Cory Martin operates his set-up in a tent at the Lions Campground.
Vincent d’Eon was in a board meeting 10 years ago when word came that High River had flooded.
d’Eon mobilized 55 other ham radio operators to provide communications around the clock for the next 72 hours.
“We were the people keeping the Town of High River operations in touch with evacuation halls and the provincial government,” d’Eon said.
“They had lost all the convential communications. The town radios did not work, all cell services were down in town, all Internet was down.”
d’Eon said every emergency management official knows to use ham radio when conventional communication fails.
The ham radio operators responded quickly to High River’s emergency in 2013.
“It was quite a task for 72 hours,” d’Eon said.
That’s the kind of invaluable service ham radio operators, or “hams” as they refer to themselves, provide in emergencies.
Last weekend members of the Southern Alberta Amateur Radio Club gathered at the Lions Campground north of Fort Macleod for a field day.
As part of field day, the club’s ham radio operators, who came from Lethbridge, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Okotoks and other centres, were charged with making as many contracts with people around the world as possible in a 24-hour period.
“The reason we do this is to rehearse and see how prepared we can be in an emergency,” d’Eon said.
The field day simulates a major disaster or emergency, when ham radio operators go to remote locations to provide communications when phones and computers fail.
“You look around and you think to yourself well here’s a rag tag bunch of guys,” d’Eon said. “Yeah, we’re all hobbyists, but at the end of the day there’s decades and decades of experience in the people here who understand how to get a message form Point A to Point B.”
It was another Alberta emergency that got Cory Martin, who had a CB radio as a youth, to become a ham radio operator.
Martin, who is blind, was working for AMA Insurance when a wildfire ravaged Fort McMurray.
“I found out how devastating it was,” Martin said. “We couldn’t reach some clients. The phones didn’t always work.”
“That kind of put me back onto the idea that if there’s ever an emergency, as a blind person, what use am I to anyone? So I got into this.”
“I always kind of wanted to get a ham radio licence and of course now the technology is better. I can control all of this with a computer and it’s all accessible to me.”
Martin contacted the Southern Alberta Amateur Radio Club in 2017, took a course and got his ham radio licence. He’s now the club president.
In addition to providing service to others in an emergency, hams derive much pleasure from their hobby.
“There’s an allure to it,” Martin said. “It’s almost like going fishing. You don’t know what you’re going to get, you don’t know who you’re going to talk to.”
The hobby also appeals to people who like gear and electronics. You can buy a basic radio but the sky is the limit to expanding.
Southern Alberta Amateur Radio Club director Gary Wheeler said as many as 50 ham radio operators could visit the campground over the weekend.
Hams come from all walks of life. d’Eon is an IT senior project manager and other listed such professions as welder, salesman, farmer and engineer. Wheeler knows a doctor who is a ham.
Twelve hams were camping at Lions Campground, an increase from four last year at Milk River.
The field day, which included a tailgate flea market, pizza party and pancake breakfast, also marked the 100th anniversary of field day.
Wheeler said field day is a chance for the public to talk to ham radio operators and learn more about the craft.
Some people are immediately hooked.
“Hopefully this year we add another ham,” Wheeler said.
