Radios active

In the wake of a massive emergency and communications breakdown, when land, mobile and satellite phones become inoperable, ham radio could be the only means of communication, operators said.

Following the Northridge earthquake, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, thousands of amateur radio operators, virtually all of them unpaid, hunkered down and assisted in relief efforts, said Mark Gershen, whose calls sign is KF6YAN.

“Ham radio is the only fail-safe means of communication,” said Gershen, president of the Crescenta Valley Radio Club.

The club wrapped up Amateur Radio Week with the annual Field Day, a 24-hour event that began Saturday morning at Deukmejian Wilderness Park. They joined more than 30,000 amateur radio operators in North America who spent the weekend demonstrating their abilities and recruiting new hams.

Part emergency exercise, part public-awareness campaign, operators across the country competed, with points awarded for the numbers of contacts made.

“ALPHA-DELTA-SIX-INDIA-2. ALPHA-DELTA-SIX-INDIA-2,” said member Mark Kanzler, before connecting with a ham in South Texas.

As part of a global celebration to commemorate the Apollo moon landings, ham radio operators in Northern California set up their rigs to bounce their signals off the moon in an effort to talk to colleagues in distant places.

The Burbank Emergency Amateur Radio Service, better known as BEARS, used emergency power supplies such as portable antennas and generators at their headquarters in the Burbank Fire Training Center. Part of the city’s Community Disaster Volunteers, more than a dozen BEARS manned ham radios inside the building and out.

Because the group is occasionally called on for at least two-alarm fires, it needs to be prepared to set up equipment and go through the emergency procedure, said Chester Brown, ham radio operator.

“Under harsh conditions, we’re often the ones who not only coordinate things over the radio, but also provide food and supplies to the firefighters,” he said. “Ham radio is a wonderful hobby. But what we do is also a public service.”

Like many ham radio operators, Brown has all kinds of radios always active at his house. However, like many operators he is also middle-aged, leaving some enthusiasts to wonder what will become of their practice.