Radio operators reach out to the world – The Augusta Chronicle

Laura McKenzie

Reaching out and talking with people doesn’t take a land phone or a cell phone. It only takes a radio and a powerful antenna.

Members of the Salkehatchie Amateur Radio Society (call sign KK4BQ) held their annual 22-hour Field Day on June 23 and 24, reaching more than 400 “HAM” radio operators both in the United States and abroad.

The field day was held in coordination with Barnwell County Emergency Management with radio operations both inside and outside the Barnwell County Courthouse. Each year the operators use their radios to connect with other operators, getting points for the number of operators reached and the distance between the operators.

For 22 hours starting 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 23 to noon on Sunday, June 24, the operators during dials to find frequencies and called out to their comrades on the airways.

Sam Powers (K8USA) and Ray Stressman (K04QJJ) manned a refitted ambulance outside the courthouse. “We had a really good time, said Powers. “We reached over 200 operators.”

Between the outside and inside operations, Powers said 33 states within the continental United States were reached but not Hawaii. “We reached out and connected coast to coast. We worked the whole continent.”

The idea, he said, is to practice their skills which can be used in times of national emergency when other forms of communication are not available.

“Roger was a big help to us,” said Powers of Roger Riley, director of Barnwell County Emergency Management. Additionally, Barnwell resident Gretchen Schatzer of the S.C. EMD was on site along with her husband-operator Tim Schatzer and operator Davey Plexico. Two “stations” were housed in the EMD.

Powers said another 200 connections were made by the “inside” operators, bringing the total to over 400.

The team also received points for visitors to the operations center such as the Boy Scouts, public officials and curious residents.

The club will find out later how they ranked among other clubs and organizations during the field day.

Read the full article at http://www.augustachronicle.com/news/20180718/radio-operators-reach-out-to-world-at-field-day-in-barnwell. STRAY SIGNALS does not claim ownership of the article.

Tweet

!function(d,s,id) {
var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if(!d.getElementById(id)) {
js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);
}
}
(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);

from Stray Signals https://ift.tt/2LmH9iu
via IFTTT

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2L30IwI
via IFTTT