100 years ago, amateur radio operators were in the early years of making wireless communication with people around the world. Professional radio operators started calling them “ham” as a pejorative, because the amateur’s equipment often caused interference, but operators embraced it and the negative connotation disappeared. There are 800-thousand licensed ham radio operators in North America with 6,619 of them in Iowa. One of the reasons this hobby continues to move forward is because of regular competitions.
Amateur Radio Contests Encourage Emergency Preparedness
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Jason Skretta, KC0EJT, scans frequencies in the “shortwave” band to find voices of other amateur radio operators in North America during the annual summer contest “Field Day”. ";s:3:"u
Photo by John Pemble
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Clint Miller, KC0JUO, is the Emergency Coordinator with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service in Story county. He became interested in amateur radio after learning how it was used during Hurricane Katrina.
Photo by John Pemble
