Member of the Port Coquitlam Emergency Communications Group operating one of three stations during Field Day 2018. Photo: P. Vogel
Every year on the last full weekend of June, in cities, municipalities and villages across North America, an assortment of tents, trailers, and esoteric-looking radio equipment materializes in parks, and just as quickly as it appears, about 24 hours later is gone.
This event is fondly known as Field Day, an event sanctioned by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) to test emergency communications systems under restricted conditions. These tests are conducted by amateur radio clubs, with the members, generally known as hams (as in ham radio operator), operating personal, club, or municipally-owned radio gear.
In my own municipality, Port Coquitlam, the local emergency preparedness group held its Field Day in Castle Park, located at the southern tip of Mary Hill in the Citadel Heights neighbourhood. The location is ideal for radio communications, being located at a high point in the area and having a commanding view to the south and east.
As an aside, I became a licensed ham radio operator back in the 1970s but strayed from the hobby until recently when a friend gave me a small handheld transceiver that sells for under $50, something unheard of back when I started.
EPCOM, Port Coquitlam’s emergency preparedness communications group, is tasked with the purpose of preparing and providing communications in emergency situations through the work of amateur radio operators.
Field Day is intended to allow amateur radio operators to practice communication skills under primitive conditions with generator, solar, and battery-powered equipment and portable antennas, to contact other such radio operators throughout North America. In the process there are usually contacts to much more distant locations as well.
EPCOM’s team arrived at the Castle Park on Friday evening before the official start of Field Day, a 24-hour window beginning at 11 am PDT. Everything required for the exercise is contained in two large city-owned trailers, one of which serves as a key tower antenna system.
From Friday evening, through to Sunday noon, the team is self-sufficient in terms of off-grid energy, food and water, and sleeping in tents, all while one or more radio operators attempt to make contacts with other teams. In the process, under conditions simulating those following a natural disaster, teams compete with one another for bragging rights for the most contacts in the prescribed 24-hour interval.
As the exercise got underway, operators in the main communications tent could be heard calling out “CQ Field Day, this is Victor Echo Seven Papa Charlie Echo, CQ Field Day,” essentially saying that the Port Coquitlam station with call letters VE7PCE was seeking (CQ) any contacts with hams hearing its transmission.
An actual contact in this case consisted of little more than an acknowledgement that each station could clearly hear the other’s call sign. With practice, some people become very good at racking up the contacts and cutting through the noise of thousands of other ham radio operators competing in narrow portions of the bands allocated to amateur radio.
At the Castle Park site the EPCOM team had its most prominent antenna up high in the air on the portable antenna trailer. This antenna was configured for the 20 m band. Nearby were two dipole antennas, long wires fed at their centre points, slung between low towers, and configured for the 40 and 80 m bands. The three antennas were connected inside the communications tent to three separate transceivers operating under the VE7PCE call sign and distinguished by the extensions Alpha 1, 2 and 3.
Want to learn more about ham radio, or perhaps even get your own call sign? Check out one of many ham radio groups on Facebook, especially the BC Ham Radio group. Most areas of the Lower Mainland have a ham radio club and several of these clubs offer courses to get people through the exam required before a licence and call sign can be issued.
In the meantime, DE VE7AFV 73. That would be me signing off in Morse code and sending best wishes.
Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/PeterVogelCA) or on Twitter (@PeterVogel).