Hams Take to the Field:
Mark Brooky (KE8FO)
on
June 30, 2009
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BY MARK BROOKY
mbrooky@grandhaventribune.com
FERRYSBURG — The local ham radio club took to the field Saturday and Sunday to test emergency radio communications.
The annual amateur radio Field Day is half radio contest, half emergency preparedness and 100-percent a social gathering.
The North Ottawa Amateur Radio Club set up operations at Coast Guard Park in Ferrysburg for the third year in a row. They've operated from other area parks over the years.
"The purpose of Field Day is to practice coming out in the case of an emergency and setting up with the ability to communicate with the state, or other hams or amateurs, transmit messages, relay information — in the event that we have an emergency and cell phones and telephones aren't working," explained Grand Haven Township resident John Sundstrom, a former club president.
Sundstrom, whose licensed call letters are N8YQD, operated from the Ottawa County Emergency Services trailer.
In another part of the park, Gordon Stockhill of Grand Haven shared a station under a tent with Joe Veldhuis of Robinson Township. Stockhill, KA8UQT, said he operates solely using Morse code.
"I'm an old Navy radio operator (from) way back," he said.
See the video:
http://www.grandhaventribune.com/liveique/b_vid_front.bsp
The contest began at 2 p.m. Saturday and ended at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The radios were all powered by batteries, which earned the club extra points in its contest entry for the use of emergency power.
The batteries were charged by solar panels and Spring Lake resident Paul Zellar's 1992 Toyota that he converted to electric power. Zellar, W8IQE, runs the car on eight golf cart-type batteries, which he connected to a convertor that turned the batteries' DC power into home-type AC electricity to power the radios.
On the Net:
www.qsl.net/noarc/
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