Friday, Jul. 03, 2009

Local 'Hams' participate in field day

National event designed to practice emergency radio operations

Skipping high-frequency waves off the ionosphere to send a radio signal from one place to another using a transmitter powered by a generator is 19th Century technology.

That's how Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi bounced the first wireless radio signal across the English channel in 1899.

But when cell phones go quiet because satellite links aren't working or e-mail fizzles because of a break in a fiber-optic line, or all of modern communcation's bells and whistles fall silent because someone or something pulled the plug on the electrical power grid, Marconi's way of doing things still works.

Amateur - often called "Ham" - radio operators know that, and they also know their mobile transmission sites, which can be set up nearly anywhere, often provide the only communication link in an emergency.

Members of the Los Baños Amateur Radio Club took advantage of the American Radio Relay League's annual field day event on June 27 to practice setting up and using their equipment at Big Page Park on I Street.

"This exercise is to get everything out to make sure the equipment is working," said club member Dave Anderson.

By 11 a.m. with the club's antenna strung between two trees at the park and the radio set up in the shade on a portable table, the business of transmitting and receiving radio messages began.

Local radio club member Neil Madonick said sunspot activity in the upper atmosphere is at a low-point of an 11-year cycle this year. Sunspots dictate the quality of radio signal transmission, he said, and that quality is at its worst during periods of low activity.

"I estimate we contacted about 100 stations overall, which was surprisingly good given the sunspot conditions," Anderson said.

The local "Hams" were on the air for about six hours. During that time, many contacts were made with amateur radio operators in southern California, but the signal reached from Los Baños to field day participants in places as far away as British Columbia and Ohio as well.

During Hurricane Katrina, amateur radio was often the only way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer "hams" traveled to New Orleans to help save lives and property.

The weekend "field day" was the climax of the week long amateur radio week sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for amateur radio.

Anderson said the local amateur radio club has about 12 active members. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators nationwide were expected to have participated in the annual field day event.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org.