WELLS — If there was a disaster, a flood or some other event or that caused regular radio communications to fail, how would messages be sent between first responders who were trying to get help to a devastated area?
The answer is, the same way it’s been happening for about 100 years: By amateur radio operators, usually known as hams.
The Wide Area Amateur Radio Network took part in a nationwide Amateur Radio Field Day beginning Saturday and ran to Sunday. They set up a radio tower on the field at the Wells Recreation Area, established communications and were ready to talk to the world.
By 5:30 a.m. Sunday, the operators had already made 500 contacts from three stations on the field.
Mike Biasin of Wells has been involved in amateur radio for some time, and joined the local club when it formed a couple of years ago.
One attraction of amateur radio is the ability to “talk” to satellites, and at one point during his radio career he was able to contact, or in ham parlance, to “work,” the International Space Station when it flew over.
“The first time I got through to a satellite I linked through the Internet,” he said Sunday morning as he made contacts from a tiny radio station set up in a military surplus vehicle on the field.
Bob Stone, an engineer who lives in Newfield, said there was a pre-arranged message to pass for Field Day once communications were established. In this case, is was “4AMaine,” which stood for a four transmitter emergency power station in Maine.
“The true purpose is to test our ability to replace and establish communications,” he said.
Ham radio operators were in high demand during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Stone said that in 1992, when the Homestead Air Force Base in Florida was devastated by Hurricane Andrew, the U.S. Navy came ashore and used an existing amateur radio station to re-establish communications.
Dave Johnson of Wells said hams were activated in York County during the Patriot’s Day flood.
Most times, Stone added, hams work behind the scenes.
Amateur radio is traced to Guglielmo Marconi, who conducted wireless experiments in Europe and sent a message across the English Channel in the late 1800s.
According to a history of amateur radio, posted on the Internet, the American Radio Relay League was established in 1914. Amateur Radio Field Day was first established in 1933.
The term “ham” actually predates the radio, according to ARRL, the national association for ham radio operators. It started as a derogatory term for professional telegraph operators, who sometimes competed for space on the wireless spectrum with amateurs, or as they called them, “hams.”
— Contact Tammy Wells by calling 324-4444, or via e-mail at twells@gwi.net.
