This article originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of the Marquette Monthly.
On a summer's evening, they're out in the woods on what they call a "fox hunt," men and women, in teams of two or three, each following a waggling antenna, listening closely to the staccato beeps of Morse code coming through their handheld radios. The beeps eventually lead them to the "fox," a small transmitting device hidden deep in the duff. Once the transmitter is found, the team pulls off a tag and reads the clue that helps them find the next transmitter.
"This is all for fun," Paul Racine, KB0P, a member of the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association (HARA), said. "When it comes down to emergencies, the FCC tells us we have to provide communication ... We already have our own equipment, because we bought it. We already know how to operate it, because we've been using it for our hobby and practicing, experimenting. So then, when there is an emergency, we’re prepared to go on the air."
On a winter's night, they're out in the woods hunkered down in an igloo or truck, tracking the progress and safety of sled dog teams traveling from Marquette to Grand Marais and back, going where cell phones can't go, providing a foolproof communication system for the U.P. 200 Sled Dog Race. They'll provide the same service—emergency communication—during the Noquemanon Ski Marathon and Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic.
"Why do our signals work better than cell phone signals?" Paul echoed a reporter's question. "First of all, we're very skilled with our equipment—we understand the theory behind communications."
To join the world of ham radio, which encompasses not just the earthly world but outer space—care to eavesdrop on the crew of the space shuttle?—one needs a license, and that means passing a test. The test covers electronic and communication theory, FCC rules and regulations, and how radio signals work. HARA offers testing four times a year, and other ham clubs in the U.P. also offer testing.
"We do like to hold a class if we can," Rich Schwenke, N8GBA, also a HARA member, said. "If anybody’s interested, we'll help them get started, answer any questions that they got." And when a new ham gets his license, Paul said, "We usually get together and go over to his house and help him put up antennas. We all try to help each other out." In addition, the club has donated general theory and test books to the Peter White Public Library.
Most amateur radio enthusiasts start with an interest in electronics. Some are tinkerers, like Paul. "Hams are very resourceful. We make things out of nothing," he said. "We make things out of junk. We make antennas out of broken tape measures and PVC pipe. We may buy our own $300 radio, but we also build our own stuff out of junk."
In fact, once a week members of HARA get together for Project Nite to restore old radios, build things, and to socialize.
Hams have a keen interest in communication. A lot of times they are at home, in a basement or den, surrounded by a bank of equipment, talking to Joe or Betty or Sven next door or halfway around the world.
"It's like a family," Paul said.
Amateur radio's been around for close to 100 years, starting off with transmission of Morse code before there was voice capability. Paul and Rich have no doubt that amateur radio is here to stay.
"Ham radio started off years ago when things were simple," Paul said. "Ham radio operators, throughout the years, have pioneered a lot of technology. We had email back in the 1980s, except we didn't use the Internet, we used radio."
"It's not going to go away," Rich said. "If you’re in the right location at the right time you can take this handheld and talk to the space shuttle." Enough said.
"There are different aspects," Paul said. "There’s the microphone, you can sit and talk with people, or use Morse code, the telegraph key. It depends on what you're in the mood for. We can hook computers up to the radio and type to each other just like the Internet."
Rich agreed that amateur radio is "very versatile. You can set up headphones and a mike on your computer, on your laptop, and you can talk anywhere in the world. You can talk to 5 different countries at the same time ... as long as they're on the air." You can send pictures, video, "simple," he said.
With all the fox hunts, Project Nite, work at special events and chatting with each other and astronauts, hams seem to have a lot of fun, including dressing in funny outfits and attending "hamventions," but their federally mandated mission is completely serious. In an emergency, hams are there, giving their time, using their own equipment and calling upon their own skills and knowledge to open critical lines of communication.
During some large forest fires near Ishpeming and Champion in the late 1980s, Paul recalled, the police and fire radio channels became jammed and communications went down. The amateurs were called in to help, and soon headquarters and outposts were talking again.
The fox hunts are actually an exercise in "direction finding," helping a ham sharpen a skill which may come in handy if, for instance, an Alzheimer patient wanders off. Many patients now wear a small transmitter which a handheld radio can pick up. The Sheriff's department may have two receivers, but the hams come in with a dozen or more as well as search experience gained from their weekly summer outings.
In 1959, before there was such a thing as a toll-free 800 number, ham radio operators enabled TV6 to run a March of Dimes fundraiser. Pledges were radioed in from across the U.P. to a headquarters set up outside the television studio. The pledges were written down and then run inside to be announced on the air.
Rich said that right now HARA has more than 100 members, and it is just one of many amateur radio clubs in the U.P. There is no requirement to belong to a club, so the actual number of hams in the U.P. is unknown, but nationally the Amateur Radio Relay League in 2007 reported a membership of more than 150,000, which was an increase from the year before.
