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Ham radio operators gather for annual field day in Wood County

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton Larry Smith of the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub makes contact with other ham radio operators from Fort Boreman Park.

PARKERSBURG — Wood County amateur radio enthusiasts gathered for the annual ARRL Field Day, which began Saturday afternoon and will conclude today.

Members of Wood County Emergency Communications Inc. gathered at Hendershot Farm Drive off Laurel Creek Road while members of the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub met at Fort Boreman Park at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Every year on the last weekend of June “ham” (amateur) radio operators gather for the American Radio Relay League Field Day. It’s described as a weekend of fun that includes a picnic, practice for emergencies and an informal contest.

Larry Smith, of Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub, said he got interested in electronics and radio when he was a child.

“I got interested when I was 9 years old,” he said. “I retired from commercial broadcasting, where I was director of engineering for a group of stations out of Pittsburgh that had some AM and FM stations that I engineered.”

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub members, from left, Earl Hulce, Shawn Staats and Steve Ayers listen for contacts with other operators from around the country or world.

Smith said ham radio is a hobby for him. He said he majored in chemistry and math and ham radio was his hobby back then.

“I went in the U.S. Air Force and was in flight facilities there and when I came out I got back in amateur radio,” he said.

Smith said he likes the field day since it gives them a chance to show the community that if everything in the country went down, communication would not be impossible

“There is a system we can put in place,” he said. “It’s a way for us to establish communications throughout this area, throughout the state and actually the country where we can interlink and share information.”

Smith said he has made contacts all over the world from South America, Germany, Australia, Ukraine, South Africa and to Switzerland.

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton Ken Harris, director of Wood County Emergency Communications Inc., stands with the solar panels used to power some of their equipment during the annual ARRL Field Day which concludes this afternoon at 2 p.m.

“Where ever there is someone to listen,” he said. “Up here we are running about 100 watts and some guys do it with only five watts.”

Smith said the atmosphere is more reflective of radio waves at night and the range increases. In the past he said ham radio operators could talk with space shuttles and today they can be in contact with the International Space Station,

Mike Richards, a member of the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub, said they began the setup of their radios and antennas Saturday morning and were up and transmitting and receiving at 2 p.m. He said as of 4:30 p.m. Saturday, they had about 130 contacts.

Richards said the Friday night storms did not deter them from being a part of the field day.

At the Hendershot Farm Road setup the storms posed a problem for the Wood County Emergency Communications Inc. at first.

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton Wood County Emergency Communications Inc. members, Mandy Tenney, left, and Chad Bay, right, make contact with operators elsewhere from Hendershot Farm Drive

“Everything stayed pretty dry,” said Ken Harris, director of Wood County Emergency Communications Inc. “It kept us from getting some of our thing set up. That storm came up on us and we got a little bit of water in the tent, but we had everything covered and tied down.”

Harris said this year they set up a portable PBX phone system that uses several wireless phones on their site and connected to the outside world by way of cellular connections.

“If you need to make a call we can call extensions or dial 9 and you can get the outside,” he said. “It’s just like an office phone system.”

Harris said for several years they have used solar panels to help power some of the equipment they use.

“We have 30 panels set up,” he said. “We were getting 20 amps from them when the sun was above us, but now in the evening we’re getting about 10 amps. They have been charging our batteries as well; we’ll have them with our generators to keep everything up through the night.”

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