LOGAN — “We had the ice storm a few years back,” recollected Roman Wilshanetsky on Saturday. “We lost every system we had down here — phones, the MARCS towers, police radios, everything was gone. We set up an HF station, high frequency, that reached into Columbus, and we exchanged information. And then our operators went out locally, we were doing welfare checks, we were transporting people, we were going on pharmacy runs, all to support the community that otherwise couldn’t communicate.”
Wilshanetsky, who is president of the Hocking Valley Amateur Radio Club, was trying to explain the idea behind the Field Day event that’s held annually by ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio. The local group took part in the event on Saturday, along with many other groups like it throughout the United States and Canada.
While their equipment linked them to their amateur radio colleagues across the continent, their physical location was at the Izaak Walton Club House on Blosser Road in Logan, where they had set up a hexagonal antenna as well as two straight-line antennas strung up in nearby trees.
In an informational handout, ARRL describes its Field Day as “a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest, and most of all, FUN!” It’s a highly anticipated opportunity for more than 35,000 amateur radio operators — sometimes called “hams” — to convene over the airwaves for a little friendly competition, idea-swapping and socializing. It also serves as a skill refresher and trial run for stepping in to help in emergencies, such as the aforementioned ice storm.
“Annually the amateur radio operators get together, and we set up an emergency communications station,” Wilshanetsky told The Logan Daily News. “And then for a 24-hour period, we communicate with other hams across the world, primarily in the United States, just to make sure that we can do it. In the case of an emergency, we’re here, to help out if needed. It’s also a good excuse to have a dinner, a potuck, and sit out by a nice lake.”
The competitive aspect of the day, according to ARRL, “involves contacting as may other stations as possible while learning to operate radio gear in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions.”
In Hocking County, the value of local hams as a communication safety net for the community is reflected in the close working relationship the local group has with county emergency personnel. Those present at the Izaak Walton Club Saturday included Allen Frederick, who serves as the radio club’s safety officer, and also works part-time for the county’s Emergency Management Agency.
“We’re fortunate that we have such a good relationship with our county,” Wilshanetsky said. “They support us, and we try to support them.”
Also in attendance was Roy Hook, vice director of ARRL’s Great Lakes Division, which includes Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. Both he and Wilshanetsky enthusiastically talked up amateur radio as a place where those with a mind to can try out the latest technology, and sometimes even come up with important innovations themselves.
“There’s a big misconception that ‘amateur’ means inferior, but it means ‘not paid,’” Hook emphasized. “And we have people on a national basis that have been scientists that have developed unbelievable things, using amateur radio as their background to develop them… Often times ham radio is the cutting edge of things that become second nature later. But this is where it gets developed.”
Some of this, unsurprisingly, has to do with enhancing radio with computer technology. “I like digital communications,” Wilshanetsky noted. “And I’ll sit with a ham radio and a computer and type to some guy on a Russian ship in the Pacific, on the same amount of power you’d use for a nightlight. We take pride in being able to do that — efficient communications with the lowest power… We talk to the International Space Station when it flies over. We bounce signals off the moon, back to the earth.”
The level of expertise among the ham community is such that the government has even largely ceded to them the responsibility for regulating amateur use of the radio spectrum.
“In the Reagan years, when he pulled much of the support for the FCC, they decided that in order to save money at the government level, they decided to let the ARRL, the organization that I represent, self-manage all the ham radio stuff,” Hook explained. “So we do all the testing and educating and everything that used to be… tightly regulated by the government. I had to take my first license test in front of an FCC examiner in a government building. And today we do all that ourselves.”
“They trust us enough to maintain the integrity of the process,” Wilshanetsky added. “Because when a ham radio operator doesn’t get it, or doesn’t know it, or is faking it, you can tell that In a minute.” While hams overlap somewhat with shortwave listeners, he said, “the difference with ham radio is, we build, put together and operate our own equipment.”
But lest potential hams be put off by the prospect of stepping into a circle of hyper-knowledgeable techno-geeks, Wilshanetsky and Hook stressed that there’s a place in the community for anyone, of whatever technical know-how and proficiency, to learn more about the aspects of amateur radio that interest them most.
“One of the big points that we’re trying to get clubs like this to get involved in at a local level, is to show people in the general public that this isn’t just what they think it is,” Hook said. “There’s so many opportunities… If there’s something related to the hobby you find of interest, we want you to come in, and develop that interest within the structure that we have to offer.”
More information can be found at www.arrl.org. The email for the Hocking Valley Amateur Radio Club is hvarc.73@gmail.com.
Email at jphillips@logandaily.com
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