HARA holds monthly meetings in the basement of the Negaunee Health Department, and it was there on a sub-zero January day that Paul demonstrated the use of a handheld radio, checking in with ham WD0BCF in Houston.
"My name is Larry, and I'm in Houston, Texas," the voice said. "The temperature is 51 degrees, and everyone down here is complaining about the cold snap. I've been a ham now since 1966, if I remember correctly. Grew up in southern Michigan."
Mike (KE8IL) in Marquette, a ham for 30 years, checked in via "walkie-talkie," working through a repeater and a handheld radio. A repeater is an antenna that picks up a signal and sends it on, thus "repeating" it. The towers in Marquette, Gwinn, and Munising come into play during the U.P. 200, when hams will be stationed along the trail to relay information back to race headquarters. The signals get through not only because of the towers, but because they can go through trees and buildings—unlike cell phone signals, which get caught up in obstruction.
But the hams will also be prepared to continue talking even if something goes wrong with the towers. If that happens, they switch to shortwave radio bands. With shortwave, the signals will bounce off the atmosphere, in essence being relayed by nature. This requires larger, more powerful equipment, but keeps the lines of communication open. HARA raises money to buy much of this equipment and as well raises money to put up the antennas.
Rich showed me some of HARA’s equipment. "That sells for about $1200 ... To pay for this we have a fundraiser the first Saturday in February at the Negaunee Township Hall," he explained. "We sell raffle tickets, and we try to get equipment, which we sell, donated to a club table, and often people donate some money to the club. This is our fundraiser that we try to finance all this with. And we do work with FEMA, we do have some FEMA grants to help pay for some equipment. It is rather expensive."
The handheld beeped. It was the repeater, the antenna, announcing its call sign in Morse code, as required by the FCC, every 10 minutes. It sounded like the beginning of an old RKO movie.
"Because we know Morse code you can watch some of these movies and sometimes you notice it's real Morse code and sometimes it's just random beeps ... ” Paul said. Just another fun perk of being a ham.
The 30th annual HARA Swap and Shop fundraiser, an electronic flea market offering new and used radio and computer equipment, runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. February 7 in the Negaunee Township Hall. Admission is $4. For more information, the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association is on the Web at www.qsl.net/K8lod/. The American Radio Relay Association, at www.arrl.org, lists other clubs throughout the country.
On a summer's evening, they're out in the woods on what they call a "fox hunt," men and women, in teams of two or three, each following a waggling antenna, listening closely to the staccato beeps of Morse code coming through their handheld radios. The beeps eventually lead them to the "fox," a small transmitting device hidden deep in the duff. Once the transmitter is found, the team pulls off a tag and reads the clue that helps them find the next transmitter.
"This is all for fun," Paul Racine, KB0P, a member of the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association (HARA), said. "When it comes down to emergencies, the FCC tells us we have to provide communication ... We already have our own equipment, because we bought it. We already know how to operate it, because we've been using it for our hobby and practicing, experimenting. So then, when there is an emergency, we’re prepared to go on the air."
On a winter's night, they're out in the woods hunkered down in an igloo or truck, tracking the progress and safety of sled dog teams traveling from Marquette to Grand Marais and back, going where cell phones can't go, providing a foolproof communication system for the U.P. 200 Sled Dog Race. They'll provide the same service—emergency communication—during the Noquemanon Ski Marathon and Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic.
"Why do our signals work better than cell phone signals?" Paul echoed a reporter's question. "First of all, we're very skilled with our equipment—we understand the theory behind communications."
To join the world of ham radio, which encompasses not just the earthly world but outer space—care to eavesdrop on the crew of the space shuttle?—one needs a license, and that means passing a test. The test covers electronic and communication theory, FCC rules and regulations, and how radio signals work. HARA offers testing four times a year, and other ham clubs in the U.P. also offer testing.
"We do like to hold a class if we can," Rich Schwenke, N8GBA, also a HARA member, said. "If anybody’s interested, we'll help them get started, answer any questions that they got." And when a new ham gets his license, Paul said, "We usually get together and go over to his house and help him put up antennas. We all try to help each other out." In addition, the club has donated general theory and test books to the Peter White Public Library.
Most amateur radio enthusiasts start with an interest in electronics. Some are tinkerers, like Paul. "Hams are very resourceful. We make things out of nothing," he said. "We make things out of junk. We make antennas out of broken tape measures and PVC pipe. We may buy our own $300 radio, but we also build our own stuff out of junk."
In fact, once a week members of HARA get together for Project Nite to restore old radios, build things, and to socialize.
Hams have a keen interest in communication. A lot of times they are at home, in a basement or den, surrounded by a bank of equipment, talking to Joe or Betty or Sven next door or halfway around the world.
