When disaster strikes and cell towers fall silent, amateur radio keeps the lines open.

That’s the idea behind Ham Radio Field Day, and over the weekend, Owatonna’s radio enthusiasts proved they’re ready. Field Day has been going nationwide since the 1930s.

“It is to demonstrate what the amateur radio emergency communications abilities are, if the phone and internet systems go down,” said Bonnie Johnson. “It’s a way to let people know that we are still available, that we can show if there is ever a time that everything else goes down, they can depend on us, and we try to make as many contacts on this day as we can to practice.”

The Owatonna Steele County Amateur Radio Club set up a temporary transmitting station at McKinley Elementary for Field Day. They set up at 1 p.m. Saturday and didn’t stop until 24 hours later. The reason for this is it’s a “contest,” but not in the way regular contests work. Mike Conrad said it’s to see how many contacts people can get.

The goal is to get every section. Minnesota is one section and California is eight,” said Conrad. “Last I checked, we were at 87 sections, but we’re just getting started as we’ve only been out here for a couple of hours.”

During Field Day, ham radio operators log each contact using computer software, entering the other station’s call sign, operating class, and location. Programs help track contacts, avoid duplicates, and calculate scores in real-time, allowing operators to focus on making as many connections as possible during the 24-hour event.

When they call out on the radio, they use their call sign — a unique combination of letters and numbers assigned to a licensed ham radio operator. It acts like a radio “nametag” and is used to identify the operator during transmissions.

“When we call out our call sign, we do it in phonetics so that it helps get it out because some of the letters are the same,” said Dale Carlson.

When calling out, operators can do it a few different ways.

“You can be on voice, Morse code or you can do one of the digital modes,” said Carlson.

One of their members is blind and conducts his work through Morse code. He was unable to make it to the Field Day event, but was able to do it from home so it could count toward the group’s score.

“Matt’s a machine when he does Morse code,” said Conrad. “He was faster than the computer. You would be sitting there logging for him and he would tell you the call sign before you got it all punched in.”

Because they do this for 24 hours, they can try to make contact at 2 a.m. if they want. Carlson said that one night during college, he had a conversation over the radio with someone from a very distant location.

“It was well after dark, and I got a guy down at the South Pole,” said Carlson. “It was pretty cool and we were sitting here talking to each other and it was nice and loud because no one else was on.”

When they do make contact with someone, their conversation must include two key elements for it to be considered a contact: the call sign and operating section. After that, the conversation can go wherever.

“Sometimes you’ll tell them what kind of radio gear you’re using, antennas and all that kind of stuff,” said Carlson. “If you happen to get onto a subject that both of you are kind of interested in, the conversation could go on for a bit. It can go on however long you’d like, it doesn’t have to be a very long conversation.”

When Carlson was in high school, he had a conversation with someone from Los Angeles and they became great friends.

“Alan and I were talking back and forth and we hit it off,” said Carlson. “We had some great conversations. Every day after school, we’d get on the radio and we’d talk to each other and he was like, 1,000 something miles away.”

Courtesy of the Owatonna People's Press