On January 28 and 29, the RACCOON Ham Radio club met for their winter field day.  The day is an opportunity for members to meet and put their knowledge and equipment through their paces.  Several large antennae were put up in Malad City Park, which allowed the group to communicate across the world with other radio operators.  “We call this one here the dumpster fire,” member Bret Anderson said, pointing to the large antenna anchored by a garbage can.  

The Ham Radio Club provides communication services during emergencies, when standard communication systems are inoperable.  During the summer, the RACCOONS provide route communication for the Gran Fondo cycle race, which begins and ends in Logan with a stop in Malad.  The radio operators are on hand to provide course condition updates, and alert race officials to any medical issues that occur along the way.

While the summer field day takes place in near perfect temperatures, the winter one can be a bit more challenging.  Still, the report from the group was all positive.  “It was significantly better than last year.  Last year we had some…oddities with guys losing their signals, but this year it’s been great,” said Bret Anderson from Tremonton’s Golden Spike as well as the RACCOONS.  “Once we got set up, it was just flawless.  We’ve had a lot of fun.  And we weren’t completely iced in like we were last year.  It was lot of fun setting up and a lot of fun taking down.  It’s a group effort.”

Local RACCOON Sean Coombs was on hand as the event wound down, having spent the last day coordinating the event.  As he began work on taking down the equipment, he ran into Jason and Camille from Brigham City, who were on their first field day.  “I’ve been wanting to come up for a while,”  Jason said.  Asked how it had gone, Jason replied, “Oh, I loved it. This is the first any kind of field day of done so far.”

Well, make sure to come out for the next one, Bret said. “There’s usually a lot more going on at that one.  And of course it’s a lot warmer.”

“Hey, you know,” Jason laughed.  “The pain makes you appreciate it a lot more.  It’s a fun hobby—it doesn’t matter how cold or how warm it is.  It’s still a blast!” 

“It’s nice to meet you guys,” Sean Coombs said as the couple packed up.  “We’ll be listening for you on the radio!”

About a dozen people, including six operators were on hand during the 24 hour duration of the event.  During the course of the time period from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, the club was able to establish contact with most of the U.S. states, as well as some Canadian provinces and locations around the world.  

Local club members include Sean Coombs, Allen Rosenhoover, Jim Musto, Brian Llewelyn, Fred Calvell, Bill Drury, Tracy Drury, Troy Allen, and others.