The signal is just a bit fuzzy. It’s picked up by the antenna on top of the club house, pointed north and east right now. Matthew Morris, local “Ham” operator, tunes into the 20-meter band, sitting at the desk of the San Angelo Amateur Radio Clubhouse, where all kinds of knobs and switches are fine-tuning into a signal, picked up by the beam antenna that rises above.
Right now, it’s pointed in the general direction of Iowa, where two Hams are talking:
“This is just people chatting right now,” says Morris. “From sunup to sundown, 20 meters will be like this all day long.”
This club has been active for over a hundred years — founded in 1922 — and will celebrate 103 years next month.
Over the speaker, one person is thanking another for the service they delivered at a local church.
Tuning to another band might bring you some chatter from Kansas or Missouri. On another wavelength, someone is speaking in broken-English with on accent that sounds vaguely Russian.
With the right equipment, the antenna can bounce its signal off the atmosphere, for communication with the other side of the world.
On the desk sits two big pieces of antique equipment that still runs off vacuum tubes. Of course, Morris is using a much more modern transceiver — a transmitter and receiver in one unit.
“One day these older radios just showed up at our door,” he said, “I like to think we’re a no-kill shelter for old radio equipment.”
The San Angelo Amateur Radio Club meets in their station off Stewart Lane, and today they are administering a special test. If the test-takers pass, they get to join the special club of over 740,000 Americans who hold an amateur radio license.
The license fee is $35, plus an additional $15 to the club, and then $20-30 for a decent handheld model, and you’re set to transmit in your local area.
With a few hardware improvements, you can talk to the International Space Station.
Marconi’s Miracle
According to historical information, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian electrical engineering student, discovered the usefulness of radio waves while experimenting with ways to send telegraph messages wirelessly in the 1890s.
When it comes to radio waves, you can think of the electromagnetic spectrum as kind of like a big layer cake across the atmosphere. The layers go from slow and wide at the lower end, up to faster, shorter waves at the upper end.
The 20-meter band Morris is tuning into has a wavelength of 20-meters (60 ft.), with an oscillating wave, whose peaks pass into the radio 14 times per second (cycles per second).
These radio signals, which are relatively weak, must be amplified in order to be heard.
Amateur Radio
The term “ham” came from “ham-fisted”, to describe someone who didn’t operate radios professionally. Eventually, the amateurs took the title and ran with it. Now they refer to each other as Hams.
The beam antenna on the clubhouse roof looks like what you would have used to pick up the TV signal back in the day, and that’s not a coincidence — your TV used to run off radio signals.
Explaining how electromagnetic waves can turn into a baseball game, Top 40 countdown or a news update can be complicated.
All you need to know for amateur-radio purposes is that magic is real, and it’s called electromagnetism.
These waves transmit around the globe in different frequencies, measured in cycles per second, or Hertz. One cycle per second equals 1 hertz.
The FM radio frequency range is from 88 megahertz (MHz) to 108 MHz in the United States. In Hertz (Hz), this would be 88,000,000 to 108,000,000 Hz.
“Theres’s a lot of science involved,” says fellow Ham Ed Hopkins. “You learn about the weather; you learn about how the sun energizes the atmosphere.”
Can Anybody Do It?
Now it’s time for the all-important test, because without certification and a proper call sign, you run the risk of getting on the Federal Communications Commission’s bad side.
And they mean business: since the passage of the PIRATE Act, repeat offenders who interfere with normal radio operations can be fined up to $2 million, have their equipment seized and face criminal penalties.
According to radio operators, the violations the FCC is looking out for aren’t trivial.
“They’re not looking for little stuff; it’s the willful violators who are causing problems,” says Morris. “Recently I remember, was a guy somewhere in the plains, who was willfully interfering with fire department traffic. And they nailed him, as they should of course.”
He said that’s because the entire reason these bands still exist is for emergency communications, even though the goal for most hobbyists is to have fun discovering the world around them.
Hopkins explained the basics of amateur radio to me while a few others worked to get their FCC licenses.
There are three license classes: “technician,” “general,” and “extra.”
The difference between these certifications comes down to which parts of the radio band you’re allowed to use.
Technicians can use higher frequencies like VHFs (Very High Frequencies) between 30 MHz and 300 MHz. As you advance to the Extra license, you can use the high frequency (HF) bands, which can be bounced off the ionosphere and travel across the world.
A New Candidate
Across the table, Veronica is taking her initial test for a “technician” class license, while Robert already has his callsign, and is testing for the “general” license.
They answer questions about regulations and procedure, and at the end get the O.K. from the club.
Veronica says she’s been wanting an amateur license recently for her hikes through the backcountry. Now all she has to do is file the paperwork and wait for her callsign.
“I’ve been doing a lot of hiking, backpacking, getting out farther and farther, so I really wanted to get it so I can communicate where cell towers don’t reach. When I got to studying it, it’s amazing what they can do with it these days.”
Rising above the clubhouse are several different types of antennas. The biggest one is called a beam antenna. That’s what we’re using on the radio inside right now. This kind of antenna focuses in one direction. Theres a rotor that allows you to pivot directions.
Then there’s a Di-polar antenna.
More omnidirectional, it can transmit in two directions using a wider beam: imagine a pie-piece-shaped transmission that starts at the base and expands out from either side of the wire antenna.
More Than Just Conversation
Radio waves aren’t restricted to just idle chatter; they can also be used to transmit actual digital data. They can even transmit small text messages through the placement of node antennas around the area.
“The hope is that if we get nodes around a far enough area, is that if the cell towers go down you can still send short messages over digital waves,” said Morris.
As mentioned before, there are over 700,000 active callsigns in the United States, but Japan takes the prize for most licenses at just over 1.2 million.
It’s a very popular hobby across the ocean.
“We’ve transmitted to Antarctica on the club setup,” says Morris. They see it kind of like stock car racing, part of the fun is coming up with new rules and restrictions to see where it takes you. Some Hams built transmitters out of tuna cans, copper wire, whatever they can get their hands on. You can bounce signals off the moon and transmit them back to you. Besides being a way to find out what’s happening on the other side of the world, it can be a skills challenge.
“We like to say that there’s hobbies upon hobbies, if you can think of some way to try something new, somebodies probably already done it.”
If you would like to become a member, visit the club’s official website here.
