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Taking To The Airwaves On National Field Day

By Vernon Robison

 

Moapa Valley Progress

Published June 30, 2010

Ham radio operator, Tim Thurman (far right), demonstrates the use of digital transmission over radio waves to onlookers at the Amateur Radio Field Day held over the past weekend. The local amateur radio club set up at the Old Logandale School for the event.

Ham radio operators of the Moapa Valley Amateur Radio Club joined operators from all over the country in the national Amateur Radio Field Day event held last weekend. The local club members began early on Saturday morning in the shaded outdoor pavilion at the Old Logandale School, setting up equipment for the weekend which had thousands of ham radio operators all over the country in a contest for the most radio contacts.

The local participants spent the day exhibiting the variety and diversity involved in the ham radio hobby. Logandale resident Don DeCaria worked at one radio terminal using a microphone to make voice communication contacts. Club president David Borcher worked the radio in the old fashioned way, communicating with Morse Code. He was busy at a terminal emitting a mind-boggling array of dashes and dots onto the airwaves. Club member, Tim Thurman’s preferred method was through digital means. He typed his messages into a laptop computer and sent them out like an instant message session. Each of the roughly dozen members of the local radio club was busy working the radio waves in their own way.

“Of course, nowadays people can do all of this anytime on the internet,” said Borcher.

“But the main difference is that we don’t have a wire. It is all being done with radio waves in the atmosphere.”

Ham radio operators are enthusiastic hobbyists; but they are also volunteers who snap into service at a moment’s notice in an emergency situation. This was exhibited at field day as well. The local team had set up its antennas and equipment as they would if they were in an emergency situation. All the power needed by the radio transmitters was being provided by a small gas generator which was right there on the grounds.

Moapa Valley Amateur Radio Club President Dave Borcher tunes up a radio console on Saturday morning in preparation for the Field Day event.

“We are operating with just radio waves and a power generator,” said Borcher. “We have no connection to the outside world.”

The antennas that were sending signals from the Old Logandale School grounds appeared to be nothing more than a few lengths of wire. Some were strung high up in the yard from tree limb to tree limb. Others emanated from the top of a metal pole and were connected to the ground on either side. But these unimpressive make-shift structures sent signals all over the country. The radio signals are sent out from these antennas and bounced off of the earth’s ionosphere, coming back down hundreds of miles away.

In a relatively short time, on Saturday, local club members were making contact with operators from all over the country including Alabama, New Jersey, New Mexico, western Washington, Arkansas, northern California and much more.

“This guy is transmitting from somewhere up in Alaska,” said Borcher as he listened intently to the archaic beeping of Morse code coming over the wire.

Many of the local club operators continued at their terminals all day on Saturday and throughout the night. Cots and reclining deck chairs were set up on the cement for when they got tired and needed a rest. Some members left for a while to go home and rest before returning and continuing their hobby.

As evening approached on Saturday, the operators re-aligned the antennas in the yard. Changes in temperature and atmospheric conditions will change the radio reception. Different wavelengths must be used at night than are used during the day, Borcher explained. So the antennas must be moved, altered and adjusted to prepare for those changes.

The nation-wide contest, held every year, is sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). The object of the contest is for each amateur radio group to log as many different contacts, from as many different locations across the country, over the two days of the event. To make a contact, operators simply exchange call signs over the air. Call signs are a series of letters and numbers that indicate the operator’s location and club affiliation. The group with the most contacts at the end of the event is awarded a special plaque and, of course, receives bragging rights for the year. The airwaves were a-flutter with activity of amateur radio operators all over the country rushing frantically to make contacts.

Ham radio operators Roy Wilmer (left) and Julio Ortiz, work together on a small radio set on Saturday morning at the Old Logandale School.

The local group didn’t take the contest aspect of the event too seriously. “In our class we are competing against at least a thousand other clubs across the country,” Borcher explained. “There is really very little chance of us placing in the contest. I think that we are all here just having a good time with our hobby.”
Borcher said that the real goal of the club was to show the community about the amateur radio hobby.

Indeed, a steady stream of curious community members came by throughout the day to observe the event.
“A few have actually sat down and talked into the microphone to make a few contacts,” Borcher said. “That’s what we are really here for: showing people how to do this, showing them the fun of this hobby so that maybe they will want to get a ham radio license of their own.”

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