York Region Amateur Radio Club has Field Day with 24-hour event

YorkRegion.com
June 28, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Dozens of ham radio enthusiasts from York Region and beyond are hunkering down inside tents and trailers in the middle of a field near Ballantrae this weekend to turn dials, put out calls, tap Morse code messages and bounce signals off of satellites in hopes of connecting with other amateur radio operators across North America.

It's all part of Field Day - a 24-hour event run by the American Radio Relay League and Radio Amateurs of Canada - taking place from 2 p.m. Saturday until 2 p.m. Sunday.

The event serves as an emergency preparedness exercise, a contest, a public relations opportunity and a social gathering, according to Steve Holland, chairperson of the local Field Day hosted by the York Region Amateur Radio Club in a wide open plot behind Al's Tack Shop, 4812 Vandorf Sdrd., just west of Hwy. 48.

"It's the largest amateur radio activity of the entire year in all of North America," said Holland, who hails from Uxbridge, noting thousands of operators in Canada and the United States take part annually.

For the contest portion, the goal is to contact as many ham stations as possible that are operating under similar conditions, Holland explained.

The York Region club, is competing in Class 5A, for clubs operating with five transmitters in the air simultaneously, Holland explained.

The idea is to operate with emergency power, or backup power, such as gas generators or a solar power system, he added.

In case you're wondering, ham radio operators are hobbyists with a keen interest in radio communications, who buy their own equipment and get a licence to set up their own station, typically in their homes or vehicles, and have a unique identifier or call sign.

Murray Powell, 77, was among those taking part.

One of the few local ham radio operators who knows morse code, he plans on tapping out a few messages over the weekend.

"Anybody can talk, but today, not many can do morse code," said the Aurora resident.

He got interested in amateur radio through his mother and has been on the airwaves since 1973.

He really enjoys the social aspect of Field Day.

So does Steve Brady.

"I've been the Field Day cook the last five years... It's very much the camaraderie, the social aspect (that I like)," said the Bradford resident. "It's listening to people say, 'Oh, I got this contact,' a very cool, a very unique contact or listening to someone say, 'I've been trying to get this guy all weekend.' So it's listening to the challenges."

Bob Morton, on the other hand, enjoys competing.

"It's great to come out and just prove what you can do with it and a lot of it's club-to-club competition and self competition, to do better than I did last year and do better than our club did last year," said Morton, who lives near Alliston.

He was first introduced to ham radio at a Field Day event and got his licence in 1969.

When things got underway at 2 p.m., there were about 24 people, mostly men, at the event, but those numbers will likely rise and fall as the event rolls on through the night and into Sunday.

Last year's event attracted about 69 people over the 24-hour period, Holland said.

Heather Holmes, one of the few women in attendance, has been an amateur radio operator for about 35 years.

She loves getting to meet new people and building friendships with people from all over the world, who share stories about their families, provide travel secrets and can help out in an emergency, either by coming themselves, or notifying someone who lives nearby.

"You never know who you're going to talk to," she said. "You normally only talk on a first name basis and with your call sign, so they could be a doctor, they could be the president, they could be the street cleaner - you have no idea and it doesn't matter. It's just somebody that has the same interests that you have."