Local Ham radio operators have their first gathering since Helene
Members of the Mayland Amateur Radio Club met at the Springmaid Mountain Resort in Spruce Pine last weekend to partake in the annual National Amateur Radio Field Day, which occurs every year on the last full weekend in June.
This field day serves multiple purposes for devoted ham radio operators and enthusiasts, although, first and foremost, it’s a chance to work on emergency preparedness, a topic that has gained more significance for local ham operators since the disaster last September.
Saturday started with club members connecting wires and cables from the lodge house that they had rented for the field day.
“This is one of our exercises in emergency readiness,” club member Joe Miller said. “Everything we practice for became important after Helene, as ham radio was the only way that we could get information out.”
While the winds disabled almost all the local antennas, surprisingly, the one atop Mount Mitchell was spared. Ham operators immediately went to work, communicating with the outside world and coordinating aid.
Hundreds of operators throughout the region became involved, and most of the members gave special praise to an operator in Lancaster, South Carolina, named Vicki Carnes, who was broadcasting almost continuously.
Spruce Pine resident Hank Aaron is what ham radio operators refer to as an “Elmer,” or a mentor. Aaron spent 21 years in the Marine Corps, becoming an operator in 1968.
“Some people don’t appreciate how important ham radio is in a disaster,” Aaron said. “It was almost the only form of communication available in New Orleans for a month after Hurricane Katrina.”
Aaron is proud of the ham radio community’s work in the aftermath of Helene. “A group of fellows in Nebraska heard our communications and flew out to help,” Aaron said. “You’re connecting with the world.”
Aaron had other stories of discovering fellow ham radio operators even outside of natural disasters. One operator he met and began a conversation with was in Doha, Qatar, where Aaron was planning to visit.
“He invited me to look him up when I got to Qatar, which I did,” Aaron said. “Come to find out, he was the Chief of Police in Doha. He invited me to have dinner with his family.”
Emergency preparedness aside, the National Field Day is an opportunity for members to learn technical skills from each other, something that even Aaron, a 57-year veteran operator, takes advantage of, since even ham radio is becoming more and more digitalized.
The annual meeting also helps reenforce the sense of community between operators, while helping foster interest among young people. Shannon Oesch, an Earth Sciences teacher at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville, runs an afterschool ham radio program at her school.
“The Mayland Club has been nothing but helpful to me,” Oesch said. “One member, Tom Fletcher, actually came out and constructed an antenna for the school.”
“And there,” a smiling Joe Miller said, “is the next generation.”