCA

PUBLIC SERVICE / ARES ARES: AMATEUR RADIO
EMERGENCY SERVICES

On our side of the border, the CrossBorder 2014
In this Public Service / ARES column, Co-Chair Paul Peters, VE7BZ, team (at net control station VA7ARE) consisted
describes a cross-border exercise held for the frst time ever. of Paul Peters, VE7BZ, Cathy McPherson, VA7FRA,
Emergency communications taking place across borders is Bob Bartlett, VE7CPO, Ken Ward, VA7KYZ and
becoming the norm. The Canadian Forces Affliate Radio System Ed Gorse, VE7ED. The images are screen shots
(CFARS) has been doing cross-border communication tests with from the video that CTV ran the day before the
event and are being used with their permission.
the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) network in the USA, Thanks CTV!
which takes place every other weekend.
After reading “CrossBorder 2014”, you will note how keeping
things on the KISS principle can make life much easier when
communicating with several networks. Ron McFadyen, VY1RM,
is no stranger to emergency preparedness and it is great to see the support from
the Yukon Territory.
The Elgin Amateur Radio Society is not a large club, yet they demonstrate how teamwork
and collective cooperation can get things done. I am sure we can all learn from this
club’s efforts in how they went about acquiring a new trailer to store their gear. A visit
to their website (http://elginradio.wordpress.com/) will show many other pictures of
their new trailer. Congratulations to all Elgin ARS members for a job well done.
Ken Oelke, VE6AFO – RAC National Emergency Coordinator
Cathy McPherson, VA7FRA
CrossBorder 2014

Prepared by Paul B. Peters, VE7BZ
Canadian Co-Chair for the Cross Border
Communications Group
On January 11, 2014 at 1730z, one of the
largest ever Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications exercises was live on-air
with 90 stations. The exercise called
CrossBorder 2014 brought together radio
operators from three provinces (British
Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alberta)
and fve states (Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Bob Bartlett, VE7CPO
Washington and California). The development and maintenance of our
cross-border working relationships are
CrossBorder 2014 was organized by a
four-member design team from the critical to the ongoing success of the
Cross Border Communications Group (CBCG) group and its objectives. The mission
which is a well-organized group of high statement of the group is as follows:
profle community-based Amateur Radio “We stand ready to provide interoperable
operators from Southwest British Columbia backup communications services to our
and the multi-county area surrounding stakeholders when normal systems are
Bellingham, Washington to the Canada / overloaded or have become inoperative.”
USA border. Formed in 2008, this group
meets quarterly to discuss ways Amateur The primary focus of CrossBorder 2014
Radio resources can be coordinated was a collaborative exploration of radio
cross-border during an emergency or communication connectivity between Ken Ward, VA7KYZ
disaster in our respective areas. hospitals and government emergency
operations centres (EOCs) in the multiple
jurisdictions on the west coast of North
America. The event demonstrated how
well prepared radio operators (in both
Canada and the USA) were to support
both local emergency programs and/or a
medical facility in their region.
The result of the exercise would become
part of each stations preparation for a
large scale disaster such as an
earthquake, tsunami, plane crash, etc.
This was not a “concept of operations”
based exercise.
Ed Gorse, VE7ED (at right shown with VE7CPO)
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