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INSIDE nee
COMMUNITY -
EVENTS B2

REG HORNE

ignorance i is
not bliss

S A geographer I sometimes

look at the world a little differ-

ently. I note for example that in

Quebec there are a.group of
people called Anglophones which means
English. Yet, most of these people are in
fact of Scottish descent.

There is no easier way to annoy a Scot
than to call him English. He may British,
but not English. This was the whole point
to the movie ABravehgart

Of course the Scots may not have ap-
preciated an Australian playing their leader
any more than the English liked the Amer-
ican Robin Hood.

Kevin Costner lands on the south coast of
England and strikes out walking saying
“We'll be home by nightfall. *” Doesn’t he
know that Nottingham is almost two hun-
dred miles away? Maybe not.

The movie was filmed in the New Forest,
which is.near.the south coast. Nottingham

. Forest disappeared. to the farmer's S axe
centuries ago.

watch a movie aver the holidays, try Pierre
~ Burton’s ‘Hollywoad’s Canada’ in: which
. he Slates the hundreds of movies supposed-

ly made about Canada.

The <Cree Indians - of” Northem Quebec
mountains of Lake Tahoe, California i in the
background is the best... -

But there is also the Dionne Quintuplets
travelling in an imaginary paddle steamer
down an imaginary river to Montreal, and
the Mounties riding through Saskatchewan
before it completed its mountain removal
project. (The movie Saskatchewan was
filmed in Alberta.)

On a more serious note, Yugoslavia has
been in the news nearly every night for the
past three years, yet I had a student (not in
Terrace) wha thought that Yugoslavia was
in southern Africa. Such geographical i ig-
norance is dangerous.

The Cree Indians of Northern
Quebec dancing around a totem
pole with the mountains of Lake
Tahoe, California in the back-
ground Is the best.

- Someone at Canada Post thinks every-
thing is in Southern Africa too. When I was
working in Sierra Leone, a small country on
the west coast of Africa which I admit I had
to look up in an atlas before I went there, I
received a Christmas card in February from

by five thousand miles and then worked it’s
-way back by some unknown route.

Back to Britain and the news. President
Clinton has apparently made peace in
Northern Ireland. This is another interesting
situation which as a geographer I am al-
ways asked to explain.

This island of Ireland was part of the
United Kingdom. In 1921 most of Jit be-
came an independent country, the Republic
of Ireland. Most of it, expect for the north-

United Kingdom,

’ Ever since then, there has been a
separatist movement which wants Northern
Treland to join the Republic. As with any
such movement, there are people who don’t
agree. Thus there has been violence border-
ing on civil war at times.

The fact.that the separatisis are Catholic
and the unionists are Protestant simply fur-
ther divides them. The unionists are
Protestant because many of them are de-
scendants of Scottish migrants who settled
there about the same time others were set-
tling in Montreal. Which brings my back to
where I began. Merry Christmas.

Dr, Reg Horne. ts a member of the Univer-
sity of Northern British Columbia Faculty
of Natural Resources. and Environmental

Studies based i in. Terrace,

. Starkie explains.

If you’d rather curl up with a book, than —

dancing around a totem’ ‘pole with the ~

Canada. It was postmarked Montreal and .
- Johannesburg. Jt had overshot Sierra Leone —

WHILE MOST people continued

SECTION B
CRIS LEYKAUF
"638-7283

Radio operators still vital

with Christmas: preparations this
weekend, Bob Starkle did some-

’ thing just a little bit different.

An experienced amateur radio
operator, Starkie and arother op-
erator from Kitimat bounced a
signal off of a Russian satellite.

. “Why a Russian satellite?
“They’re the simplest ones to work

with. You don’t need a lot of
sophisticated

IVs but one of a multitude of
experiments in’ communication
Starkie has conducted. over the
more than 30 years he’s been in-
trigued by radio operations.

Starkie got his start when he
took an aptitude test upon joining
the Royal Canadian Navy in
1961.

“They discovered J had natural
abillties and a talent. My interest
in rddio just stuck,’’ he said.

Since then Starkie has worked
as a radio operator for the govem-
ment ‘and continues on to this.
day.

He moved north in 1977 and
quickly found that radio offered a

way to: communicate with the’

outside world.

“In Vancouver you got used to
having everything at your fin-
gertips. Up here you're in a com-
pletely different environment,”
says Starkic.

“T take a radio into the bush so
T know I can get help if [’m in
trouble. I’m a snowmobiler and I

fake one when I go out for search

and rescue,’ avalanche work.
Radio is a key to my life.’’
Starkie’s heavily involved in

the loca]. amateur radio club but:
has expanded that effort tobe a:

communications link to operators
around the world. -
That’scbecause hé now uses a
computer to make connections:
Running a. program called

- PACKET which compresses in-

formation. into digital form,
Starkie broadcasts it over the air
‘waves,

**You can take a message, type
it in and it goes out to anybody
via the radio system,” he said.

Operators elsewhere receive the
information which is then
decompressed.

