Clay Today | Orange Park Hams gearing up for record attempt

Orange Park Hams gearing up for record attempt

Clay Today | June 15, 2009 | 3 Comments

Special to Clay Today

ORANGE PARK -- Beginning Saturday, June 27, Orange Park Amateur Radio operators will work around the clock through the weekend to set up field radio communication stations, get on the air, and contact thousands of other operators in the United States and Canada as part of their participation in the annual American Radio Relay League’s Field Day.

The two-day event will take place locally at Lakeside Junior High School on Moody Avenue.

Jim MacKinnon, president of the Orange Park Amateur Radio Club, said Field Day is the annual “shakedown run” for the ARRL’s National Field Organization.

“Field Day is a way for Hams to get outdoors and have fun under some difficult conditions," MacKinnon said. “It’s also a chance to fine-tune emergency communication skills as we use generators and battery power, and set up antennas in the field. The idea is to put together self-sufficient, working stations quickly and to begin making contacts.”

The ARRL Field Organization has been effective in establishing emergency communications networks during floods, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes and other major disasters.

Members of formal emergency organizations such as the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the Radio Amateur Communication emergency Services (RACES) regularly participate.

The League estimates that more than 35,000 Hams participate in Field Day every year.

Visitor Comments »

Blair
June 15th 2009 - 9:29PM

Ham radio used to have some significance when it was a technical hobby with a high entry standard. Nowadays Ham radio is just CB but bigger and broader. The entry requirements have been reduced to such a sand box level that the technical core of trained radio operators and technicians is now just a bunch of "not even geek level" emergency service "wanna-be's" The FCC is hard pressed to keep letting this new breed of "HAMS" have open access to frequency space that is worth MILLIONS of dollars to new technology concerns. My apologies to the older stalwart hams, but these new guys don't deserve the bandwidth they take up.

KI4UUM
June 16th 2009 - 5:44AM

Blair, I totally disagree with you. Just because the FCC did away with the Morse Code part of the exam does not mean that HAMs are any less technical. In fact, just the opposite. HAMs today use their radios in conjunction with computers, GPS technology, slow and fast scan television and yes, voice transmissions, on a much larger scale than you might imagine. HAM operators are a critical part of disaster operations. During Katrina they established the first oommunications out of the area. HAMs are used by search and rescue teams, in shelters, during CERT exercises and in the EOC. Some of the finest people you ever want to meet are HAM operators!

K4HSM
June 17th 2009 - 9:31PM

So people like my 9-year-old daughter who's studying for her license "doesn't deserve the bandwidth"? People like my friends' 12 and 10-year-old? Astronauts on the space station? Perhaps an acquaintance of mine, who at age 14 used his ham radio (in an area where cell phones were not able to reach) and reached the Park Service to aid in a drowning situation, speeding the response by over 2 hours. Perhaps he wasn't "technically worthy" of even owning a radio because he got in without knowing Morse Code. Basically you want to make it close to impossible to get a license, or make it so challenging that no one wants to get one, in order so that the elite and technically gifted talent can deem themselves worthy of the honor to be called a "ham operator", is that what you're saying? Perhaps we should just allow only those like you on a specific frequency all the time, where only those like yourself can be on your own, without having to worry about the rest of the unwashed heathens taking up YOUR bandwidth.

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