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With Prince George being the largest city in the region, it is natural that we would have the largest and most active club in the area. We are fortunate that a high percentage of our members have advanced technical skills and are also highly motivated. Of course that also means that our to-do list sometimes grows faster than our job-completed list. We welcome anyone who would like to join us on one of our projects. You don't have to be an expert. We all learn from doing and from each other. Besides, lots of what we do, even on repeater installation or maintenance trips, is pretty basic stuff. We always have fun at what ever we do. Sometimes that means turning a project into a family camping trip or it may be an excuse for a quad or snowmobile ride. What ever it is, there is lots of joking around and the fun of working together on an old fashioned work-bee. Have a look st some of the photos in the "Radio Sites" section of this web site. This is just a tiny bit of the incredible scenery that you'll see if you join the team! The Prince George Amateur Radio Club has purchased and equipped a new custom built mobile radio communication trailer for use in the region. This trailer is used to support the Provincial Emergency Program, Search and Rescue, city and regional district emergency plans, and community events. We also take the trailer to a remote location where we operate on solar power to exercise both it and our skills during the annual Field Day contest on the last full weekend of June. All members and directors of PGARC are unpaid volunteers. The club meets the first Tuesday of each month in the annex behind City Hall. Our members have provided communications services and traffic control for numerous public events that have been held in our city during the last two decades. This includes the BC Northern Games, BC Senior Games, fund-raising walks & runs, and countless parades. PGARC is an active participant with both the City of Prince George and the Canadian Red Cross to provide emergency radio communications for the city during an emergency or disaster. Club members have designed and helped to equip the City’s emergency operations centre (EOC) radio room. The club owns and maintains an extensive VHF and UHF radio network using mountain top repeaters equipped with backup power. Club members also work with and assist other clubs and individuals in the region to expand and maintain the radio network. The Prince George Amateur Radio Club is an active volunteer partner with the Provincial Emergency Program through their Provincial Emergency Radio Communication Service (PERCS), to provide radio communication during an emergency or disaster. The Prince George Amateur Radio Club works with Search and Rescue (SAR) to supplement their communications for search and rescue operations in the region. For example, during the searches for Nicole Hoar and Joseph Andrews, we operated the radio equipment in the PREOC and at the SAR command post. In one case, four of our mountain top repeaters were used to communicate between the searchers in the field and the command post. |