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Ham radio operators seek to broadcast coming of Punxsy Phil |
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Front Page -
Front Page Story
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Written by Larry Mcguire
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Friday, 29 January 2010 |
The Punxsutawney Area Amateur Radio Club will be operating a special event commemorating Groundhog Day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at its headquarters at the Punxsutawney Municipal Airport. The club will contact amateur radio operators in the U.S. and elsewhere to publicize Groundhog Day. Pictured are (from left): Doug Hunter; Sherman “Sham” Hollopeter, treasurer; and Jim Byrne, vice-president. Missing are Mike Miller, president; and Steve Waltman. (Photo by Larry McGuire/The Punxsutawney Spirit)
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Being able to speak with people long distances by satellite or cell phone is not unusual for most people today, but before this new technology was available, there was amateur radio, and there is a group of people who still communicate today as amateur or ham radio operators.
The Punxsutawney Area Amateur Radio Club will once again will hold its Groundhog Day Special Event Station from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at its headquarters at the Punxsutawney Municipal Airport in Bell Township.
Ham radio is both a hobby and a service in which participants — called “hams” — use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training around the world.
Jim Byrne, vice-president of the Punxsutawney Area Amateur Radio Club (call sign (KA3WSX), explained that amateur radio operators are able to speak to other operators around the world with just a transmitter radio and antennae.
“Right now, signal strength is way down due to sun spots, which causes a disruption in the signal,” he said. “Normally, on the 10-meter frequency, a ham can talk all through the night non-stop. Most of the time, that frequency is dead. Locally, you can talk on it with a vertical antennae, and from my house, I can speak with
other operators as far away as Georgia on a regular basis.”
Byrne added that Wednesday morning, he was listening to a radio operator from Switzerland.
Though its origins can be traced to at least the late 1800s, amateur radio as practiced today did not begin until the early 1900s.
The first listing of amateur radio stations is contained in the first-ever Official Wireless Blue Book of the Wireless Association of America in 1909.
Byrne explained ham radios have a power limit of 1,500 watts.
“Most amateur radios are 100 watts, the newer radios will have 200 watt outputs,” he said. “The distance you can broadcast depends on how large of an antennae you have, and how many watts your radio is.”
Sherman “Sham” Hollopeter, club treasurer, explained Continuous Wave (CW) which is Morse code has been a large part of ham radio over the years, but the Federal Communications Commission has practically eliminated it.
Doug Hunter explained that the club’s Groundhog Day special event station receives a lot of attention around the world from ham operators who want to participate. The trade magazine QST also helps spread the word.
“All the hams see that and contact us, and then we send out a certificate stating that they had contacted station K3HWJ in Punxsutawney for our Groundhog Day Special Event,” he said.
Byrne said to begin the event, an operator will get on the radio and call out to other ham operators, and then those who hear him will respond.
“They tells us how good our signal is, and we give them a number for each band that we’re on,” he said. “Then when the ham operator who contacted us sends a contact card in a self-addressed stamped envelope, we’ll send them a certificate with their contact number and the band that we were on, a signal report and the name of the operator of the radio at the time of the contact.”
Hollopeter added that the club hopes to acknowledge as many transmissions as possible during the event.
“If one operator becomes tired, another one will jump right in so the frequency doesn’t go dead,” he explained. “If you let the frequency go for five minutes, then someone else can take it over.”
Hunter explained the club runs two frequencies during the event, 20 meter and 40 meter.
“This year, we’re going to try to add another frequency and see what kind of response we receive from that,” Hunter said.
Anyone who is interested in becoming a ham radio operator may attend the event Saturday at the airport, or attend the group’s monthly meetings at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Presbyterian Church in Punxsy.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 30 January 2010 )
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