Amateur radio club gathers for Field Day

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Amateur radio – some call it ham radio – has been around for well over 100 years and even with advances in other types of technology, it’s still going strong today.

Local amateur radio enthusiasts who are members of the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club gathered Saturday and Sunday for the annual Field Day event, which was held at the Van Wert County Emergency Management Agency office on Lincoln Highway in Van Wert. Between 2 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, those participating were able to establish hundreds of contacts around the U.S. and the world.

It wasn’t just a local event. According to the American Radio Relay League’s (ARRL) website, the “Radio Connects” Field Day is the most popular on-the-air event held annually in the U.S. and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June, more than 31,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations. Each year, a competition is held and points are earned and awarded for the number of contacts that are established.

Justin Brant of Convoy is a member of the VWARC and has been involved in the world of amateur radio for about a year. He was one of the club members who participated in the 24-hour field day event and he one of the things he likes best about amateur radio is it doesn’t require structure.

“I can sit here and have conversations across the world and I don’t have to interface with any other digital product, I can do it straight from the stuff I have right here,” he explained.

Within in the first few hours of Field Day, Brant had already established contact with other amateur radio operators in Idaho, Nebraska, Montana, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Rhode Island and Guam.

To some, it may seem a bit intimidating in terms of knowledge of technology, obtaining a license and the cost of the equipment but Brant explained that’s not the case at all. He added the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club is more than willing to help and is always looking for new members.

“We meet twice a month, it’s $10 for the year and we can ease you into it,” Brant said. “It’s $35 for your test and a $30 radio you can buy on Amazon and we can get you on the air. There’s even a program out there that after you get your license, they’ll actually send you a radio for free.”

“You can have a low barrier entry, you can do just a $30 investment to get into it or you can go as far as spending thousands of dollars on an antenna, a tower, a rotator, a beam and everything in between,” he added.

“You can get creative on how you power it and everything else,” fellow VWARC member Thad Turner said. “That’s kind of part of the hobby.”

Turner, who lives in Fort Wayne, said he got started in amateur radio by watching YouTube and people online who were interested in emergency communications.

“When the cell phone network goes down, what do you do to call home so I got interested in it through that and once I got into the technical side of the hobby, that’s kind of what took me, then I got interested in building antennas and setting up radios,” Turner said.

Turner pointed out that amateur radio became a vital link of communication, a lifeline, after Hurricane Helene slammed into North Carolina last year.

“Not only did they not have cell phone towers but they didn’t have power, and so a lot of amateur radio hobbyists packed up their trucks, threw a transmitter in it, a battery and a solar panel and headed that way,” Turner said.

In fact, to better simulate emergency conditions, the local ham radio operators erected temporary antennas, some big, some small, and used generators to power their radios during Field Day.

By day, Brant and Turner both work in information technology (IT) but both stressed it’s not a prerequiste to enjoying ham radio.

“I think we’re the only two IT guys but there’s no technical background that’s really required,” Turner said.

Longtime VWARC President Jack Snyder has been involved with amateur radio since 1977 and he noted he’s seen many changes since then.

“The biggest one has to be the move from vacuum tubes or even spark gap transmitters into the transistor or the intragrated circuit,” he said. “It’s allowed us to greatly minimize the bulk of electronics. Everything that used to take up a whole wall of your basement is now in your shirt pocket, about the size of a cigarette pack.”

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