Going 'ham': Amateur Radio Field Day set

Jun. 21—Amateur radio operators are bringing their skills to the field, offering the public an opportunity to get more familiar with an art of communication that is still making waves.

Members of the Sampson County Amateur Radio Service and the Wayne County Amateur Radio Association, in conjunction with the Kinston Amateur Radio Society, will be participating jointly in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise beginning at 2 p.m. on June 24 and extending until 2 p.m. June 25.

The Field Day site will be located in the wooded area across from 2104 Salem Church Road, Goldsboro, just south of Lane Tree Golf Course. This event is open to the public and everyone is encouraged to stop by.

Since 1933, amateur radio operators, referred to as "hams," across North America have established temporary amateur radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skills of amateur radio. All stations will operate off-grid in emergency mode using no commercial power. Each station will operate independently, powered by generators, batteries or solar power.

Field Day demonstrates ham radio's ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent communications network. There will be a hands-on station for the general public to experience amateur radio.

More than 29,000 people in more than 4,900 locations across the nation participated in Field Day in 2022. Last year, the three clubs operated five separate stations and made more than 1,200 contacts with other "hams" during the allotted time period.

"It's easy for anyone to pick up a computer or smartphone connect to the internet and communicate, all without the knowledge of how the devices function or are connected to each other," said Dave Isgur of the American Radio Relay League, the national association for Amateur Radio. "But if there's an interruption of service or you're out of range of a cell tower, you have no way to communicate. Ham radio functions completely independent of the internet or cell phone infrastructure, can interface with tablets or smartphones, and can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. That's the beauty of Amateur Radio during a communications outage."

"Hams can literally throw a wire in a tree for an antenna, connect it to a battery-powered transmitter and communicate halfway around the world," added Sean Kutzko, of Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (commonly known as AMSAT). "Hams do this by using a layer of Earth's atmosphere as a sort of mirror for radio waves. In today's electronic do-it-yourself environment, ham radio remains one of the best ways for people to learn about electronics and numerous other scientific disciplines, and is a huge asset to any community during disasters if the standard communication infrastructure goes down."

Anyone may become a licensed amateur radio operator. There are more than 725,000 licensed hams in the United States and over 3 million worldwide, with ages ranging from 5 to 100.

For more information about Field Day or becoming a ham, contact Lawton Eure of the Sampson County Amateur Radio Service at 910-590-7374.