Ham operators have a Field Day
Kokomo Amateur Radio Club participated in national exercise June 25-26
The Howard County 4H Fairgrounds was hopping with activity on the morning on June 25. Near the midway, kids were showing off their lawn mowing skills as part of a 4H activity. But near the pioneer village, something entirely different occurred.
Men were stringing wires between light poles, trees, and the small windmill that holds permanent residence on the fairgrounds. A circle of RVs, trucks, and trailers formed. The Kokomo Amateur Radio Club set up shop to participate in the national Ham Fest, which had nothing to do with a pig despite the close proximity to the livestock barn.
Ham Fest, formally known as the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day, is an annual event during which nearly 170,000 radio operators from every corner of the U.S. take to the airwaves, trying to make connections and honing their skills.
“It’s an exercise to try to get people to set up in an unconventional manner on the fly,” said John Fulton, president of the Kokomo Amateur Radio Club. “We have to set up within a certain period of time. We run from 2 p.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Sunday to make as many contacts in the U.S. as possible.
“We end up getting contacts outside of the U.S., too, and they count. But we’re really trying to get stations in the U.S. It’s kinda cool. We have software running with a map that will light up the states that we contact.”
The club had four stations on the air during the event, and all of them fed into the database so members could monitor their progress.
“It’s exciting when you contact Hawaii or Alaska or other nations,” said Fulton. “You’ll start out seeing a circle of contacts light up around our position, and by evening we’ll start working further out.”
Fulton explained that each station operated on a different frequency. Some frequencies, or bands, are more effective during the day, while others work best at night. The lower frequencies perform best at night, he explained.
Each contact the club made earned points in the national rankings, though Fulton reiterated that it isn’t really a contest between clubs.
“Still, it’s kind of a competition,” said Fulton. “You submit all kinds of things to earn points. You earn points if you operate on emergency power. A media release earns points, and so do visits from public officials. Solar panels … the list goes on and on.
“So, you submit a sheet with all of the contacts you made and these other things and end up with a point total.”
Fulton said it will be months for the national organization to sift through the data and award points. The club likely will learn in December its final point total. The points are symbolic. There are no prizes or awards to be earned. Still, Fulton explained, there are groups that are informally competitive with it.
“There are clubs that are really competitive, so they’ll schedule time slots for their transmitters and stay on the air all the time,” said Fulton. “We are almost on the other end of the spectrum. We set up and operate leisurely. It’s no unheard of to have no radios on the air if there is food or a good discussion going on. It’s really an excuse to get out and play around for the weekend.”
The importance of ham
Ham radio might seem antiquated to some. The Ham Fest has taken place every year since 1933, and communications technology has evolved rapidly during that time. Ham radio moved with it, however.
“Ham radio encompasses so much; it’s not just about getting on the radio and talking,” said Fulton. “It’s tough to explain to people who might want to get licensed. It falls right into STEM activities, so we’d really like to get younger people involved in it.
“It might seem old-fashioned to some people, but there is a lot of high-tech stuff going on. There is satellite work. You can communicate through those with a simple hand-held radio and antenna. You can imagine, the higher you go, the more range you have. Your coverage becomes half the world.
“There are members who learn to use weather balloons to launch repeaters and cameras high into the atmosphere. And there is APRS, where you tie a packet radio, which uses digital communication, into GPS data.”
It was rocketry that got Fulton involved in ham radio. He built rockets that would fly higher than 10,000 feet. APRS offered him a way to track the rocket during flight and as it fell back to earth. Since firing rockets to high altitudes requires a license, getting into ham radio made sense to him.
“Everybody is into something, and you can learn something new every month at our meetings,” said Fulton.
And then there is the unfortunate reality that a day may come where radio communication is vital to people’s lives. Ham operators know that disasters, natural and otherwise, can hamper modern communication methods. Radio can keep people connected in the worst scenarios.
“We preach about the importance of being prepared,” said Fulton. “I’ve been fortunate that I haven’t seen a natural disaster so severe that the club has been called out on, but on the coasts where a big hurricane can hit, it is more likely that you can be called upon to use the skills you learn as an amateur radio operator.
“So, we practice and do exercises with our local EMA and with FEMA. If we had a large event where communications are needed, there are stations we can utilize that reach hundreds of miles.”
Getting involved
Fulton said there are approximately 40 members of the Kokomo Amateur Radio Club currently, and they attend monthly meetings. The club also holds ham radio classes and testing sessions so that participants can earn licenses to operate.
There are three license classifications for ham radio operators – technician, general, and extra. The club held a technician class in the spring and intends on holding a general license class in the fall.
“For someone who was not licensed at the beginning of the year, we can take them from technician to general license in a year,” said Fulton. “And we hope they will keep going if they are interested in taking the last step.”
Club dues are $20 a year. A large portion of the dues go toward the Ham Fest each summer. The club also purchases equipment for any member to use.
“We are fortunate because we have a lot of equipment at our station at the EMA office,” said Fulton. “It’s nice equipment. We have received a lot of good donations from ‘silent keys,’ or operators who have passed away. In fact, our nicest radio we don’t even bring out into the field. It stays in the office. Most people wouldn’t spend the money for a radio that nice, so it’s kind of a treat to operate it.”
For more information about the Kokomo Amateur Radio Club, including how to join and get licensed, visit the club’s Facebook page.