Page 51 January February 2018 TCA

PUBLIC SERVICE / ARES

Cowichan Valley Amateur Radio
Society: Search and Rescue Efforts

Gabor Horvath, VE7JH Should a person go missing, this fact is
reported to the local police and they will
The Cowichan Valley Amateur Radio call on SAR if they deem it necessary. If
Society (CVARS) has been maintaining a SAR decides that a prolonged search is
close relationship with two local Search required they call CVARS.
and Rescue (SAR) groups for the past
several years. The club is located in We received a call at 7 pm on Monday,
Duncan, British Columbia on October 23. A net was activated on the
Southeastern Vancouver Island. local repeater and available club
members checked in. Net control
Most of the Island’s population lives along assigned people to tow the trailers and
the coastline and cellular telephone directed members to the Command
coverage is limited to populated areas. Centre location. In this case it was in an
Our expertise in communications is area that was accessible by passenger
essential to the success of SAR vehicle so we all went directly to the site.
deployments as most of the callouts are A team leader was appointed who then
in the wilderness away from cellular coordinated with SAR in locating our
coverage. equipment. Once our trailers arrived, we
Over the past years CVARS has securely parked them, deployed the
organized Amateur Radio certification antennas and established the links
courses for SAR members. Becoming between our trailer and the Command
certified allows SAR technicians to carry Centre. By about 11 pm we were all set.
Amateur Radio APRS gear on their Our members are continuously trained on
searches. Successful fundraising allowed all aspects of our involvement. We can
the groups to purchase APRS‑capable leave home in a five‑minute notice thanks
handheld radios and build the to our grab‑bags. Towing and deploying
communication infrastructure necessary the trailers is covered by a training course
to take full advantage of the capabilities just like the use of radios and computers
of this technology. in the trailer and the proper use of the
In a typical search CVARS deploys its SARTrack software.
communication trailer alongside the SAR The trailers are fully climate controlled
Command Centre. The club’s trailer has and have all amenities for adverse
three workstations set up. It has a built‑in weather conditions. There are bunks for
APRS server and several radios, both for two people, a composting toilet, a gas
the Amateur bands and also for the stove and hot and cold water supply, so
commercial frequencies used by SAR. we can stay on site for several days
Should rugged terrain require, a portable, around the clock.
suitcase‑sized, fully self‑contained APRS
repeater can be deployed on high ground Once a search gets underway our job is to
either with the help of an ATV or on foot. provide the search teams with a fully
charged voice radio, a GPS and an APRS
We run SARTrack software to display radio. We keep track of the call signs and,
the up‑to‑the‑minute position of the with the aid of the SARTrack software,
search teams and to log all radio traffic display the position of every team
between searchers and their Command overlayed on a map on a large TV screen
Centre. Our volunteers also take care of for the SAR command to see. This last
all the record keeping of equipment search was the largest we ever took part
taken by the search teams thus freeing in and we were able to manage 15 teams
up SAR resources. at one point.
Our latest callout was on Monday, The search had a bittersweet outcome.
October 23, 2017. We use a telephone On the sixth day a team located the
alert system to advise members to tune missing person, unfortunately deceased.
to the club’s repeater for instructions. Many searches in the wilderness end
Net control there takes a list of available fruitless, and in this case the family was
members and assigns their tasks. We very grateful for the closure we were able
have to tow two trailers to the location; to provide. Gabor Horvath was first licensed in his
once on site we securely park the native Hungary at the HA2KMR club station.
trailers, deploy antennas and establish SARTrack: http://www.sartrack.co.nz/ Moving to Canada in 1988, he was issued
the call sign VE3GBA, then VE7DXG, before
the links between our trailer and the SAR CVARS: http://www.cvars.com/ upgrading to VE7JH in 2012.
command vehicle.
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