Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club Field Day, Saturday June 22
The Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club ‘s Field Day is Saturday June 22.
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day is the most popular on-the-air event for Amateur Radio operators in the U.S. and Canada. More than 35,000 radio operators gather with their clubs, groups or simply with their friends to operate from remote locations.
The “American Radio Relay League” is one of the largest communities in amateur radio. Its name comes from the very first days of wireless communications where individual stations would copy messages from one station and then relay them to another.
The Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club (SARC), an ARRL Affiliate, will be participating in Field Day at the village of Schaumburg Public Works site, 1406 N. Plum Grove Road, about 1/3 mile north of Golf Road. The site will be open for visitors from 1-4 p.m. Saturday June 22.
The SARC will be operating in a variety of modes, including phone (voice), digital (like FT-8), and CW (Morse Code).
Never had the opportunity to use an Amateur Radio station? The SARC will host a GOTA (Get on the Air) tent where a licensed control station operator will help you try to make contacts — locally, across the U.S. or further.
At about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, the SARC be conducting an event called “Fox Hunt” where operators try to find a hidden transmitter using small, directional antennas and handheld radios.
The ARRL Field Day event encourages operations under less-than-ideal conditions, like what might happen during a disaster. Antennas cannot be permanently installed; they must be set up for Field Day, not more than 24 hours before it starts. Alternate power sources like generators, solar cells, batteries, wind power or even bicycle generators might be used.
Amateur Radio operators, often called “Hams,” are licensed by the national government where they live or operate. There are over 750,000 licensed operators in the U.S. and over 3,000,000 worldwide. And the number is growing!
The development of computers on a board like Arduino or Raspberry Pi has attracted new audiences, especially younger ones where programming skills and imagination create new applications that are shared widely, typically for free.
Hams use a wide range of techniques to communicate with each other. “CW” uses International Morse Code, sometimes at a speed close to spoken conversation. Others use “phone,” simple push-to-talk exchanges. Some use computer digital modes that allow communications at very low power. It’s not unusual for operators to contact each other at ranges of several thousand miles with as little as 5 watts, or about the power used for a small night light.
Bouncing signals off the moon or a trail of ionized air left by a meteor passing through the atmosphere requires skill and patience, but it’s common. Some use satellites or even the International Space Station (ISS). Many of the ISS crew are licensed Hams, and the ISS is equipped with a variety of Ham radios.
The equipment used might be as simple as an inexpensive (under $50) handheld transceiver or as complicated as a large antenna array connected to radios costing several thousands of dollars. Many Hams build their own systems.
Hams participate in a wide range of activities like participating in contests where they try to contact as many other operators as possible under very strict rules. Parks on the Air (POTA), Summits on the Air (SOTA) operators deploy using low powered transceivers and portable antennas. Others get involved in public service to provide event organizers and public safety officials assistance at events like marathons or parades.
For over 100 years amateur radio operators have been active during disasters, using their equipment and communication skills to assist private and public agencies. As early as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when telephone lines in the city were inoperable, radio operators copied messages from the Bay area and ‘relayed” them out via telephone and telegraph.
This engagement continues today with activities like Field Day and cooperation with groups like Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES), the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), Hurricane Watch Network, Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES), Civil Air Patrol (CAP), SKYWARN, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), and many others.
Frequently the equipment used is provided by the Ham operator, paid for out of their own pocket. By law, amateur radio operators cannot accept compensation for their services, so their time is donated as well.
The Federal Communications Commission recognizes the value of the volunteer service provided by the amateur radio community. Part §97.1, the very first section of the rules and regulations that govern amateur radio states that one of the bases of amateur radio is, “Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.”
If your interest is casual or you’re looking for a challenge, there’s a good chance that you’ll find something in Amateur Radio that fits.
Visit the SARC Field Day site or the club website, N9RJV.org to learn more.