GLENBURNIE — If something really, really bad happens in Frontenac County, there is a small group of volunteers who will try to make sure that, at the very least, emergency services can talk to each other.

With about 22 members, the Frontenac Amateur Radio Group uses some high-tech gear to transmit with an almost century-old short wave radio method.

And, in the event of a disaster, the group would be called upon to help co-ordinate relief efforts.

“Communications is the No. 1 deficiency found in any exercise, even in the emergency services,” said Mark Podgers of Frontenac Paramedic Services and one of Frontenac County’s four emergency management co-ordinators.

“When you do a hot wash or an after-action report, it’s always communications that comes up as a gap.”

Every municipality in Ontario is legally required to have an emergency management co-ordinator. All of Frontenac County’s townships have their own, but the county would become involved if at least two of the townships are involved in a disaster.

The group has yet to be called on to help with a real disaster, but history has shown that the weather in eastern Ontario is more than capable of offering up severe storms.

On Victoria Day, the county’s emergency plan started rolling as a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning rolled through Central and North Frontenac townships.

One of the first people Podgers contacted when the tornado warning was issued was radio group member Bill Nangle, who started getting ready to head out to the field. He already knew there was a storm in the area — most members of the radio group keep an eye on the weather.

The tornado warning for Frontenac was cancelled later in the afternoon as the system moved to the northeast.

Should a major disaster hit the area — a crisis big enough to disrupt cellular and landline communication systems — part of the county’s emergency plan is to turn to the radio group.

Not every municipal emergency plan includes an amateur radio group, but with Frontenac County’s geography, county planners decided it would be a good idea.

At the county’s headquarters on Battersea Road, two radio antennas were set up on the roof specifically for the amateur radio group.

During an emergency, the Frontenac Room, where county council holds its annual meeting, would be the command centre. The radio group would set up in the lunch room next door.

In the past three years, at its members’ own expense, the group has built up a network of radio nodes across the county to ensure communications stay up.

The group has partnered with Frontenac’s four township volunteer fire departments to install antennas at fire halls and in other locations. The group also has two portable nodes that can be set up to provide additional coverage.

“There have been some fantastic systems out there that we’ve seen over the years for communication. It’s just this one works; it works 100% for sure,” Podgers said.

“This is old school technology,” Nangle said. “That is the benefit of it. There are not many parts to break.”

On the other side of the world, the value of short wave amateur radio was demonstrated in the wake of last month’s earthquake in Nepal.

The April 25 disaster damaged the modern communications infrastructure, and any information coming out of much of the country was carried on amateur radio signals.

The American Radio Relay League had sent lightweight, portable radio kits to the country. Since there are not many licensed amateur radio hobbyists in Nepal, the kits were most often used by amateur radio operators from India who crossed the border to help.

Those operators were sent on foot into remote areas to report about the condition of towns and villages.

“The only way they were getting any information out was through the amateur radio guys,” Nangle said.

Nangle listened to signals from one such man who was sending his information to a radio operator in Israel, who then relayed it to the rest of the world.

“The only way they found this out was a guy with an amateur radio on his back gets to a village, sets up, gets his little battery out and sends the word. ‘There’s nothing here anymore.’ And he moves on to the next village,” Nangle said.

In a disaster in Frontenac County, the local radio group’s main function would be providing communication within the county and with the provincial emergency operations centre in Toronto and the Canadian Red Cross national office in Ottawa.

“Each of those offices in downtown Toronto and Ottawa have amateur radio stations and they are staffed like we are, 100% volunteers,” Nangle said.

Governments are prohibited from paying radio group members or buying any equipment for them, even though in an major crisis they might be the only ones on the airwaves.

A federal Public Safety Canada program — the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program — which shared the cost of equipment for local emergency services, was cancelled in 2012.

British Colombia’s provincial government is the only Canadian government that supports amateur radio groups as part of its emergency plan, likely because it realizes if the West Coast is hit by a large earthquake, amateur radio will have an important role to play in the response.

Fire stations across Frontenac County have been outfitted with about $3,500 worth of amateur radio equipment and each member has a couple of thousand dollars invested in their personal equipment. In addition to sending voice messages, the group has a system for sending emails without the Internet over radio waves.

But the group members admit they knew what the costs were when they got involved.

“We go into this hobby knowing that,” Nangle said.

“I get to talk all over the world. I get to work with some great guys. It is constant learning, and it’s not just electronics. It’s propagation, it’s learning how the radio waves work.”

“It’s great to say, ‘I’ve got $10,000 worth of gear.’ But what are you going to do with it?” added radio group member Don Gilroy.

“When it comes right down to it, it’s still all about learning to deploy to the field, set up a station and make it operate,” Gilroy said. “That’s the very basic skill that you need to make this whole process work.”

The group members develop their skills through contests with other groups. Several times a year, on designated days, the group will set up in the field and try to contact as many people over the radio as possible.

Last year, the Frontenac group was the top group in North America; the year before, it placed second in North America and first in Canada.

The group also provides communications for the Ottawa Bicycle Club’s annual Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour.

elliot.ferguson@sunmedia.ca