Radio Hams Participate in Cross-Country Field Day
By Shane Dawson
Amateur radio operators gather to relay messages across America. Left to right: Michael Smith, Ralph Ables, Jay Patton, Niki Jones, Mike Sebastian, Chris Seil
One day every January, thousands of amateur radio operators across America start twisting their knobs in unison. Using only amateur radio equipment, they compete to see how many long-distance contacts with other operators they can make in a single sitting. This “Winter Field Day” gives radio hams the chance to sharpen and prove their skills in making emergency transmissions in the event of a local emergency that shuts down other methods of communication.
Michael Smith chats with a distant radio operator
On Saturday, January 27th, the ham operators of the Hurst Texas Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined the event. Led by Pat Autrey, the group set up four high-frequency (HF) radios in a room in the Stake Center and spent the afternoon exploring the airwaves. With the help of a newly installed array of antennas on the stake center’s roof, they were able to reach fellow hams as far away as Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Colorado, Michigan, and even New York.
Left to right: Pat Autrey and Niki Jones
The most important connections, however, were those made and strengthened between participants. The group comprised nearly every licensed ham operator in the stake with HF radio training, including Jay Patton, Michael Smith, Chris Seil, Mike Sebastian, Niki Jones, Ralph Ables (Grapevine Stake), Sam McGovern and his wife (Sherman Stake), and Eric and Rebecca Torgerson (Richardson Stake). Several student technicians from as far as Richardson and Van Alsteen also joined the field day, making contacts and chatting over the air alongside their more seasoned friends.
A new HF radio setup — a Yaesu 991a, with the MFJ 929 auto tuner, in the MFJ 4230 MVP 12v power supply
Together, these hobbyists form a tight-knit band who, in times of peril, become a first line of response. The next time droughts, floods, fires, ice storms, or other disasters return to the area — knocking out telephone lines or Wi-Fi signals — the Hurst Stake can count on its radio enthusiasts to help ensure that all friends and neighbors are accounted for and helped.
Shane Dawson is a husband, a girl dad, and a creative problem-solver for hotels and interior design businesses. He’s likely to be found reading, cycling, geeking out about everyday things, or carefully rearranging his kanban boards. He and his family live in Watauga, TX, where he serves as the admin for this website.