CRESTVIEW — With its power generator, solar chargers, antenna wires strung from trees and a GoPro camera mounted up in a magnolia to document the event, the North Okaloosa Amateur Radio Club was ready to chat to the world during its June 25-26 field day weekend.
PHOTOS: See photos from NOARC's field day>>
VIDEO: Watch video from NOARC's field day>>
“We’re showing we can be set up in a few hours with no outside power,” member Cal Zethmayr said.
Emergencies in which commercial power is lost are among situations when amateur radio operators step in to provide communications for a community, he said.
During field day, NOARC and similar radio clubs around the world contact each other.
Visitors soon discovered in a world of Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and other social media, old-fashioned radio communication is still relevant — and fun.
SCANNING FREQUENCIES
Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux, one of field day’s first visitors, discovered that for himself.
“He sat down and within minutes he was talking to someone in Estonia,” NOARC vice president Alex Barthé said.
Crestview City Councilman JB Whitten knows from his years as an Air Force ground radio operator the importance of radio communications — and atmospheric influences on them.
“When I was stationed in Mississippi, at nighttime, I could pick up the Boston station that carried the Celtics games,” Whitten said.
But Saturday afternoon the atmosphere wasn’t cooperating. Still, while the 7 megahertz band he was using made no contact, operators at the 14 and 21 megahertz transmitters were having more success.
“I went on there and we scanned around,” Whitten said. “There were several (operators) we could hear but they couldn’t hear us.”
RADIO MEETS COMPUTERS
Though he made no contacts, NOARC’s range of set-ups on different bandwidths showed the value of radio, especially when coupled with computer technology, unlike in Whitten’s Air Force days.
“Back in the day we operated on Morse code,” he said. “It wasn’t even voice.”
After years of having its radio shack in the Dorcas Volunteer Fire Department’s station, NOARC hosted the annual field day beneath tents in its new lot on the corner of First Avenue and Webb Street.
There the group hopes to build a clubhouse with classroom and storage space after raising enough funds, Zethmayr said.
“They are sure a dedicated group and very proud of what they do,” Whitten said. “I’m pretty sure they would be good backup communications” (in an emergency).
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: North Okaloosa radio club's field day showcases traditional technology’s relevance (PHOTOS, VIDEO)