Highland Amateur Radio Association Field Days June 28-29
By John Levo
Highland Amateur Radio Association
Although it has been a busy first half of the year for the Highland Amateur Radio Association, the highlight of the summer is yet to come. In fact, it is the annual American Radio Relay League Field Days on June 28-29.
That is the weekend when tens of thousands of FCC licensed amateur radio operators will take to the airwaves from parks, emergency management and first response facilities as well as hundreds of other types of public locations to demonstrate how amateur radio can be a life saver in the case of a local, state or nationwide emergency or natural disaster.
HARA President John Willis, KE8JEM, states the local organization will set up demonstration stations on the grounds of the Highland County Historical Society’s Scott House, West Main Street, Hillsboro.
On Saturday morning, June 28, they will establish their stations, erect antennas and prepare for the 2 p.m. start of the event, which lasts 24 hours. During the event, they will try to contact as many other amateur operators from throughout North America using voice, data and even the old fashioned Morse Code. They will also try to make contact with all U.S. states and territories as well as all Canadian provinces.
In addition to Field Day being a social, educational and fun event, it is not a contest because of its much more serious purpose. The primary purpose of the weekend serves as an emergency preparedness training exercise for when the ham community may be requested by government officials to provide assistance to their communication needs should normal radio communications channels, cell, internet and broadcast facilities be destroyed, damaged or otherwise unavailable.
Government officials call attention to such a need when in 2024 Hurricane Helene hard hit Western North Carolina and for days ham radio was the only means of reliable communications available to public safety and first responders. Those same officials tell of reports of lives saved and lost, medical evacuation requests, first reports of landslides and flooding all being first reported by ham radio.
Field Day comes upon the heels of HARA’s participation in the annual 15-day Lewis and Clark Trail on the Air special event operation. HARA was selected by the sponsoring Clark County (Wash.) Amateur Radio Association to be one of the two clubs to represent Ohio in the annual event. The Portsmouth Radio Club was the second club chosen.
The official trail starts in Pennsylvania and ends in Oregon. The two Ohio clubs joined 30 other clubs across the 16 states the national Trail crosses to honor the famous event that opened the West to settlement.
During the recent event, over 57,000 contacts were made with other stations throughout the world. Over 5,500 of those were made by the two Ohio clubs. Ten area amateurs represented HARA with on the air contacts using voice, Morse Code and digital modes of communication.
The Highland Amateur Radio Association is a loose knit association of over 100 of the some 200 federally licensed amateur radio operators residing in the Highland County area. More information about amateur radio is available through the national American Radio Relay League’s website at www.arrl.org.
Information about the local Highland Amateur Radio Association can be obtained at the June 28-29 Scott House Field Day location, at the Club’s Facebook site, highlandara@gmail.com or contacting ARRL Assistant Ohio Section Manager, John Levo, at (937) 393-4951.