Eclipses do odd things to radio waves. An army of amateur broadcasters wants to find out why
It’s the huge tower in his back yard that gives Todd Baker’s hobby away. Bristling with antennae, the 30m (100ft) structure is taller than many of the mature trees nearby. Baker, an industrial conveyor belt salesman from Indiana, goes not just by his name, but also his call-sign, the short sequence of letters and numbers that he uses to identify himself over the air: W1TOD. He is a member of the amateur radio, or ham radio, community.
“You name it, I’ve been in it,” he says, referring to different radio systems, including citizens band, or CB radio, that he has dabbled with over the years. “Communications were just plain-o cool to me.”
Now, he dabbles in celestial citizen science, too. On 14 October, he and hundreds of other amateur radio enthusiasts will deliberately fill the airwaves during an annular solar eclipse, as it crosses the Americas. They’ll do it again next April, when a full solar eclipse becomes visible from Newfoundland to Mexico.
Local ham radio group trains to support hospital system during cyber attack
[PORTAGE COUNTY, WI] A cyber terrorist has taken control of the nation’s healthcare system. Communications are down, bringing hospital and medical operations to a grinding halt. Enter Portage County’s ham radio group, Portage County ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) group.
Nicholas Proulx and Phil Schobert, both members of the group, spent Saturday morning participating in the simulated emergency, which tested county-wide radio communications from the group’s command center — a mobile trailer known as EM50 — parked behind the Portage Co. Annex building.
From Baton Rouge to Belize, local ham radio operators talk around the globe
[BATON ROUGE, LA] The small room near the top of the USS Kidd is tight, with just about enough room for a ham radio and, at a stretch, four people.
For ham operators Pam and Jeff Welsh, it’s all the space they need.
On the morning of Oct. 13 the pair — both members of the Baton Rouge Amateur Radio Club — were hunched over a ham radio, fiddling with dials and knobs as the sound of static filled the room. The BRARC, for short, was marking the occasion of the U.S. Navy’s birthday by transmitting from the Kidd, with people tuning in from around the country and farther afield.