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Radio twins at heart of Saanich emergency program

Edmonton tornado of 1987 shaped Saanich emergency radio centre
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As teenagers in 1970s Victoria, Larry Joe and Martin Wong gravitated to a CB radio club.

By the 1980s, they were on the cutting edge of pocket radios, transmitting and receiving data. The technology briefly overlapped with the invention of the internet, as the latter made the former expendable.

But radio never died. Rather, it’s the go-to source of communication in the event of a disaster, such as the great Cascadian earthquake we know is due (we just don’t know if it’ll be in this lifetime). And when a disaster does strike, it’ll be Joe and Wong, co-directors of Saanich Emergency Services’s Emergency Radio Communications, guiding the chaos.

Joe started with Saanich’s ERC in 1990, 27 years ago, and finally convinced his old pal Wong to join in 2003.

Saanich Fire Department’s Emergency Program Officer, Capt. Maegan Thompson, salutes the two for their work ahead of National Volunteer Week, April 23 to 29.

By day, Wong is a registered nurse and Joe works does engineering product verification and testing with Codan Radio Communication’s land mobile radio division. On their own time, the two are crucial in organizing the fail-safe emergency radio system for Saanich.

The two met when they were 16 in the local REACT CB radio club (Radio Emergency Associated Communications Team), Joe said. That’s when they learned they were both born on the same day at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in 1956.

Joe was first to take his love of radio to the next level, getting his HAM operator’s license.

“You needed Morse code to pass the test, I wasn’t interested in that,” Wong smiled. “A couple years later, they lifted that requirement and Larry bugged me until I got it, then I had a lot of fun.”

“I still remember our call signs,” Joe said, “XM13021 and XM132988.”

But it was the Edmonton tornado of 1987 that really changed things for the two.

Joe was volunteering with the Red Cross at the time and he watched as a string of data messages from Edmonton, where telephones were down. The messages were relayed by packet radio, a Vancouver invention Joe knew very little of.

“They were using a touch type machine to send a whole stack of messages and I remember I could’t bear how slow it was going,” Joe said. “I was the fastest typer from my high school class, so I sat down and did it for them.”

After that Edmonton tornado, the duo formed the the Victoria Amateur Radio Packet Association.

The packet radio was then commercialized and Joe bought one. At one point around the late 80s and early 90s he was a hub for Vancouver Island, a linking network that regularly shared information, particularly news, into Washington State, and as far as south east states.

In 1990, Joe joined Saanich’s emergency services, bringing his packet radio experience with him, encouraging Saanich to adopt the packet radio. To this day, Saanich’s ERC has packet radios on hand that they can use as a tracking system in case of an emergency.

“It would seem that radio is obsolete but when we have a major earthquake, there might not be any mobile phone or texting,” Wong said.

ERC has successfully used their Auto Position Reporting System on the TC 10K, bringing a transmitter in the sweep car. That way organizers can track the end of the race.

A few years ago Wong assisted as search master in a major evidence search done a joint partnership by local police forces.

Joe and Wong are also supporters of the Capital Region Emergency Radio Coordinator Committee. When the various ERC volunteers from around the region check in each week, they talk to each other.

Surprisingly, it’s not that common.

“You’d think it’s logical but there are big cities on the mainland with ERC that don’t talk to one another,” Wong said.

Co-directors Wong and Joe continue to run the ERC, which is 25 volunteer members strong, while they have both volunteered extensively with the St. John’s Ambulance (both served as superintendent).

reporter@saanichnews.com

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