Wahkiakum HamFest returns this weekend

This coming weekend is nationally known as ARRL Field Day for Amateur Radio. Station operators try to contact as many other operators around the world as they can. This is one of the three ways that we test the effectiveness of the long-range portion of our emergency communications system here in Wahkiakum County.

Locally however, we call it "Hamfest" because we do much more. In addition to long-range communications testing, we also teach people how the radio systems work, encourage new folks to give it a try, socialize and eat well. The public is invited. We are at the Wahkiakum HS baseball field (500 S 3rd St.) beside the hit-and-pitch building behind the swimming pool.

Field Day officially starts at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, June 28, and continues for 24 hours, ending at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 29. "Hams" take turns operating the entire time. We will be operating two stations this year. Our "competition station" is for those who are serious about contacting many other stations as quickly as possible. The second, our "Get On The Air" (GOTA) station, is for learning about the system. The GOTA station has trained operators standing by to assist anyone who wants to try out amateur radio. Come learn to thoughtfully "hunt and pounce" or feel the exciting challenge of "running." You don't need your license to try it out. The GOTA station will also double as our "Winlink" station for the weekend, where you can learn how Amateur Radio gets emails outside a disaster area when the cell phones, landlines, and internet are not working.

The eating and socializing begins Saturday around 1 p.m. and ends just after sunset. For those staying the entire 24 hours, the "fest" doesn't end until 11 a.m. on Sunday when we take down the system.

In September of each year and during an event called "Salmon Run," we again set up our system for the Washington State QSO party, where every station in the world tries to contact a station in each county in Washington State. Since we are small, our county is very popular, and we are often in the middle of a "run" with multitudes of stations attempting to swallow our "hook" at the same time. For those of us old enough to have had that experience while fishing, it feels a lot like the real thing: exhausting and exciting. The public is again invited to check us out.

The third way we test the effectiveness of our long-range communications is by operating our Winlink station at public events like the recent Hope Center emergency preparedness conference, Bald Eagle Days, and the Wahkiakum County Fair. Stop by our booth to send a message and watch Winlink work in action. We use amateur radio to automatically place your email into the internet system outside of the no-communications zone. We have placed emails as close as Portland and as far away as South Africa. In either case, the emails arrive at their destination within five minutes, without using the local internet. Come learn how well it works.

If you want to learn more, visit our website at https://N7WAH.net or come to our club meetings at the River Street meeting room in Cathlamet. We meet every Tuesday morning at 9 a.m., except months with a fifth Tuesday. On those fifth Tuesdays, we are busy staffing Fire Halls and refugee centers, testing our local communications. If you are already a licensed Ham, we also test our local system every Monday evening using the Beachnet repeater system at 6:30 p.m., followed by our simplex test on 145.55.