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Amateur radio enthusiasts connect
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Geroge Berg uses his radio to try to connect with someone. Berg's log records converstions with people from various countries.
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Theresa Seraphim
for South Peace News
Doug Ellison picks up the mike of an amateur radio and says “CQ, CQ, CQ” followed by an identification number.
At this moment, nobody responds, but Ellison isn’t surprised or disappointed. The middle of the day, he says, is not ideal for trying to contact fellow amateur radio enthusiasts on some frequencies.
Ellison and George Berg are in a room in Berg’s house which contains Berg’s equipment for connecting with people in places like Australia, China, the United States, Svalbard Island (located midway between Norway and the North Pole), Papua New Guinea and Britain, among other places. Even the International Space Station has an operator on most of the time.
Berg and Ellison are two of 10 amateur radio enthusiasts in Slave Lake. Ellison says he surmises there are 10,000 in Canada. Amateur radio is regulated by Industry Canada.
The 90-year-old Berg, who has been an amateur radio enthusiast for most of his life, has connected with people all over the world through his radio and antenna.
“My uncle started to talk to me in railroad Morse (code) when I was five,” says Berg as he taps out a message on a Morse board next to his radio.
Morse – either railroad or international (also known as constant wave, or CW), which are different Morse systems – is one way of communicating with fellow radio users.
“Those letters are different. There’s spaces between them and you can’t have space on the air,” explains Berg.
Ellison says callers nowadays use international Morse code.
A user only sends Morse code as fast as the recipient can receive it.
“You work your own speed and the other guy will meet it,” says Berg.
People cut out vowels and shorten words, and users get to understand the words as a whole rather than individual letters, says Ellison.
Other ways of communicating include voice, radio teletype and satellite. A user can now have a computer to assist in communication, says Ellison.
Constant wave breaks up a signal into dots and dashes.
“Because it’s a constant frequency, it has a much greater range,” Ellison says.
“Voice takes a lot more power to get things out – CW is a lot (easier). With CW, you can get further with less power.”
Berg’s radio is analog, while Ellison has a newer, digital model in which a menu takes the place of knobs.
“My old Kenwood … is 55 pounds so you go to this radio, which is five pounds,” says Ellison, noting the power output is the same.
“The nice thing about digital is the capabilities of filtering (static).”
Ellison says he got into amateur radio at the age of 11 through a neighbour who was an enthusiast and through his brother, who built his own radio.
“I always enjoyed radio,” he says.
Ellison attempts to tune in to a time code. The person’s voice will tell him where they are.
“If you hear the lady’s voice, (it’s) Hawaii. If you hear the man’s voice, which you usually will, it’s Fort Collins, Colorado. Every minute, he tells the time in Greenwich Mean Time.”
Hearing the man’s voice also tells Ellison he will be able to get out a signal in a north/south direction, but not east/west.
Antennas come in various sizes, with the length of sine wave going from 80 metres down to 10 or less. Anything 10 metres or larger is affected by the atmosphere, said Ellison.
“In the daytime, 20 metres works really good,” he states.
Users have to keep in mind the time difference, not only so they get someone on the radio but also so that the signal reaches the destination.
Because the signal goes into the ionosphere and then coming back down, things like static, aurora borealis and sunspots can transmit along with the voice.
The transmission will be either short path or long path, says Ellison. So, for example, with someone here calling a person in California, a short-path transmission goes from the caller to ionosphere to California, while a long-path transmission will go to the ionosphere, to Europe, then to California.
Ellison explains there is no choice as to the type of transmission.
“It’s whatever the atmosphere wants.”
The type of antenna is also a factor. A dipole antenna, which involves two wires, sends the signal out in all directions but with little gain in power, while a beam antenna, which is pointed in the direction the caller wants, has a very narrow path but a lot of gain.
Whatever the range or power, users need a licence and have to take a course, says Ellison.
They also need to abide by an on-air code which includes no swearing and shying away from controversial subjects.
“It’s a gentleman’s agreement,” says Ellison.
“If you (break it), nobody will talk to you until you do the right things.”
Ellison recalls the time before the USSR broke up, when he would listen to Voice of America and then to Radio Moscow to see what each said about the same news stories.
“You’ll see differences. People have a different spin on what others are thinking.”
Indeed, says Ellison, a user couldn’t call the USSR before the breakup, because of the Iron Curtain.
Ellison says while amateur radio tends to be more popular with older people than with youth, he believes it will survive.
Anyone interested in amateur radio can give Ellison a call at 780-849-2082.
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