The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) hosted its annual Field Day over the June 28-29 weekend at the Concord Rod and Gun Club on Strawberry Hill Road, within handheld radio broadcasting distance from the Acton town line. Around 40,000 amateur radio operators, also known as “hams,” participate each year over the fourth weekend of June in the most popular on-the-air event in North America. The event has been running since 1933, interrupted only by World War II, and the operators who set up at the Concord site are members of the PART (Police Amateur Radio Team) of Westford club.
According to the ARRL website, the objective of the Field Day event is “to contact as many stations as possible on the 160-, 80-, 40-, 20-,15- and 10-Meter HF bands, as well as all bands 50 MHz and above…” Hams on site introduce themselves by call sign.
Late Saturday afternoon, a club member who resides in Acton, who serves as one of Acton’s land stewards and sawyers, introduced himself to an operator interested in joining the club as “Dale Chayes, KB1ZKD.” She responded, “Ellen Ferguson, KB10KN.” Ferguson is employed by Acton’s Recreation Department as the park ranger at NARA. She has been licensed as a ham operator since 2007.
The PART of Westford club got its start in public service to police departments. Before the advent of cell phones, amateur radio operators would report traffic incidents to the local police on a specified frequency.
The club’s membership has many interests, public service support being an enduring one. Hams provide communication support during parades, marathons, and other community events where police are on duty for security, and also relay severe weather warnings and alerts for the National Weather Service’s SKYWARN program. PART works large events such as the Boston Marathon, and smaller ones such as Westford’s Apple Blossom Parade. According to ARRL, while they are known as “amateurs” because they are unpaid, the communications services they provide are professional. Other club activities include kit building, Parks on the Air, where operators set up stations in local parks, and social events. Members live in roughly a 40-mile circle around Westford, hailing from Acton, Chelmsford, Stow, Lexington, and other towns.
PART of Westford President George Allison, call sign K1IG, has been licensed for 63 years. He calls amateur radio a “high tech hobby.” Being a ham operator requires a license from the FCC, but there is no age limit. Allison shared that children as young as six years old are able to pass the test and get licensed.
The PART club had 105 members, and they signed up five new members in the first couple of hours of this year’s Field Day event. Each year, between five and ten new members join over the weekend. The club offers the first year at no cost, and membership is $20 per year after that. At Field Day, the operators expect to make well over 1000 communications, and up to 2000. Their success is largely dependent on atmospheric conditions 90 to 100 miles up. Solar storms can cause serious disruptions, but the complete cloud cover in the area won’t have any impact.
The club has been at the Concord site for the past 10 years. It’s ideal because there are several sheds and plenty of trees to hang the antennae from. The antennae are strung up using ropes anchored in the trees. Operators use arborist launchers, and at least one member has a bow and arrow on hand to help with this task of setup. Several stations are operating: Phone (or “voice”), a Get On The Air (GOTA) station for joining , Digital, Satellite, and Continuous Wave (or Morse Code). Field Day is an opportunity to make sure the gear is functioning properly and to practice for emergency communications.
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a program of the ARRL, and its motto is, “When All Else Fails®”. Hams operate without cell towers, without satellites. They can communicate all around the globe with their equipment running on batteries or generators, and this is a chance to stay prepared for emergency situations when communication infrastructure is down.
When asked whether there were amateur radio clubs in the local high schools, Allison responded, “It’s really difficult to gain access to the schools these days. Involving computers in the radio operations is certainly selling the hobby, and $1 million in scholarships are given out every year” by the ARRL Foundation.
Just before the operators headed to the clubhouse for dinner, Bob Hayes, the satellite station operator, informed this author that the International Space Station (ISS) would pass over around 7:30 the next morning, and the astronauts have a ham radio on board. Hearing this, it was clear that a return visit the next day for a listen was in order.
Although direct communication was not made because Field Day teams across the nation were crowding the airwaves trying to make contact, the ISS was broadcasting to repeaters on the ground, and Hayes was able to pick up that signal. A repeater receives radio signals and retransmits them. Ferguson related that repeaters had recently been installed at NARA Park to optimize radio communications during Acton’s Fourth of July event because there are spots in the park, notably the bowl of the amphitheater, where signals are weak or blocked.
Allison reported after the event concluded that PART made over 1700 contacts in 24 hours in the U.S., Canada, and several other countries, including Japan, the farthest contact. Points are awarded based on the number of communications made. The teams also get points for using generators rather than commercial power, as well as their safety set up. Colorful flags and cones surrounded the wires, antennae, and other equipment.
Chayes served as the Safety Officer and Host for the event. The club also received 100 points just for having an elected official, this author, stop by and, by Sunday morning, Ferguson had completed an application to join the club.
Alissa Nicol is a member of Acton’s Select Board, and writes about community events for the Acton Exchange.