Keeping the links of communication open HAM radio operators set up emergency post in Shelburne : Shelburne Free Press : https://shelburnefreepress.ca

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Keeping the links of communication open HAM radio operators set up emergency post in Shelburne

The term HAM radio might conjure up images of a guy in his basement with an assortment of antennas, transmitters, and microphones, trying to keep up a conversation with someone on the other side of the world.

With much of the world's communications now routing through cell phones and e-mails, you might think that HAM radio is a thing of the past.

However users of short wave radio still communicate throughout the world and sometimes they are the only link when regular system are out of commission.

Dufferin Amateur Radio Services is a group of 20 registered member - all licensed HAM radio operators - who in the event of an emergency, can keep communications lines open.

They set up an on-sight post at Hyland Park in Shelburne on Saturday, June 28, and continued communications through the night until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.

It was a coordinated effort across the North American continent with thousand of operators making contact in an effort to see who could make the most short-wave contacts in the allotted time.

The Dufferin group can be a vital link if a sudden catastrophe cut the links that allow people to connect.

“We work on the service end of it,” explained emergency coordinator Wayne McClean. “What we do is train for the ability to pass on messages if we're ever called on. Say, for instance, internet, or phone coverage is stopped due to a big hydro outage - if regular communications fail, that's what we come in.”

The group has a mobile unit with it's own power supply and transmitters that can continue to broadcast if phone or internet lines are out of commission.

Short wave radio is unique as wavelengths in this band can be used for long distance communications as the radio waves are reflected back to earth from the ionosphere allowing the waves to travel around the curve of the earth.

“It is a hobby first,” McClean explained. “But when the circumstances arise, there's a network of HAM radio operators that can communicate.”

While voice communications is still the primary method, some radio operators can use Morse Code to send messages.

Club member John Corby is an experience Morse Code operator who can read the dots and dashes of the signal as fast as they can come in.

During the exercise, he was transmitting signals via a Morse Code key that looks almost exactly like the ones you would have seen when they were used to send messages along telegraph lines in the wild west.

The group welcomed members of the public to drop by their post at Hyland Park and see what HAM radio is all about.

They can be a vital link to the community in the event a natural disaster or accident disrupts regular lines of emergency communications.

By Brian Lockhart

Post date: 2014-07-02 15:40:34
Post date GMT: 2014-07-02 19:40:34
Post modified date: 2014-07-10 08:21:14
Post modified date GMT: 2014-07-10 12:21:14