Coastguard members top Amateur Radio Course

It would appear that the Coastguard is sending the brightest staff members to take the Amateur Radio Course, as this time two members, along with a student teacher, gained 100 per cent, following a course held from February 15 to 19, as the Rainbow Radio League Inc continues to increase the pool of persons islandwide who can use Ham radio in times of national emergency.

The licence gained will allow the successful candidates to transmit on several amateur radio bands, allowing them to make friends all over the world, and if they are lucky enough, to even chat with astronauts on the ISS.{{more}} The course also taught students how to make their own emergency antennas, by using a simple formula, as well as being able to identify which frequencies they are allowed to transmit on. Part of the course involved a mini simulation where students, using two-way radios, were sent in the field to report on “coastal damage, following a tsunami.”

The youngest person to gain a licence during this course is 13-year-old Aleisha Browne, a student at the Bishop’s College, who is keen to share her skills whenever called upon. The only requirement for persons taking this course is the ability to read and write well and to be able to do simple computations.

According to the director of the RRL, Don De Riggs, the next course will be conducted during the Easter week in Mayreau. At the end of that course, radio operators will be involved with the communications aspect of a ‘rescue at sea’ simulation with the Mayreau fishermen and Mayreau Patrol. He went on to thank BOSVG and the NTRC for providing snacks for the recently held Ham radio course and NEMO for allowing the use of their conference facilities, as well as congratulating all the successful new radio amateurs.