PACKET operates much the.

—equipment,’’ 5?

AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR Bob Starkie spends an hour or two a day with his radio system,

talking to operators around the world. If satellites or phone lines fail in emergencies, then it is radio

operators like Starke who will link the northwest with the rest of the country.

same as ‘the. More commonly-
known ‘Internet. but without a de-
pendence. on ‘telephone lines or,
satellites. é a

, Starkie’ § main: ‘PACKET part-
ner is in Comox. Messages
passed through him to Comox are
then transmitted to Asia.

"s
HM

“internet Is great but
it’s. just. riot..radio... If
there’s a crisis,.radio is
there, just as. it’s been

.sinee the turn. of the.

century.”

His system runs 24 hours a day,
handling everything automatical-
ly.

Other local radio operators have -

programs which connect to

Starkie’s to receive and transmit
data,

‘One. benefit is + that PACKET:

fils the schédule of an‘operator.
“*You don’t have to say Til tatk

‘to you at 7 p.m. each Wednesday. ’.

Whatever an operator’s schedule

_ is, a message can sit there until
‘Starkie -

the. operator is ‘teady
continved, *- -)

A‘great advantage | is'not: ‘having
to rely on other: communications

ships. “Data “is transmitted: error:

- free. Security is there’and ‘it ar--
rives.to all six ships at the same

time,”’ said Starkie. .-

“If the satellites should ever go
down, if there’s an earthquake
and the satellite dishes go. down
or ifthe phone lines go down,

- we're back'to Square One.”

“But radio will always be there.

We’re stil] a vital communica-
tions link.’ ..
That's very.much a ‘continuing

of the tradition of amateur radio ~

operators which can respond: in-
stantly in emergencies to receive

and pass along information, —

Starkie adds.

tum. of the century.”?*”:

- Amateur *fadio: operators als :
5 . ‘talk to: astronauts: ‘up. in the vari
now has’ PACKET on" six. of. its 7 s

‘ous space'shuilles. .”

system:
He has seven radios in: “his.

:house, a spare and two in his.

tuck, =.
A new project being undertaken
by Starkie and other local opera-

tors. is improving. the radio"

repeater system i in the northwest,

Connnecting with the world

BEFORE THERE was e-mail and

the Internet there was ham radio,

And that’s all that is still re-
quired to communicate with
people around the world, says one
veteran amateur radio operator.

Eric Brorup makes his connec-
tions through a relatively low-
powered system which enables
him to send and receive voice and
to send and receive Morse code.

**The number of radio operators
around the world are in a direc-
tory thicker than the Vancouver
phone. book,’? says Brorup.
*There are 46,000 alone in Cana-
da. 33 .

_ Bromp leamed Morse code in

his native Denmark in the 1930s,
drifted away from it until the
1950s, stopped again and revived
the hobby several years ago.
“Once you learn Morse code,
you never forget it,’’ he says.
The challenge, Brorup con-

‘tinues, is to make connections

with people on his low-powered
system.

Brorup’s unit is small, a testa-
ment to new technology.

Located on a desk in a-room of
his house, Brorup tunes in daily.

His contacts take on a concrete |

form with many retum cards dis-
played on the walls of the room,
These cards are-about the same

size of postcards, containing the -

sender’s call sign, date and time

! of contact and technical informa-
' tion.

“It’s an international brother-.

-hood, even the Soviet Union had

ham operators,”’ he said.
Brorup’s cards come from the
entire world, including Japan, ‘the

: Czech republic, Hawaii and south

Texas.
And while ham radio sounds

like a hobby, they also have an

important role to play. .

Operators act as communicators
during natural or other disasters,
relaying information and  mes-
Sages.

Many of those who have base: :
stations also carry hand held

radios for just such a Purpose, S

notes Brorup.

He has an amateur radio service oo

manual from the Provincial
Emergency . Program outlining
procedures’ to.”
called into ‘othe :

Bromp does have a word of
warning — there is-an- etiquette
among radio operators,

Foul language isn’t allowed a and |

neither is the playing of music.

‘ Brorup . estimates his. wnit cost. -
him under $300, a price he says: ig.
more than. worth it for the return:
“in. the form .of making COMEICE: - aa

tions around the world,

east corner which remained a ‘part of the

‘GALEDONA'S ‘MUSICAL’
production Oliver played t to”
enthusiastic audiences at
the REM Theatre last
weekend, -

The musical told the etary
of the orphan Ollver, his.
sale to an undertaker, and ©
his brief foray.to” an un- °

came to a happy ending -{’

home.

Period costumes; ° lively:
music and. entertalning
songs were some of. the
highlights from the | tod
tion.

“Internet ‘is great but it’s just “~~
» not radio,.If there’s.a crisis; radio" - ».":
is there, just as it’s been since the: oes

+ Starkie ‘estimates: he: spends’ can
hour or two every day with his ~

‘followed’ if fe

derworld run by thieves, All |

though, and Oliver founda | —