by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 10/98) - Yellowknife's Amateur Radio Society has a new home.

On Tuesday afternoon, members and invited guests gathered at St. Patrick high school to launch the location.

The station has a call sign of VE8PAT. "All stations in the North have a VE8 prefix and then you choose the last three letters and in recognition of St. Pat's we choose PAT, which describes the location," said president Joseph LaFerla.

St. Pat's allowed the society to set up in the school on the premise they teach students the basics of operating amateur radios.

The station has already trained four students to run the radios, with another 10 registered for future courses.

The Yellowknife group is capable of using three types of frequencies: VHF (very high frequency), UHF (ultra high frequency) and HF (shortwave). They have telephone and satellite access to the south and recently they set up a Morse code beacon.

Funding for the outfit is provided through Emergency Measures Organization through Municipal and Community Affairs.

They have battery backup in the event of an emergency which will allow 10 hours of power.

Since its existence, the society has regulated traffic for the Santa Claus Parade, and during the ice storm in Ontario and Quebec this year, amateur radio operators were active in relaying messages between disaster areas.

Most recently they were involved with the Arctic Winter Games and provided radio service for cross-country skiing competition.

Vern Christensen, spokesperson for MACA congratulated the society for their partnership with the St. Pats.

"We see what you've done here as being an excellent model in cooperation between people who share a common interest. For our part we are very proud to have been able participate in assisting you," he said.