Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub Ham dialing in Field Day on June 25
Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub President Mike Richards, left, and Treasurer Jane Hulce, right, planned a 90th birthday party for Curt Fouse, center, at the club’s June meeting. Fouse, who turned 90, was born on Flag Day, June 14. (Photo Provided)
Curt Fouse, amateur radio operator K8UC, handcrafted the parabolic microwave dish shown here for Earth-Moon-Earth radio transmissions. The oil derrick in the background is from an abandoned oil field operation around 1965 and was dismantled by Fouse and reassembled at his home at Washington Bottom. The derrick supports other ham radio antennas he uses on other frequencies within the ham radio bands. (Photo Provided)
From left, Korean veteran Curt Fouse, K8UC, will join Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub President Mike Richards, WB8BTI, and other members of the club at the American Radio Relay League Field Day at 2 p.m. June 25 at Fort Boreman Park. The public is invited. (Photo Provided)
Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub President Mike Richards, left, and Treasurer Jane Hulce, right, planned a 90th birthday party for Curt Fouse, center, at the club’s June meeting. Fouse, who turned 90, was born on Flag Day, June 14. (Photo Provided)
Curt Fouse, amateur radio operator K8UC, handcrafted the parabolic microwave dish shown here for Earth-Moon-Earth radio transmissions. The oil derrick in the background is from an abandoned oil field operation around 1965 and was dismantled by Fouse and reassembled at his home at Washington Bottom. The derrick supports other ham radio antennas he uses on other frequencies within the ham radio bands. (Photo Provided)
From left, Korean veteran Curt Fouse, K8UC, will join Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub President Mike Richards, WB8BTI, and other members of the club at the American Radio Relay League Field Day at 2 p.m. June 25 at Fort Boreman Park. The public is invited. (Photo Provided)
Trending
PARKERSBURG -- Ham radio Field Day on June 25 will honor the "old timers" with the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub, including Curt Fouse who turned 90 on Tuesday, June 14.
Fouse, who lives in Washington Bottom, has been a member of the American Radio Relay League for more than 60 years. The Radio Relay League, which organizes and sponsors the annual Field Day, represents the interests of ham radio operators with the Federal Communications Commission and other government entities to preserve assigned ham radio frequencies and develop rules and regulations that govern the hobby.
He has taught classes and administered testing in the Mid-Ohio Valley for decades making it possible for folks to become ham operators.
Fouse has used all of the various modes of communications during past Field Days. He made a satellite dish that he used to bounce radio signals from the moon to the earth. Earth-Moon-Earth communication is a radio communication technique that relies on the propagation of radio waves from an earth-based transmitter directed by reflection from the surface of the moon back to an earth-based receiver.
Fouse served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and retired from DuPont with more than 40 years of service.
He owns and has rebuilt more than a half dozen antique show cars. Fouse owns and drives his father's 1940s model Chevrolet, of which he has the original bill of sale and documentation from McClinton Chevrolet.
Field Day is held every year during the last weekend of June.
The event by the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub will be held 2 p.m. June 25 at Fort Boreman Park where members and friends of the club will use batteries, solar power, portable generators and other sources to power equipment, Larry Dale, club member said. Wires will be strung up in trees and even the flagpole at the park to be used as portable antennas, he said.
The purpose of the Field Day is to demonstrate the preparedness of ham radio stations to communicate during an emergency. Many times, in an emergency situation, cell-phone service and commercial radio and TV station broadcasts are interrupted, leaving ham radio as the sole means of communicating with first responders and dispatching other information in affected areas. Hams use Morse Code, single sideband, radio teletype and other digital communications modes.
Field Day is open to the general public. Residents can watch and listen to all of these means of communicating at the park while members and officers of the club will answer questions about how to be licensed as a ham.