"It's like a family," Paul said.
Amateur radio's been around for close to 100 years, starting off with transmission of Morse code before there was voice capability. Paul and Rich have no doubt that amateur radio is here to stay.
"Ham radio started off years ago when things were simple," Paul said. "Ham radio operators, throughout the years, have pioneered a lot of technology. We had email back in the 1980s, except we didn't use the Internet, we used radio."
"It's not going to go away," Rich said. "If you’re in the right location at the right time you can take this handheld and talk to the space shuttle." Enough said.
"There are different aspects," Paul said. "There’s the microphone, you can sit and talk with people, or use Morse code, the telegraph key. It depends on what you're in the mood for. We can hook computers up to the radio and type to each other just like the Internet."
Rich agreed that amateur radio is "very versatile. You can set up headphones and a mike on your computer, on your laptop, and you can talk anywhere in the world. You can talk to 5 different countries at the same time ... as long as they're on the air." You can send pictures, video, "simple," he said.
With all the fox hunts, Project Nite, work at special events and chatting with each other and astronauts, hams seem to have a lot of fun, including dressing in funny outfits and attending "hamventions," but their federally mandated mission is completely serious. In an emergency, hams are there, giving their time, using their own equipment and calling upon their own skills and knowledge to open critical lines of communication.
During some large forest fires near Ishpeming and Champion in the late 1980s, Paul recalled, the police and fire radio channels became jammed and communications went down. The amateurs were called in to help, and soon headquarters and outposts were talking again.
The fox hunts are actually an exercise in "direction finding," helping a ham sharpen a skill which may come in handy if, for instance, an Alzheimer patient wanders off. Many patients now wear a small transmitter which a handheld radio can pick up. The Sheriff's department may have two receivers, but the hams come in with a dozen or more as well as search experience gained from their weekly summer outings.
In 1959, before there was such a thing as a toll-free 800 number, ham radio operators enabled TV6 to run a March of Dimes fundraiser. Pledges were radioed in from across the U.P. to a headquarters set up outside the television studio. The pledges were written down and then run inside to be announced on the air.
Rich said that right now HARA has more than 100 members, and it is just one of many amateur radio clubs in the U.P. There is no requirement to belong to a club, so the actual number of hams in the U.P. is unknown, but nationally the Amateur Radio Relay League in 2007 reported a membership of more than 150,000, which was an increase from the year before.
HARA holds monthly meetings in the basement of the Negaunee Health Department, and it was there on a sub-zero January day that Paul demonstrated the use of a handheld radio, checking in with ham WD0BCF in Houston.
"My name is Larry, and I'm in Houston, Texas," the voice said. "The temperature is 51 degrees, and everyone down here is complaining about the cold snap. I've been a ham now since 1966, if I remember correctly. Grew up in southern Michigan."
Mike (KE8IL) in Marquette, a ham for 30 years, checked in via "walkie-talkie," working through a repeater and a handheld radio. A repeater is an antenna that picks up a signal and sends it on, thus "repeating" it. The towers in Marquette, Gwinn, and Munising come into play during the U.P. 200, when hams will be stationed along the trail to relay information back to race headquarters. The signals get through not only because of the towers, but because they can go through trees and buildings—unlike cell phone signals, which get caught up in obstruction.
But the hams will also be prepared to continue talking even if something goes wrong with the towers. If that happens, they switch to shortwave radio bands. With shortwave, the signals will bounce off the atmosphere, in essence being relayed by nature. This requires larger, more powerful equipment, but keeps the lines of communication open. HARA raises money to buy much of this equipment and as well raises money to put up the antennas.
Rich showed me some of HARA’s equipment. "That sells for about $1200 ... To pay for this we have a fundraiser the first Saturday in February at the Negaunee Township Hall," he explained. "We sell raffle tickets, and we try to get equipment, which we sell, donated to a club table, and often people donate some money to the club. This is our fundraiser that we try to finance all this with. And we do work with FEMA, we do have some FEMA grants to help pay for some equipment. It is rather expensive."
The handheld beeped. It was the repeater, the antenna, announcing its call sign in Morse code, as required by the FCC, every 10 minutes. It sounded like the beginning of an old RKO movie.
"Because we know Morse code you can watch some of these movies and sometimes you notice it's real Morse code and sometimes it's just random beeps ... ” Paul said. Just another fun perk of being a ham.
The 30th annual HARA Swap and Shop fundraiser, an electronic flea market offering new and used radio and computer equipment, runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. February 7 in the Negaunee Township Hall. Admission is $4. For more information, the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association is on the Web at www.qsl.net/K8lod/. The American Radio Relay Association, at www.arrl.org, lists other clubs throughout the country.
