Field Day 2008
Gateway Technical College’s Amateur Radio club, N9GTC, joined other ham radio operators across the nation to demonstrate their emergency communications capabilities from noon June 28 to noon June 29 at the field north of the Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation (CATI). The weekend event at Gateway was part of a national Field Day event as a finale for the Amateur Radio Week sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio operators. Using only emergency power supplies, groups across the country set up emergency stations in parks, shopping malls and schools to demonstrate how Amateur Radio works and to answer any questions from the public. Gateway’s Amateur Radio club hosted 23 public visitors; including the Deputy Director Racine County Emergency Management and a representative from the American Radio Relay League. The group held Dipole Building sessions and provided handouts that folks could take home.
Not only did the 8 student club members demonstrate amateur radio to the visitors, they also helped them make a contact with another field day station across the United States. After 24 hours of operation, 116 contacts to field day stations in 34 states and 2 Canadian Provinces were entered into the log book. More importantly, the club members learned how to setup and operate an emergency radio station, the visitors learned how amateur radio can provide communications when all else fails. As one of the families that visited was about to leave, the youngest son asked if they could come back next year. (This 2nd grader was the person that contacted Hawaii.) The N9GTC club members smiled and said they can come back every year.
For a better feel of what all took place, please visit the links at the top of this page to view the pictures.
See you all next year!
73,
Pat
WW9R, club trustee for N9GTC