Even in a new age of technology, amateur radio service continues evolving to stay current. The age of amateur radio remains popular when the Portage County Amateur Radio Service club, an organization of amateur radio hobbyists, hosted its annual Field Day last Saturday afternoon at Freedom Township Community Park.
“We have a lot of fun with the amateur radio,” Media Chairman Tom Parkinson told The Weekly Villager. “It is not just getting on the radio, there is a lot of stuff that goes on.”
Since 2006, the PCARS club began hosting a 24-hour Field Day event in which radio operators could come and set up their radios and antennas and begin broadcasting on 15 different bandwidths. The event invited residents from neighboring Northeast Ohio counties including Summit, Portage, Trumbull, Mahoning and Cuyahoga County. In addition to getting the chance to broadcast from Freedom Township Community Park for a 24-hour period, attendees also pitched tents or slept in their cars during the event whenever they took a break.
According to Parkinson, the Field Day used to be held in Ravenna but it became such a popular attraction that there was not enough room for all radio operators to attend so it was moved to Freedom Township Community Park.
The radio operators who attended were one of three designated categoriess; technician, general or amateur extra. In order to achieve a each status, an individual had to take a standardized test and if they answered 75% of the questions correctly, they would pass. There was no required age needed to takes these tests as even a child was allowed to apply for a radio operator license.
Having been in existence for 18 years, the PCARS club has grown significantly and has an overall membership of approximately 190 people with about 50-60 people attending each monthly meeting at the local headquarters in Ravenna.
Radio operators who came to the Field Day usually installed their own personal antenna and radio stations and logged on using their personal call sign to connect with fellow radio operators insider and outside of the country. Each radio operator used one of three different wavelengths; sideband, Morse code or digital.
“Amateur radio has a number of different bands and they go by meters,” said Parkinson. “We will have people on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 meters.”
Some radio operators used a simple radio and antenna kit to make calls while others brought trailers that housed all of the radio equipment and built large antennas that connected them to a bandwidth. The normal time spent on the channels was from two to four hours before a radio operator decided to take a break.
In addition, some radio operators used solar panels as a power source from half an hour to an hour in order to preserve battery life on their generators.
For club member Melanie Hardman, a Kent State University graduate, the PCARS club’s Field Day served as a great way to connect with people via radio broadcast.
“It’s really exciting to make contact inside or outside the United States,” she said. “It is a great way for people to connect and it is all about camaraderie.”
In addition to offering a way to make new connections, the PCARS club also serves as a source of emergency relief in the event of power outages in the area, which stifles all usual forms of communication.
“If something happens here in Portage County and we have to get ahold of somebody in Columbus, the amateur radio operators have the skill and the knowledge about how to set up a radio station in a matter of minutes to make communications possible,” Parkinson noted.
In addition to the lively atmosphere of making new connections via radio broadcast, the PCARS club competes in an unofficial contest with other amateur radio service clubs that are sponsored by the Amateur Radio Relay League to see which club can reach the highest number of people. Parkinson acknowledged that although there is no official prize, the winning club carries bragging rights knowing that its own members can connect with almost anyone around the globe.
Parkinson added that the PCARS club not only taught its members how to be resourceful but also provided antenna building or radio building classes, teaching individuals technical skills.
“It gets more technical every day,” he said. “There are so many facets in the hobby that it is unbelievable. We have people that do nothing but just bounce signals off the moon and back to earth again and talk to people that way too. It is not just talking around the world.”
