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By Kris Harrell

The Jim Bell Wireless Association held its annual Winter Field Day Saturday, allowing local wireless radio operators to practice contacting other operators across the United States and prepare for possible emergency situations. 

The association is an American Radio Relay League (ARRL) affiliated amateur radio club. The organization encourages the use of amateur radio, and some members are active in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and National Weather Service SKYWARN. 

The association is also a club for radio enthusiasts, creating space for participants to practice and share their hobby. 

“I enjoy operating radios; I like trying to teach young people how to get into it and stir up some interest. It’s not a hobby for everyone,” said Tom Crenshaw, an association member and one of the operators of a voice communication station. “You’ve got to learn how to use the equipment and learn the language. You can see there’s a lot of abbreviations and things that come up that you learn as you go through your license, 

The field day is hosted in a location not previously prepared. Once operators arrive, the group sets up different radio stations as they would in the case of an actual emergency. 

“This would be kind of typical: you’re asked to go somewhere, and you don’t know what’s there,” said George Milligan, the director and past president of the Jim Bell Wireless Association. “So, you go in and set up. We’ve got three positions and three antennas, so we had to try and figure out where to put them and get everything set up. Theres a saying: that ‘you react how you train,’ and this is kind of like training for us – [its] enjoyable, but [it’s] training.” 

During the event, Greenville participants contacted people in Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, Maine, Canada and other states across the nation. 

“It [was] just chaos out there,” Crenshaw said. “Everyone was talking on top of everyone else. We’re limited to just a small amount of power we can run and you’re competing with everyone else, you just have to be lucky. You just keep trying, and sometimes you’re lucky.” 

There were 97 connections made, with 49 CW (Continuous Wave or morse code) contacts, 30 digital contacts over text and 18 voice contacts.

To learn more about the Jim Bell Wireless Association and field day events, visit their website at https://www.k4tns.com/.