Willamette View Amateur Radio Club: KE7OIM

Field Day, June 26, 2010

The Willamette View Amateur Radio Club participated in Field Day Saturday, June 26, 2010, with demonstrations of its activities: tests are conducted by authorized groups, and amateurs may utilize various frequencies of the radio spectrum according to their license level. Individuals interested in transmitting and receiving information by radio are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The Willamette View Amateur Radio Club is licensed by the FCC, its call letters are KE7OIM. The Club includes 14 residents who have passed various tests and have licenses to operate.

The American Amateur Radio League (ARRL) is an organization for licensed amateurs. Among its various activities is one referred to as “Field Day.” It used to be a contest for amateurs to see how many other amateurs could be contacted in a given period of time. Today, it is a day on which the activities of the amateur radio are demonstrated to the public.

Amateur Radio Club The Willamette View Club demonstration included three amateur radio stations equipped to reach various distances according to the radio frequencies being used. One of the stations is a “HF” or high frequency which enables Club members to make contact with any other amateur station anywhere in the world. The second station is a “VHF” or very high frequency which enables an operator to any other station in line of sight. Often it is necessary to place this type of station on top of a hill or mountain peak. VHF is facilitated by the use of “repeaters” which are stations that rebroadcasts a message sent to it. Repeaters for this frequency are available all around the Portland metro area as well as Mt. Hood. The third station is a “UHF” or ultra high frequency station. The range on this frequency is limited. The Club uses it to contact a repeater on Mt. Scott where transmissions from that repeater can reach Salem, Oregon.

The Willamette View Amateur Radio Club is part of the Clackamas County Amateur Radio Emergency Services network. Members check their radios every Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m., and also attend a monthly meeting of county emergency services providers as part of the Club’s ongoing mission.

Amateur Radio Club

ARRL photo of Louise Evans Article from the August, 2010 issue of QST, a publication of ARRL, the national association for amateur radio, and the most widely read amateur radio publication in the country.