Hey everyone, I'm Ed and I like electronics and public safety... wait, this board is a support group for that sort of thing isn't it? :haha: Eh, close enough...
Anyway I've been reading the wealth of information on this board for a while now and have bought some gear from the buy & sell, figured I should finally get around to posting something here!
I live in the mountains of south eastern British Columbia about 50km's north of the U.S. border in a nice small town of a few thousand people. In my day job I work as a radio tech for a small company, there I work on everything from selling, programming and repairing two-way radios, set-up and service of repeater systems for heavy industry and public safety, doing a lot of vehicle installs of radio equipment and other electronics (when I say vehicle I mean everything from a car to a 240-ton haul truck) and do the odd installation or repair job of lights/sirens in emergency vehicles.
Then there's my other job that I don't get paid for - Volunteer Search and Rescue. It's volunteer in the sense that the money sucks, but the work is more than rewarding to make up for it. I know in a lot of circles/areas, SAR is like the orphan agency of public safety that people aren't quite sure what to think of but in British Columbia it's pretty serious business, with training standards and organization very similar to volunteer fire departments. If you look at our province on google earth, it quickly becomes apparent why that is. We respond to almost anything that goes terribly wrong in the backcountry and isn't on fire. High-angle rope rescue, swift water rescue, avalanches, medical emergencies, missing people, etc, etc. If you want to see some of the stuff Canadian SAR comes up against, check out this TV series: CALLOUT: Search and Rescue | AU SECOURS: Recherche et Sauvetage
When I have free time (ha ha... free time? what's that?) I try to spend most of it in the backcountry camping, 4x4ing, snowmobiling, hunting, shooting, or doing whatever else. I'm also an amateur radio operator and try to hit the HF bands when I have time (there's that free time thing again! :crazy: )
Oh yeah, and of course I sometimes enjoy playing with those blinking lights and stuff... I mean honestly, they're electronics and they're shiney! What's not to like? So I collect the odd piece of emergency equipment, but most of the stuff I work on is only temporarily in my collection while I fix it up and find a vehicle to put it on - we're not allowed to outfit POV's with red lights around here, but there's always an emergency vehicle on a budget somewhere!
So this seems like a board full of like-minded people, I haven't actually had to post any questions yet because all the info I've needed so far is already posted somewhere, but I'll try to get involved in the discussion and see if I can contribute a few things myself!
Cheers,
Ed
Anyway I've been reading the wealth of information on this board for a while now and have bought some gear from the buy & sell, figured I should finally get around to posting something here!
I live in the mountains of south eastern British Columbia about 50km's north of the U.S. border in a nice small town of a few thousand people. In my day job I work as a radio tech for a small company, there I work on everything from selling, programming and repairing two-way radios, set-up and service of repeater systems for heavy industry and public safety, doing a lot of vehicle installs of radio equipment and other electronics (when I say vehicle I mean everything from a car to a 240-ton haul truck) and do the odd installation or repair job of lights/sirens in emergency vehicles.
Then there's my other job that I don't get paid for - Volunteer Search and Rescue. It's volunteer in the sense that the money sucks, but the work is more than rewarding to make up for it. I know in a lot of circles/areas, SAR is like the orphan agency of public safety that people aren't quite sure what to think of but in British Columbia it's pretty serious business, with training standards and organization very similar to volunteer fire departments. If you look at our province on google earth, it quickly becomes apparent why that is. We respond to almost anything that goes terribly wrong in the backcountry and isn't on fire. High-angle rope rescue, swift water rescue, avalanches, medical emergencies, missing people, etc, etc. If you want to see some of the stuff Canadian SAR comes up against, check out this TV series: CALLOUT: Search and Rescue | AU SECOURS: Recherche et Sauvetage
When I have free time (ha ha... free time? what's that?) I try to spend most of it in the backcountry camping, 4x4ing, snowmobiling, hunting, shooting, or doing whatever else. I'm also an amateur radio operator and try to hit the HF bands when I have time (there's that free time thing again! :crazy: )
Oh yeah, and of course I sometimes enjoy playing with those blinking lights and stuff... I mean honestly, they're electronics and they're shiney! What's not to like? So I collect the odd piece of emergency equipment, but most of the stuff I work on is only temporarily in my collection while I fix it up and find a vehicle to put it on - we're not allowed to outfit POV's with red lights around here, but there's always an emergency vehicle on a budget somewhere!
So this seems like a board full of like-minded people, I haven't actually had to post any questions yet because all the info I've needed so far is already posted somewhere, but I'll try to get involved in the discussion and see if I can contribute a few things myself!
Cheers,
Ed
