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Radio user rewarded for public service

Lynn Valley resident passionate about emergency preparedness
Radio

For most people, receiving simultaneous text alerts, email messages and calls to both home and cellphones in the middle of the night would be cause for alarm.

But for Lynn Valley resident Bernie Leaker, a series of mass notifications to his personal electronic devices would signal a call to action.  

As an amateur radio operator and emergency services volunteer, Leaker is one of many individuals ready at a moment’s notice to offer his communication skills in the event of a disaster.

“We’ve been on standby for some evacuations as far as building fires and apartment fires on the North Shore,” he says. “We’re always heads up when there is an actual disaster, even somewhere else in the world, just in case we’re able to chip in or help out.”

For his efforts in helping out, the provincial government gave Leaker a public safety lifeline volunteer award for his radio communications work last month, an honour that carries no small weight considering the vast number of radio communication hobbyists living throughout B.C.

But although Leaker would be categorized as an amateur radio user and volunteer, he’s no novice. Since 1998, he has made emergency preparedness and communications a personal focus.

“There’s lots to the hobby, but the part of the hobby that interested me was emergency communications and being able to communicate with other people throughout the world and throughout the province or municipality in the event of an emergency,” he says.

If and when an emergency or disaster were to strike, Leaker would be out there scanning the airwaves and searching various frequencies for signs of life or distress. By calling out to other radio users, he says, emergency communication volunteers can establish contact with survivors in an emergency and offer a guiding light to safety.

“We could get the word out that we’re OK or that we need help,” Leaker says. “Often people rely quite heavily on their telephone, and in particular their cellphone, and potentially that technology would not be there for them in the event of an emergency.”

Leaker is currently the president of the North Shore Amateur Radio Club and is a volunteer co-ordinator with North Shore Emergency Management, an organization that serves as an emergency operations centre for all three North Shore municipalities.

An example Leaker gives of a time when he and other volunteers were called upon was during the Berkley-Riverside escarpment landslide in 2005.

While rescue crews were searching through the aftermath of that landslide that took place in North Vancouver, he says radio communication volunteers were deployed in order to put their own searching skills to use.

Having radio communication on hand was especially pertinent then because cellphone reception happened to be very poor in the landslide area, he says. If a trapped individual wanted to make contact, radio might have been their best option.

“We had a couple of volunteers onsite and myself personally I was just manning the radios in the radio room at the emergency operations centre,” Leaker says.

 While he has been involved in many emergency situations alongside other radio communication volunteers, a lot of what Leaker and other radio users do is less intense though just as important: general emergency preparedness and ensuring their radio skills are up to date.  

“A good way that we also practise these skills is that we lend our support to organizations like the (Vancouver) Sun Run. We operate the radio net control from North Van and then we have people throughout the course, like at every checkpoint, we’ve got at least one radio volunteer so we can keep in contact with what’s going on on the racecourse,” he says.

He says any event that caters to more than 50,000 participants has the increased likelihood that someone will get injured or an emergency situation will arise.

Volunteers from the North Shore Amateur Radio Club and many other clubs from around the Lower Mainland will be stationed throughout this year’s race, acting as the eyes and ears able to direct emergency services to the scene in the event of an accident.

Leaker recommends residents of North and West Vancouver check out the North Shore Emergency Management website for tips when it comes to general emergency preparedness. And he adds it might be worth investigating to see if there’s an amateur radio user living in their own neighbourhoods or communities.

“It might be good to find out what they can do for you or find out where they are, how they can help or – and indeed – how you can help get involved in any aspect of emergency preparedness,” he says. “It’s a good volunteer endeavour.”