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Public-Spirited Hams Prepare for the Worst
By Matt Tyszka, Riverton
 | | (L-R) Matt Tyszka, Pat Tracy and Mark Benvenuto were among the amateur radio operators participating in Field Day at Johnnycake Airport in Burlington on June 22. Photo/Robin Gourd |
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"CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day, this is KE1C calling â026"
To the five area amateur radio operators, or "hams," who staked out a piece of isolated terrain this past weekend of June 22-23, the above was a very familiar sound. By putting out the above call on various short wave radio frequencies, other hams from around the country and South America were invited to respond as if participating in a real disaster. The annual event is known as "Field Day," and is coordinated throughout the country by the American Radio Relay League in Newington, CT.
The annual contest is held to encourage individual hams and radio clubs to take their normally housebound radio equipment and operate, literally, in the field for twenty-four hours to simulate having to do so in an emergency. This preparedness exercise demonstrates that radio operators can be self-sufficient during disasters where the normal infrastructure such as telephone, cable, cellular and Internet services are destroyed or unavailable.
"As much fun as this is," explains Bristol ham Mark Benvenuto, "we take seriously the possibility that we will be called upon to respond to local disasters at some point." Benvenuto pointed out that the normally bone-crushing signals from the hundreds of public safety and commercial transmitters atop the World Trade Center went silent in an instant last September 11. But the New York and New Jersey hams, who had their radios ready to go and repeater stations scattered throughout the area, were not affected.
As a retired Connecticut State Police lieutenant colonel and a participant this past weekend, I can appreciate the type of aid the hams can provide during such disasters. Public safety radio systems are designed for only a certain coverage area according to FCC regulations. Add to that the fact that during an emergency, public agencies are completely occupied with containing the scene and trying to establish incident command. When the communications infrastructure is wiped out or overloaded, who gets the word out to relatives of victims and emergency personnel?
In New York City it was the hams. With none of the restrictions of public safety radio systems, the hams positioned themselves at the scene, at hospital trauma centers and other locations as requested by New York officials. They were able to relay messages by voice and radio data from the scene to various hospitals, and from hospitals all over the country via traffic networks to let distant relatives know how to contact the proper one of various locations where their kin were taken. Forbidden to accept compensation for this service, the hams stayed on the scene for weeks, volunteering their own time and providing all their own equipment in an effort to help.
While each year's Field Day contest is light-hearted and fun, this year's weekend was just a little more serious. The others in our Burlington group, Pat Tracy and his son Kevin of Bolton and Kevin Mellon of Bristol, all agreed that they felt a sense that in the near future this type of practice operation might well become a reality. With the susceptibility of the United States to future enemy attacks and natural disasters like the many wildfires burning up large parts of the country, the next time we do this may not be just an exercise. When the time comes, we hams will step up to the plate, break out our generators and radios, throw up homemade wire antennas, and jump right in to handle emergency messages. It's a sacrifice, but that's just what hams do.
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