From the Editor: Field Day reminds amateurs that hobby is for service, too

On March 27, I talked with a guy in France. His name is Bert.
That’s not such a big deal these days, with cellphones and internet communication. But our conversation took place via the 20-meter amateur radio band. So we didn’t need any of that.
This week, as you can read on Page 8, is the Amateur Radio Relay League’s Field Day Week, and members of the local Bayouland Emergency Amateur Radio Service are getting ready to test their capabilities by contacting other amateurs around the country and the world who are doing the same thing.
Most of the time, amateur radio is for fun. Some hams like to use voice communication. Some like to use computers to type messages back and forth over the airwaves.
Some bounce signals off the moon. Some use computers to track the International Space Station or dedicated amateur radio satellites, and then rush out in the middle of the night to establish a radio link.
Some people like to jabber.
But, once in a while, hams get a reminder that amateur radio is a service that can serve their local, state or national governments in times of great distress.
That conversation with Bert was one of those reminders.
My radio is an old Icom model that an uncle gave me. It’ll put out about 80 watts, less than the rating of the light bulb in my desk lamp.
My radio used a power supply that turns alternating current from the wall plug into direct current, which runs the radio. If I’d been in the mood, I could have run the radio with my car battery.
My antenna is one sold specifically for portable use, and it’s basically an old-fashioned whip antenna on top of a coil and little tripod. It stands only about 7 feet tall.
My preferred mode of communication is Morse code. Although Morse code isn’t used much in the commercial radio world anymore, and even though the feds don’t require a code test any longer before you can get your amateur radio license, the mode has survived in amateur radio.
I tap out messages on an old J-38 key, or Morse code sender, from eBay. The J-38 was widely used by the American military during World War II. It’s cool.
So, with next to no infrastructure beyond my freebie transceiver and cheapie antenna, I was able to talk to Bert, F6HKA, who was 4,901 miles away.
When I talked with other hams about my accomplishment, I heard, “Oh yeah. That’s Bert. I talked to him the other day with 5 watts.”
So an international contact really wasn’t that big a deal for a radio amateur.
But my conversation with Bert happened in the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic. It struck me that in times when major institutions were shutting down, especially if the disaster is a hurricane or a failure in the electrical grid and not a virus, the ability to communicate with no more than you have on hand can be valuable.
And there are more than 700,000 radio amateurs, many with greater capabilities than my little station, who are standing by to serve.
BEARS is inviting the public to come in and look around when they take part in Field Day this weekend. You’re welcome to see if this hobby and this service is something you’d be interested in.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review. His call sign is KG5OUH.