The RACOONs (Radio Amateur Club of Oneida County) hosted a Winter Field day this weekend, in conjunction with other clubs from around the region.  The field day gives participants a chance to set up and run their radio equipment in a winter setting as training for a real-world emergency in which radio operators are called in to establish a parallel communication network.  

Throughout the year, Radio Clubs are called on to coordinate communication for various events, include bike and running races, public events, and training exercises.  Last summer’s Cache Valley Gran Fondo, for instance, featured the coordination of the RACOONs with other clubs from northern Utah and Eastern Idaho.  The radio communicators are able to establish lines of contact with other operators quickly using mobile setups.  This can be critical in situations where other modes of communication are for various reasons inaccessible.  Police, government, and emergency services often rely on the technical skills of amateur radio operators for emergency communication situations.  

Amateur Radio clubs are volunteer organizations, licensed by the FCC, who serve to establish and maintain a communications network of likeminded individuals around the region, country, and indeed the world.  By law, they are prohibited from accepting payment for their services, and work on a completely volunteer basis.  Depending on the time of day, a “grey line” inhabits parts of the globe, which defines the optimal line along which to send and receive shortwave radio communications.  Due to the way high frequency radio signals are interacted with by sunlight, the grey line is way to identify the strongest signals available as the Earth rotates.  As the evening drew on, for instance, the grey line had moved onto the west coast of the US on one side of its parabola and the south Pacific and parts of Asia on the other, allowing the Hams to begin contacting known broadcasters in Alaska, Canada, California, Japan, and even New Zealand.  

David Hagan, originally from New Zealand, started checking broadcasts from the south pacific as they came in.  “Oh, we’ve lost him for a while,” the crew in the trailer laughed.  The visual display shows peaks along the various frequencies of the spectrum.  A frequency, in this case, refers to the distance between peaks of sine waves at various Megahertz bands.  Everything from naval wave sounding broadcasts to pirate radio stations can be found across the possible spectrums.  A form of transmission referred to “slow-wave” can even be used to send images, including those from orbit, as well as more terrestrial origins.

An intimidating array of equipment is used to visualize where broadcast signals are originating from all along the spectrum, though Box Elder County’s Golden Spike Club head Bret Anderson assures that it’s more complicated than it looks, “Once you get familiar with it, it makes perfect sense.”  The group on hand on Saturday all had early experiences with radio operation.  Hagan was raised by a father who inculcated his early interest in communications technology.  “It was in my life from early on.  I love it!” he stated.  Other members had gained their love of communications and technology later on, but all seemed dedicated to providing important public service through their expertise.  “It’s a lot of fun,” Anderson said.  “But it’s also really important.  We need people to learn this and know this.  Sometimes it’s the only way for people to communicate in times when everything else goes dark.”

The local radio groups generally host a Summer Field Day in June, and a Winter Field Day in January.  The difficulties of the different field days vary by season, with snow and winter conditions constituting the primary problems during the winter.  “I’ve been snowed in a bunch of times in the winter,” Anderson said.  “And even into the spring, which is why this is useful.  Some of the races early in the season take place where there is still snow in the mountains, so this is a good thing to be used to doing.”  Anderson has done support for races in the region, such as the Bear 100 out of Logan, and seen snow on the mountain plenty of times.  “I’ve been snowed in more times than I haven’t,” he laughed.  

The kinds of things that can happen that need to be prepared for during radio events are legion, and emergency events themselves are obviously not the places to try to troubleshoot for them.  “Murphy’s law is always in effect,” said David Hagan, of the Box Elder Golden Spike Amateur Radio Club.  “Things are always going to happen.  We’re always fighting with generators, for instance.  We’ve had them freeze over on us.  We definitely have to trudge through snow to fix them.”

In addition to support for major, large area sporting events, local radio clubs also participate in yearly readiness exercises.  The Golden Spike Club, for instance, recently participated in the “Great Utah Shake Out!” event last year.  The event was a way to readiness test local emergency and communication responses in preparation for a major earthquake event in the region.  Utah and Idaho are located within a number of significant faults, which are predicted to be potential locations of earthquakes in the future.  Southeast Idaho and northern Utah inhabit a number of connected fault zones, including the Island Park Caldera, Grand Valley Fault Zone, Cache Valley Fault Zone, Wasatch Fault Zone, and Eastern Bear Lake Fault Zone.  In a situation where earthquakes or other natural disasters had rendered the standard emergency communication network from functioning properly, radio operators would be the quickest and most reliable way to establish communication and coordinate responses between locations.

A large loop antenna and pole were erected in the City Park for the duration of the event, and several mobile vehicles full of equipment camped out in the lot to attempt to contact as many other operators as they could.

The local RACCOON club currently lists its organization as follows, though it has many more active members: President: Sean Coombs; Vice President Allan Rosenhoover; Secretary Jim Musto; Treasurer Brian Llewelyn.  Contact the Club if you are interested in joined their ranks and learning about radio operations, as well as providing communications help during emergency situations.