The Carbon County Amateur Radio Club held its annual Ham Radio Field Day recently at Penn Forest Township Recreational Park.

Amateur radio operators were called “hams” as early as 1914 when the American Radio Relay League was launched and hobbyists began their own experiments with radio waves. Dating back to 1933, field day is “part team exercise, part contest and part social event” with more than 31,000 participants nationwide.

Ham radio (officially called “amateur radio”) is a hobby and public service that allows people to communicate locally or globally using two-way radio equipment. It operates entirely independently of the Internet or cell towers, relying instead on radio waves, personal transceivers, and antennas. This allows people to communicate during emergencies, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, when other methods aren’t working. It’s also a hobby where people can just talk. Nothing commercial nor political is allowed on the radio.

Users participate in contests to see who can contact the most stations in a specific time frame. This field day event is a 24-hour event. The prize is bragging rights.

Eric Butt, president of the Carbon County club, explained that for the field day event, two people work together.

“One person is a logger, keeping track of the call signs, and the other operator is exchanging call signs.”

The club set up its own temporary station to participate in Field Day with a set of 6 meter beam antennas, two simple dipole antennas and radios, along with computers for logging contacts.

Christopher Shand of Jim Thorpe said he “started playing with radios years ago and CB’s back in the day.” His son began flying a “first person view quad copter,” which uses a frequency on ham radio band to fly legally. Shand explained that you look through the camera around your head like you’re actually flying the copter, which has four propellers. The FAA has rules with the height and distance the device can be used.

All radio operators are required to take an exam and need approval by the FCC, which issues radio call signs to each operator. Many users get into it to learn about electronics and frequencies. With the STEM learning going on in schools, more young people are becoming interested in learning about this.

The Carbon County Club has a room at the Emergency Operations Center in Nesquehoning. Simulated emergency exercises are done to establish people are being heard. Most of the radio operators have generators at home so during an emergency, they still have the ability to communicate.

There’s lots of internal jargon to learn, such as “rag chewing” when someone talks for 30 minutes or more.

The band frequency changes from day to night with the positioning of the sun. Users can communicate with the Space Station.

New members are welcome and encouraged to attend meetings, which are held on the third Thursday of the month at the Carbon Emergency Operations Center in Nesquehoning (except for December).

For more information, email Eric N3TVV at n3tvv@ptd.net or check the Club’s website at https://www.carbonamateurradioclub.com.