Each year, during the fourth weekend in June, thousands of amateur radio operators leave their basement and garage “radio shacks” to take to the forests, parks, mountains and hills, to set up temporary radio stations and participate in Field Day.

The Carbon Amateur Radio Club participated in the 24-hour event from the Penn Forest Township Park.

The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the nation’s official voice of amateur radio, was established in 1914 and has organized Field Days annually since 1933.

The event serves as a chance to hone the technical skills of operators (also known as “hams”), an opportunity to compete against other individuals and radio clubs, and participate in a challenging group activity. Field Day also gives hams an opportunity to show that their communication skills are ready in case of disaster, and to communicate when normal modes such as the internet and cellphones are down.

The Carbon Amateur Radio Club had modest goals: to participate, to work as a team to set up and operate a temporary station and maybe do a little better than it did in 2022, according to member Richard Berger, Jim Thorpe.

“The weather had been unpredictable and stormy, but the forecast was not as bad on Saturday as predicted earlier in the week and we decided to go ahead,” Berger said.

The group’s first steps were to set up two temporary antennas. Next, they set up the radios and computers used for logging software, and tested all the gear.

“We made a contact with another ham in Maine who was also testing and getting ready for Field Day,” Berger said.

Once Field Day officially began, the local club made its first contact in 8 minutes. Members exchanged information with the contact, wished them luck and moved on to make another contact.

Within three hours, the club had made 45 contacts.

By the end of the event, the club logged 168 contacts, compared to 55 in 2022.

“We ‘worked’ (had a contact with) 33 states, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Manitoba. We covered the East coast, the Midwest and California, Arizona, Colorado and Montana,” Berger said. “We may not have been able to compete with the top stations, who logged over a thousand contacts, but we bested the prior year’s outing, proved that we could set up and operate a temporary station and thoroughly enjoyed 2023 Field Day.”

The group welcomes new members. More information is available at https://www.carbonamateurradioclub.org.