PRESS RELEASE – Clubs from the very corner of northwest Ohio held a “very open” Ham Radio Open House event outside of Northwest State Community College south of Archbold.
Standing by a tent erected on the college lawn, Stan DeGroff, W8SRD, enthusiastically addressed a group of students saying, “Amateur radio is full of career choices! It can lead you in so many directions.”
DeGroff, who is president of the Williams County Amateur Radio Association (WCARA), reminded them that so many facets of amateur radio can lead to fascinating careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. He explained how his own interest in amateur radio and computer programming led him to some interesting applications in his own career.
The students were there to meet with area ham radio operators as a part of an open house in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day.
One of the club members, Mike Kwiatkowski, KE8YUJ, an instructor at the college and a recent graduate of the ARRL Teacher’s Institute, has been working with other WCARA club members to plan experiences that can stir more interest in young people about amateur radio.
After getting the go-ahead from the college to hold the Ham Radio Open House on April 22, the group set up a tent with some working radios, antennas and remote solar-powered equipment.
Kwiatkowski also spoke with a colleague, Matt Geiger, WB3AK, an instructor at the Four County Career Center, which is next door to the college, and he said he would bring over a couple of classes of his high school students to the tent.
Since the students from both schools are largely from Williams, Fulton, Defiance and Henry counties, the club also put out the word to some members of the neighboring county amateur radio clubs to see if they would like to come that day.
Gretchen Arno, KE8OKA, secretary of the Fulton County Amateur Radio Club, made an impactful presentation as she contacted a man who was operating his radio in a Parks On The Air contest in New Jersey.
It opened up a slew of questions about how amateur radio operators make contacts, participate in contests, what equipment they use, how it helps people, and more. Randall Schad, WZ8Q, president of the Defiance County Amateur Radio Club, also stopped by during the day.
The students asked which antennas were better to use than others. DeGroff spoke about the antennas on hand, saying how the best antenna often depends upon what you are trying to accomplish but also elaborated that different antennas have been created due to the experimentation that amateur radio operators are known for.
Ham radio operators have a reputation for their ingenuity as they try to find new and different ways to make communication breakthroughs.
To demonstrate, he showed the students an antenna he made out of a tape measure used for searching for the direction of a signal.
Bill Priest, W8BNO, demonstrated a radio with waterfalls on the screen to indicate places where people were talking. He stopped at one of the waterfalls to make a contact and ended up talking with W5LEX, the radio room of the USS Lexington on the Gulf coast of Texas!
He also pointed out that many operators are using computers attached to their radios to make digital contacts around the world, and in other cases some amateurs are setting up cutting edge communications systems, such as mesh networks, to provide communications in communities during emergencies.
Still others, he pointed out, use their equipment to make special contacts with astronauts in space and in the International Space Station. Mr. Geiger said he knows there is interest in working on a class project to do just that in his class, perhaps next year.
Eventually, the Williams County club would like to offer some training classes that help young people and other interested people become new ham operators. All the people who coordinated the event agreed they would like to see it repeated next year.
And Mr. Geiger said that after one of the classes returned from the tent that day, a student asked to borrow a technician class license manual from the group of ARRL manuals he keeps on hand. He said he hopes she will soon be able to join the growing group of young amateur radio operators as a result.