Fairbanks’ Arctic Amateur Radio Club takes part in National ARRL Field Day

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Have you ever heard of ham radio? Well, the people who operate it - hams for short - have long-served communities when storms or other disasters damage typical modes of communication like cell towers.

Saturday morning in Fairbanks, the Arctic Amateur Radio Club members hosted their portion of the annual National Association for Amateur Radio field day event featuring hams. More than 40,000 radio amateurs nationwide got outdoors in remote locations to test their temporary radios’ reliability under any condition for the public. Finding the proper frequency and battling solar flares are some of the biggest challenges, but once there is a connection the reach can be pretty far.

Club president, John Antonuk, has had some far reach personal to multiple continents. He explained “Within the last five years I have communicated with the tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego, a Coastal research station out in Antarctica, South Africa, Iceland, Greenland, all over Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, the Cooke islands in the South Pacific, Reunion Island near Madagascar off the coast of Africa, all from my station at my home in Two Rivers.”

The Amateur Radio Service League released a Field Day information sheet that says hams are “just normal folks like you and me who enjoy learning and being able to transmit voice, data and pictures through the air to unusual places, both near and far, without depending on commercial systems.”

They also emphasize that any new hams make sure to research FCC guidelines before building and using a homemade radio.

Check out this article on ‘Unauthorized Radio Operation’ here: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/unauthorized-radio-operation

More information about Field Day and ham radios visit arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio.