Tune in, Saratoga

A tornado touches down in Carbon County, grounded long enough to create significant damage, and in the process takes out cellular towers and internet infrastructure. It's an emergency, but now the cellphone in the hands of onlookers has become nothing more than a fancy camera.

How could the Office of Emergency Management function?

"If you don't have internet connectivity or cell towers, then you're kind of hosed," says Rick Parent, call sign W0ZAP. "That's where HAM radio comes in because it does run independent of those."

Parent and a handful of other amateur radio operators set up base on Ryan Ranch, owned by Greg Ryan, to participate in the Amatuer Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day. Parent comes from Kansas City and is joined by fellow amateur operator Lee Ward. Some locals, such as Andy Van Tol and Greg Cooksey, also join in on the event.

"The goal for field day is to log as many contacts with as many other stations as you possibly can. In that sense, it's a competition to see who can get the most QSOs, or contacts," said Parent. "Really, the main objective of the event is to see how successful you can be by packing your radio equipment up and going to a remote location that doesn't have access to AC power."

For the annual field day, the Saratoga location-call sign N7W-had three stations set up beginning with a fifth wheel trailer.

"With that station, we're running what we call a single-sideband or voice. In other words, we're communicating via voice with a headset and a microphone. The middle station has another US tower device. It's running our digital modes, mainly FT8," said Parent. "What that is, it's a computer-to-computer. It goes from computer-to-radio, radio-to-antenna, out over the air, and then on the other end comes down the same way. You log the QSO from computer-to-computer, end-to-end."

The middle station, a repurposed military freezer on wheels, was brought up by Ward. Despite how small it looks at first glance, Ward-who stands approximately six feet tall-is able to work in the trailer and sleep in it comfortably while in the field. The final station is an enclosed trailer, typically used for storage and transportation.

"We affectionately call this our rocket launcher," said Parent. "We've drilled a hole in the roof and we have a military crank-up tower."

The affectionate term makes sense once one sees the sections of tower next to the trailer. Each is about three to four feet long and stacked together like rockets waiting to be used. The "rocket launcher" runs a continuous wave channel, also known as morse code. The single-sideband and continuous wave formats are counted towards Saratoga's station classification of 2A, meaning two stations. The FT8, which operates on VHF or very high frequency, is "a gimme."

Beginning at noon on June 24, the group of amateur radio operators participated in the ARRL for 24 hours until noon the next day. Parent, whose task it was this year to ensure the station followed the rules, also sets up the computers and logging information.

"I set up all the logging and computers here and I'll get the logs off each one of those computers, we'll combine them and logcheck them to make sure we don't have any duplicates. Then we submit them to the ARRL," said Parent. "As far as that goes, N7W-our call sign here at Saratoga-has won the competition for the state for the last three years running. So, we do pretty well."

Before they began on that Saturday, the group was visited by Lenny Layman of the Carbon County Office of Emergency Management.

"He was pretty impressed. He thought it was a neat idea. In fact, he invited us, for next year, to come back and set up a link between here and Rawlins," said Parent. "He would run an exercise with his folks in Rawlins while we're out here and we could establish a link that way. That's very doable, very easily done, because of the expertise of the folks that we have here."

There's more to the ARRL than preparing for an emergency or trying to gather as many contacts as possible. It's also an opportunity to engage with the younger generation and, perhaps, inspire an interest in amateur radio.

"During the weekend, we have a lot of scout masters with a troop that are out camping. They'll set up a station and run the kids through the station," said Parent. "A lot of them will pique an interest in amateur radio and pursue it at some point."

"At some point" seems to be in the age-range of 30 to 50 years old according to Ward.

"The number of licensees is actually growing," said Ward. "As the population ages, so has the average age of the HAM community, and it's growing. It's guys in their 30s to 50s that seem to be new licensees."

Good news for people in their 30s who don't want to choose a hobby from either World War II history or smoking meats.

According to both Ward and Parent, while the set-up at the Ryan Ranch isn't inexpensive, it doesn't take much to become an amateur radio operator. Once someone obtains their technician class license, they can access UHF, ultra high frequency, and VHF, very high frequency, radio bands with something as simple as a walkie-talkie.

"The real cost of the hobby depends on your pocket book," said Ward.

From there, the sky's the limit for amateur radio operators who are willing to upgrade their licenses. Quite literally.

"I had this burning desire to do satellite work. We have satellites in orbit around the planet, sponsored by the ARRL, and you can use one of those walkie-talkies to go up to the satellite and down wherever," said Parent. "I live in Kansas City (and) I've done it where I've gotten on the air on a satellite frequency and talked to people in California or in Spain. There's an infinite number of interests, or different modes, or types of communication."