Local hams test out equipment during Field Day – Burlington Times News

The soft clicks and beeps of Morse code can be heard inside Alamance County’s mobile Emergency Command Center.

Dwayne Ayers, known as “N4MIO” to fellow members of the Alamance Amateur Radio Club, is making contact with ham radio operators around the nation using both computer-generated code and an iambic paddle — a dual-lever telegraph key that’s far speedier than the typical straight key seen in movies like “Titanic.”

He’s saying “CQ,” which translates to “calling all stations.”

Ayers’ station is one of five set up at the Alamance Emergency Operations Center in Burlington for ARRL’s annual Field Day, held Saturday and Sunday, June 23 and 24.

The purpose of the event is to test the viability of ham radio equipment during an emergency, when electricity, internet and phone lines go down.

But it’s also just plain fun.

“The reason why we have an advantage is because we don’t depend on any infrastructure,” AARC President Anthony Scandurra says. “The internet doesn’t exist, phone lines don’t exist, texting doesn’t exist without the infrastructure that companies like ATT and Verizon built. If they go down for any reason, like 9-11, right? I remember being at work when 9-11 happened, and my wife was desperately trying to call me, and she couldn’t get hold of me, but with ham radio, we don’t depend on any of that.”

Braudie Fitch, “WA4HBQ,” adds that in the aftermath of storms like Hurricane Maria, hams can contact victims in the affected area and patch them through to local loved ones for peace of mind.

“And even during the Vietnam [War], I was running phone patches,” Fitch says. “I was a teenager then, and I was running phone patches from military guys to their folks at home, and it didn’t cost them anything. I could make a phone call to a person’s home, patch it into my radio system, and they could sit there and talk all day long. It didn’t cost them a dime.”

The county depends on AARC to provide this “last resort” equipment, and they’ve developed a close working relationship over the years.

Next month, AARC will participate in damage assessment training to practice working with the county after a natural disaster, such as a flood or tornado, to provide damage information via radio from different areas of Alamance.

By that time, the club will have a brand new air-conditioned trailer with two stations ready to make emergency communications locally, regionally and nationally.

Radio isn’t dead

 Scandurra, a self-taught ham, has been in the field for almost 40 years.

The public’s perception of the usefulness of radio has changed drastically in the last 10.

“It’s been a challenge because the internet and social media has kind of taken over, and people are like, ‘Well, what’s the point?’ We’re the original internet and social media,” Scandurra says.

“We were texting in Morse code before texting ever became popular,” Fitch adds.

During a May 2005 episode of “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno challenged two Ham Radio operators using Morse code to beat then-Guinness World Record holder for fastest texting Ben Cook at typing out a paragraph.

The hams won by a landslide.

And though the world has traded radio for cellphones, tablets and laptops, many hams have worked to help develop those devices.

 It’s more difficult to find people who want to do that because they think radio is antiquated, but it really isn’t,” Scandurra says. “I mean, if you sit back and look at where radio is really involved in our lives — your cellphone is a radio. It’s a computer-based radio, and people don’t take that into account when they think about radio. And there are a lot of hams who are involved

Read the full article at http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/20180624/local-hams-test-out-equipment-during-field-day. STRAY SIGNALS does not claim ownership of the article.

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