“Hams” do their thing during Field Day

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Amateur or “ham” radio – It’s a great pastime and one that literally anyone can become involved in, especially due to advances in technology.

Local amateur radio enthusiasts, members of the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club gathered over the weekend for “Field Day” at the Van Wert County Emergency Management Agency office on Lincoln Highway.

“I think we’re past 70 years of continuous Field Day operations and it gives ‘hams’ a chance to exercise their equipment, their generators and their emergency preparedness,” VWARC President Jack Snyder said. “We make a contest out of it and score points for bragging rights. If you make one contact (on voice mode) that’s one point but if you’re doing a digital mode or Morse code then you get two points out of that.”

Field Day began at 2 p.m. Saturday and ended at 2 p.m. Sunday and at that point, between 1,200-1,400 contacts had been established.

“We’re not setting any records this year but we’re having fun with it,” Snyder said with a chuckle.

During their time with amateur radio, two club members, Matthew Holtsberry and Joshua Buehrer, have been able to make contacts with hams all over the globe, including one in Slovenia Saturday night.

“I’ve talked into South Africa, I’ve talked into Italy, the Netherlands…all across the country into Canada, Beurher said.

“I think I’ve contacted all 50 states, most of the countries in Europe, Australia and a few countries in Africa,” Holtsberry said. “I’ve talked with a guy on Reunion Island, which is over by Madagascar, which is as close as you can get to the other side of the planet.”

Holtsberry added it’s not just talking into a microphone anymore. He said there are various ways to communicate almost anywhere in the world via ham radio.

“You can interface a radio with a computer and you can send text messages, pictures and emails, you can send whole files, pretty much anything you do on the internet you can do through a ham radio if you have the proper equipment,” he explained.

Holtsberry has been involved with amateur radio for approximately 10 years, while Beurher has been involved for about a year and does nearly everything on a portable basis.

The club currently has between 25-30 members, and getting into amateur radio and the club is easy and probably cheaper that one might think.

“You need to study basic radio theory and it isn’t very difficult at all,” Snyder said. “You also have to learn FCC rules and regulations so that you can operate your rig properly, and you have to know where on the frequency bands you can operate and where you can’t. You can learn on your own, there’s an app for that or you can go online and search the internet and get the questions and answers for the exam, but I would recommend hooking up with a radio club such as Van Wert Amateur Radio Club…you can get with the guys, get a mentor and they’ll help you study.”

“Electronics have come down in price quite a bit,” he continued. “Competition from foreign manufacturers make it dirt cheap to get a ham radio and get on the air and have fun. On the other side of the coin the FCC has seen fit to impose a fee so between the licensing fee and testing fee, it takes about $50 to get a new person licensed, which is unfortunate as far as I’m concerned because it’s a hobby and we need more trained radio operators.”

Snyder also said the training and ham radios are very helpful in the event of any local emergency, especially when other forms of communication are inoperable.

“Everybody around my age remembers the blizzards of ’77 and ’78,” Snyder said. “The hams were quite active in those emergency situations, coordinating medicine and grocery deliveries to people that couldn’t get out and coordinating emergency efforts like getting fuel in for the National Guard helicopters. We use our own radios and we go out where communications are needed, report back and just help coordinate relief efforts.”

For more information on the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club, go to w8fy.org or check the club’s Facebook page.