Photo by Doug Loyer Richard Miller, President of the Marietta Amateur Radio Club watches club member Matt Pooler making contact with another station.

MARIETTA — The Marietta Amateur Radio Club participated in the 24-hour Annual American Radio Relay League’s (ARRL) Field Day event over the weekend.

Held from 2 p.m. Saturday until 2 p.m. Sunday, ARRL’s Field Day was a national event in which amateur radio operators (better known as ham radio operators) and radio clubs contacted as many other stations as possible to stay sharp and it was an opportunity for club members to get together and share their passion for the hobby.

The Field Day is an annual event sponsored by the ARRL which is the national association for amateur radio, said Richard Miller, president of the Marietta Amateur Radio Club. ARRL was founded in 1914 and is the 150,000-member national association for amateur radio in the U.S. Ham radio operators come from all walks of life. They can transmit voice, data and images through the airwaves, use the Internet, lasers, microwave transmitters and satellites.

“Essentially, the Annual Field Day event is a contest for practice to get us ready in case there’s an emergency situation,” said Miller. “We’ll take shifts and keep dialing and making connections to see how many we can get.”

Amateur radio operators play an important role in emergency communications and preparedness for the U.S., the state of Ohio and other local government agencies.

Most of the time, telephones, cell phones, Internet, trunk lines and satellite phones work fine to get a message out, but they all have to go through many vulnerable points and need electric power to function. When those systems fail, ham radios are relied upon because ham radios operators can connect directly and talk with other operators because each station is fully independent. They can connect across town or around the entire world. In case of disasters and emergencies, they can be relied upon with confidence.

There are over 2,000,000 ham radio operators worldwide, 600,000 in the U.S. and more than 28,000 amateur radio operators, in Ohio. The FCC governs the licensing for amateur radio operators and there are now three classes; technician, general and extra.

The local Marietta Amateur Radio Club was started in the 1920s and the clubhouse at 618 Hartline Road in Whipple was built in the 1960s. They currently have 28 members. The members have their own station numbers and the club has it’s own, which is W8HH.

There’s many aspects of the ham radio hobby that make it interesting. Some like to talk with folks down the street or communicate with relatives in another state. Others like to network with a group of operators at the same time. Amateur radio operators can even bounce their signals off the moon. There’s also those who like to build their own equipment and experiment with it.

“I got interested in ham radios because of my radio background,” said Bob Eddy from Newport. “You turn on the radio and see what’s coming in, whether it’s the next state or across the ocean someplace.”

Eddy, the club’s Vice President, used to be half-owner and general manager of radio station 93.9 FM in St. Marys.

“I like my ham radio hobby because it’s a challenge,” said Eddy. “It’s hard to put in words. It’s really kind of an adventure.”

Eddy said he is more interested in long distance connections. He makes brief contacts to see what he can pick up. He’ll get their call letters, location, first name and then away he goes to the next connection.

Matt Pooler, of Parkersburg, has been a licensed ham radio operator since 2005 and has been a club member for around 10 years.

“Being on a ham radio is kind of a rush,” admitted Pooler. “It’s sort of like fishing and casting a line. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Pooler went on to say he enjoys learning about how to be on the air and what goes into making it work, saying it’s really a lot of fun. For this weekend’s event, he had to make sure everything was ready to go including the generator, getting the positions ready, the computers ready and making sure all the connections to the towers were correct.

For the field day event, the transmitters and receivers had to be run by generators. The idea is to operate in an emergency type environment … to be working in less than ideal conditions.

“Ham radio is a great hobby. Before the computer phase, this was the ultimate electronics dream, to have a ham radio license,” said Ben Berendts, of Marietta. “You used to build your own equipment and go on the air to see it worked.”

Berendts, who has been a club member since the mid 1970s, added he can make contact pretty much anywhere in the world depending upon the time and conditions although he has to keep in mind what time it is in other parts of the world.

As far as language, Berendts stated it usually isn’t that much of a problem since English is pretty much the spoken language and is taught as a second language in many countries. He can speak German and Vietnamese and that helps as well.

“What I get most out of ham radio is relaxation, getting to talk with people in different places and the challenge to build your own equipment,” said Berendts. “It’s phenomenal.”

Those interested in learning more about being a ham radio operator can visit ARRL.org or to find out more about joining the Marietta Amateur Radio Club, contact Richard Miller at 740-373-4191 or come to a club meeting which are held the second Tuesday each month at 7:30 p.m. at the clubhouse at 618 Hartline Road in Whipple.