“What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”: Watertown Amateur Radio Club celebrates 40th anniversary
WATERTOWN, WI – The Watertown Amateur Radio Club is putting out the call for new members.
Founded in 1982 with members from Watertown and the surrounding communities, the group of radio enthusiasts enjoy communication using shortwave radios for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, contesting and emergency communications. The club has more than 30 members from all around the Dane, Dodge, Jefferson and Waukesha county areas.
Islanders’ interest in amateur radio surges because of COVID-19 and Fiona
NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA – Stratford resident Brent Taylor has been a ham radio operator for 38 years, in New Brunswick and P.E.I. He goes by the call sign VY2HF.
“It’s been absolutely fantastic. We have been so thrilled with the number of people that have come forward, and now that we’re getting them on the air,” Taylor said.
“Probably because of COVID, and maybe because of Fiona, there’s been a more of an interest, I think, in people wanting to be able to maintain their connections with each other, even from their own homes.”
QSL? Roger roger.
MOSES LAKE, WA — “Whiskey 7 Bravo Juliet November, is that a roger?”
The man’s voice, using the NATO phonetic alphabet to spell out a call sign, had a clear Caribbean lilt discernable even through the static and the distortion.
“Roger, the name here is Brian.” Brian Nielson acknowledged his call sign and spoke clearly into the microphone hanging over his desk. “Go ahead.”
“You’re coming in five by nine here on the beach in Barbados, over,” the voice replied, using the international amateur radio code to describe a clear and strong broadcast.
The Barbadian then described the sun, the sand, and the surf right in front of him, and the fact that he was taking the day off from work.
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