Dixie Amateur Radio Club makes widespread contact during annual field day

ST. GEORGE — A local amateur radio club, ham radio operators and enthusiasts throughout the nation and Canada attempted to make contact with each other over the weekend as part of Winter Field Day.

The Dixie Amateur Radio Club participated in the Winter Field Day exercises and taught people how to use the ham radio, St. George, Utah, Jan. 28, 2023 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

The Dixie Amateur Radio Club began hitting the airwaves at noon Saturday and continued through Sunday, 24 hours later. During that time, the club worked on making as many contacts as possible with the hope of making contact with someone in all 50 states.

“It was good,” club member Ric Wayman said of the event. “We had 513 contacts made and almost all 50 states; we were three short.”

The three states they weren’t able to contact were Vermont, Wyoming and Alaska.

He said last summer during the Summer Field Day they made contact with all 50 states; however, more contacts were made in total than last summer, which resulted in some 400 contacts.

They also made contact with seven Canadian provinces.

Winter Field Day is coordinated and put on by the Winter Field Day Association nonprofit organization. The organization developed after The Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio was asked if they would sponsor a field day activity during the winter in June of 2006. The first held event was Jan. 13-14, 2007.

The Winter Field Day Association was formally organized and took over the event in 2015. Winter Field Day is held on the last full weekend in January, and it goes 24 hours from start to finish.

The Summer Field Day is sponsored by the National Association for Amateur Radio and happens on the last weekend of June.

Ryan Seegmiller, who serves as the club vice president, said the club was ecstatic to participate in the annual event and said the Winter Field Day was similar to the Summer Field Day.

“It (the Winter Field Day) is run similarly,” Seegmiller said. “Most of the same rules, just a slight few regulations change.”

From 8 a.m. Saturday, during setup and after, people who were near Dixie Sunbowl could be seen journeying into a tent set up by Washington County Emergency Services to learn how to facilitate calls on ham radio.

One local youth wandered in from riding his bike and spent hours there making multiple contacts with other ham radio operators. His first contact reportedly was with an operator out of West Virginia.

The Dixie Amateur Radio Club kept track of how many contacts and states were reached by radio during the Winter Field Day, St. George, Utah, Jan. 28, 2023 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

Seegmiller said with this event they do not do as many practice calls for emergencies. Rather, the event serves as a communication exercise that entails the security of the equipment working and the relay of pertinent information, especially during emergencies. It is simply testing the equipment.

“Ham radios have been and continue to be the one guaranteed method of communication during emergencies,” Seegmiller said, adding that he has made multiple contacts to places throughout the world over the last two years.

Seegmiller said most chat on air is about how the operator is doing, location, the weather and maybe some culture. In general, conversations about politics and religion are restricted.

“For example, with the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the government said, ‘No radio,’ so nobody could get on the radio,” he said.

Seegmiller added there are ham radios as cheap as $20-$30 and as expensive as thousands. Licensing is $35 per person and lasts 10 years. The test fee is $15 per person.

Club dues are generally $25 per person per year, with a student rate of $15 per year and a family rate of $40 per year.

Other fees apply to join professional groups or associations. While the prices vary, membership is not required. However, the local club highly recommends joining two organizations: the AARL and the Utah VHF Society.

“That’s what’s fun about radio,” Seegmiller said. “It’s as expensive or inexpensive as you want. The goal is pretty much the same for everyone, and it’s to get on the air.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

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