The Bank of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ltd (BOSVG) has trained an additional five senior members of staff with skills leading up to an amateur radio (Ham radio) licence.{{more}}

All five staff members identified for this training successfully completed the course, covering areas including antenna theory and construction, frequency allocations for radio amateurs, wave propagation, basic DC electricity and amateur radio protocols.

The BOSVG has as part of its emergency plan, an Emcoms (emergency communications) system at all of its branches and at key locations in St Vincent and the Grenadines. This communications infrastructure will play a pivotal role in keeping in touch with each other, if and when regular means of communications like landlines or cell phone services are disrupted as a result of a natural or man-made disaster. Hence the need for training of additional staff to operate this radio communications system.

The intense three-day course was conducted by Donald De Riggs, Director and Secretary of the Rainbow Radio League Inc. who also installed and maintains the Emcoms system for the Bank. The radio system includes VHF/UHF and HF transceivers and staff must not only be trained to operate this radio equipment, but also to be able to make an emergency antenna if, the existing antenna is damaged by a disruptive event. The antenna is the most important element of any wireless communications system.

The staff members who completed the ham radio course leading up to a Novice Class License are Joy Jack, Andrene Hazell, Kerise John, Colville Murray and Hamilton Davis. The pass mark was 80 per cent and Davis scored a perfect 100 and was rewarded for his success with a new VHF/UHF handheld transceiver, compliments the Rainbow Radio League Inc.

Ham radio is primarily for friendship and goodwill, but in times of national emergencies, the focus is on the safety of life and property. Kyron Duncan of the NTRC administered the test and congratulated the successful candidates on completion of the course.