Great planning, technical knowledge, cooperation and comradery, all contributed to a highly successful 2022 Amateur “Ham” Radio Field Day event held this past weekend at the Northfield Center Township gazebo. Ten members from “The PrepNet” radio group in Northern Summit County, temporarily set up an array of antennas and radio equipment at the gazebo to simulate operating their equipment under emergency conditions.
The group operated continuously for twenty-hours and established clear two-way communications with 41 states and 6 countries, including; All the East, South and West coast states, the island nation of Cyprus located in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey. They also contacted the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, the country of Slovenia and the Maritimes (New Brunswick) on the east coast of Canada. Amazingly, the majority of these contacts were made using low power (100-watts or less)!
Visitors were welcome to the event and were introduced to this fascinating hobby and public service. One of the visitors, Township Secretary, Judy Flauto, enjoyed chatting with a station in Indiana. Township Trustee, Russ Mazzola, also stopped by and observed the operations first-hand.
Although the event was planned for a full twenty-four hours, operations ended at 6AM Sunday when a reported solar flare interrupted radio communications for several hours.
Field Day occurs annually on the last weekend of June. The PrepNet has been participating in this national event since 2009 and is already making plans for next year.
Those participating this year included:
Steve Hendrix W8HXS (Sagamore Hills)
Greg Hendrix KE8PYE (Sagamore Hills)
Dan Kuches KE8KES (Northfield Center)
AJ Kuches KE8OMG (Northfield Center)
Paul Buescher N8HHG (Northfield Center)
Zenon Bartosik W8ZB (Northfield Center)
Mike Lester KD8VHA (Sagamore Hills)
Rich James N8FIL (Northfield Center)
Jeff Kunkel KD8JPQ (Sagamore Hills)
Ken Wood (Hudson)
