Cave Area Convention Center was packed Saturday, March 2nd with hobbyists and professionals alike, at the locations 30th annual HAM radio festival.
The festival offered amateur radio enthusiasts not only the opportunity to shop at the events dozens of tables, all filled with anything aspiring and experienced “HAMS” could be looking for, but also included information and testing areas for attendees to advance their avocation.
Testing is necessary to use amateur radio and comes with three different levels of advancement. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently issues three Amateur Radio Service licenses: Technician, General, and Extra licenses. Technician is considered the “entry level” license, while Extra is the top-level license.
Chappy Rice, Treasurer to the Mammoth Cave Amateur Radio Club, spoke on the testing requirements.
The Technician license grants transmitting privileges on the Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) bands most commonly used for local area communications.
Essentially, the General license opens the world of long-distance, international communication to you, as well as greatly increasing the voice mode operations on the High Frequency (HF) bands. With access to the range of HF bands, the user can communicate with operators around the globe, across the continent, or right next door using voice, or digital modes of radio signals.
The General license requires increased knowledge of the common operating modes and practices for HF communications as well as more advanced digital communications techniques and electronics competency.
Finally, the Extra license adds privileges to operate on additional segments of the HF bands beyond those provided by the General license. This license upgrade provides full access to the range of bands allocated to the Amateur Radio Service. The Extra license represents a significant increase in knowledge of radio science, electronics, and operating techniques and is comprised of 50 questions from a pool larger than those for General or Tech.
Many would be hobbyists can be put off by how intimidating the prospect of getting started into the HAM world can be, a high school radio club from Harlan County shows that, with passion, intimidation doesn’t stand.
“HAMS” from all around Kentucky attended with the Harlan County Radio Club making the three hour drive to experience what the festival offered. The club was made up of around 15 members, with Garrett Bolin, geometry teacher for Harlan County Public Schools (HCPS), spearheaded the way for the radio club.
While students with the HCPS radio club are getting an early start on their continuing education with radio, some like Herb Hess, Secretary for the Mammoth Cave Amateur Radio Club, came into the hobby a bit later in life.
The event carried well into the afternoon, and stood as a testament to something that any member of the public knows. Radio continues to bring together not just communities but generations.
