What is amateur radio – A Brief History

The Age of Wireless started on a December day in 1901 in an abandoned barracks at St. John’s Newfoundland when the Italian inventor and experimenter Guglielmo Marconi listened for a crackling series of buzzers indicated the letter “S” had been sent from Cornwall England.

By 1914 Marconi set up a station and antenna for the daily transmission across the Atlantic.  At the same time hundreds of Amateur Radio operators (ham) set up their own home built transmitters and formed the American Radio Relay League, which set up a series of airborne trunk lines across the United States.

Amateur radio has grown over the past ninety plus years.  It has provided emergency communication in disasters, both regional and internationally.  It has kept people based in remote parts of the world in touch with their families.   More recently it has proved a valuable tool in assisting local emergency personal in disaster response.

AMATEUR RADIO = RELIABLE SERVICE DURING DISASTERS

With the explosion of cell phone use there was the feeling that amateur radio communication was no longer needed.  It has since been learned that cell phones are prone to failures in disasters because of physical damage to cell towers and power failures to switching stations.  Amateur radio is much more reliable.  Many ham radios will work from batteries and certain radio frequencies allow for radio to radio communication requiring no additional equipment.  You may have seen a ham operator using a “handi-talkie” (sometimes mistakenly called walkie-talkie).  These small radios can work hours from batteries, reliably providing the ability to keep local emergency agencies updated with much needed information.

THE AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE

The amateur radio Technician license no longer requires Morse Code proficiency.  People with a non-technical background who take and pass a thirty-five-question test can obtain an amateur radio license.  Of course you have to be prepared to take the test.  An excellent study guide, “All You Need to Become an Amateur Radio Operator” is available at Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) located at 1222 Commonwealth Ave, 407-894-3238). The study guide prepares even the “non-technical” with the knowledge to take the ham radio test. The guide can be used as a self paced guide or in a class taught by a ham radio operator.

CERT HAM/AMATEUR RADIO TEAM

Five years ago the Orlando City Fire Department saw the potential for amateur radio.  They sponsored the first class to help prepare responders for the amateur radio test.  There have been three additional classes with twenty-seven people receiving their Technician license.

Ham Radio in Action

During the onslaught, and afterwards,  of hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jeanne the CERT Ham Radio Team provided information to the Orlando Operations Center from residents in neighborhoods who reported downed power lines, road blockage and neighborhood status reports.  The reports came from operators with hand held (handi-talkies) radios contacting a base station who passed this information to the emergency operations center.

The CERT Ham Radio Team will be adding its own repeater in College Park.  The team is grateful to Allstate Insurance for $2,000 in grant money to assist with maintaining the program.

The CERT Ham Radio Team operates a controlled net on Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM on 146.600 MHz simplex.