DUBLIN — Bladen County is no stranger to the devastating effects of bad weather, such as hurricanes or tornados.
One factor of great concern during, or after, a natural disaster is the ability of ordinary citizens, as well as town and county emergency services personnel, to be able to communicate and coordinate emergency and relief services.
If the electrical power grid is damaged and cellphone or landline phone service is lost, there is only one other way to enable effective regional communications — amateur radio operators who can operate independent of the power grid. Fortunately, Bladen County Amateur Radio Society has that capability, and this past weekend club members demonstrated their technical capabilities to achieve round-the-clock communication capabilities on a global scale during an annual event known as Field Day.
Field Day is a 24-hour, around-the-clock amateur radio event sponsored by the International Amateur Radio Union, and it is designed to test the emergency preparedness of amateur radio hobbyists around the world. Since it is a contest, it involves a competitive scoring for each participant or club, and each participant earns points for certain variables.
For example, operators can earn points depending on where they are getting their electrical power — are they plugged into the wall, are they drawing power from a portable generator, or perhaps are they using a solar panel?
Another variable involves where they are operating — are their radios set up inside of a building, or are they operating on a remote, rugged mountaintop? Perhaps they are using a car battery, and are camped inside of a tent at the edge of a desert? Or, perhaps they are powered the same way, but are floating on a raft on a big lake.
The variables are only limited by the participant’s imagination and inventiveness, but it is all designed to highlight the ability of the participants to achieve reliable communications in a less-than-desirable environment.
Bladen County enthusiasts decided that, this year, instead of operating under a hastily constructed tent outside, or from a table top set up in a field, they would operate from Dublin club President James T. Bryan’s radio shack. Using a ground loop antenna that members fabricated onsite for maximum frequency effectiveness, and focusing on 20-meter and 40-meter amateur radio bands, the members began broadcasting Saturday afternoon, and soon achieved confirmed radio contacts, not only from across the United States, but from Canada, the Caribbean, and even some European participants.
For this event, club members focused primarily on single sideband voice communications, but noted that they have the technical abilities to use digital modes, Morse code, and satellite link capabilities as well.
For the purposes of the Field Day event, the choice is up to the operator, their skill level, and the category of their amateur radio license. By the official close of the event on Sunday, members had logged literally hundreds of contacts from around the world, and were delighted to have proved their technical prowess, and met the challenge of International Radio Field Day.
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