by Neil Panton
A 24-hour marathon communications contest left local hams slapping each other on the back celebrating their successful Field Day event. This annual event has ham radio operators setting up stations in fields all over the country testing their long distance communication capabilities. "The 1556 points we earned far outstrips our prior efforts. We just keep getting better and better!" said a tired but happy club secretary Mary Panton.
Held in La Honda Gardens June 25th and 26th, ham radio operators of the SC4 Amateur Radio Club demonstrated their ability to communicate with the outside world in the event of a disaster or other emergency. Using entirely portable equipment and completely off the power grid, these amateur operators needed only a few hours to set up and communicate with stations as far away as Hawaii, Canada and the east coast.
A big part of the exercise is quickly setting up a radio station in any location with your own power and equipment. For this event, the hams used two small Honda generators, three canopy tents, three high frequency radios (HF) and three antennas; two dipoles strung horizontally through the trees, one vertical on the ground supported by guy wires. There was enough food, shelter and equipment to keep the group going for quite a few days. In a real emergency, the 40 or so members of the group are prepared to assist the community with more generators, radios and antennas.
Twenty-two licensed hams participated in the event making 261 contacts by voice (referred to as Phone contacts) and an additional 71 contacts using Morse code (CW). Twenty-two members of the public visited the group over the course of 24 hours of operation, several of whom took advantage of the opportunity to "Get On The Air" themselves. This special "GOTA" station was set up to allow unlicensed operators to get on the air with the supervision of a licensed ham. Anyone, young or old could have the experience of talking to another ham in another part of the country or world. Hopefully they discovered how fun and easy it is and will be inclined to get their own radio license.
If you are interested in joining the group or finding out more about it, visit the website http://www.sc4arc.org/ or contact Jack Eddy at (650) 922-6458. We can be proud of the dedicated amateurs who devote their time, experience and resources to emergency preparation. Join in, or at least get to know a ham near you. You never know when you may need assistance in an emergency. Ham radio could provide you with help faster than you think!
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