The Pavillion at Lake Sumter Landing Market Square became a signaling station Saturday as The Villages Amateur Radio Club set up shop. The active group of HAM Radio enthusiasts attracted the attention of interested adults and children eager to learn about their endeavors.
Outside the gazebo on the lake side, club member Leon Jurszyszyn, from Briar Meadow North, and Bob Hagan from Mira Mesa Village, set up a tall, curving metal antenna, which picked up photo signals from a camera at the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Annex on County Road 466.
“It uses a low power microwave frequency which sends a parabolic signal to this mini-YAGI antemma,” Leon explained. “Most modern microwave ovens use 1,000 or higher wattages. We use milli-watts. They won’t cook or burn anything. We are playing with HSMM-MESH and BBHN (antenna systems), using standard discontinued routers that have transmitters and receivers in them.”
Hagan described it as a system similar to the Internet, only private.
Up in the Pavillion, the beep, beep, beep of code rang out as transmitting stations in each corner were sending messages. Charles Pinkston of Fruitland Park came to Lake Sumter Landing to take his three children to the movies when they spotted the club’s sign in the gazebo.
“This is much more interesting,” Pinkston said, as his daughter and two sons all got involved with sending messages.
A HAM radio hobbyist since 1970, Silver Lake Village resident, Frank Johnson, is interested in ‘EME transmissions,’ which means Earth to the Moon and back to Earth signals. “We bounce signals off the moon and talk with people all over the world,” Johnson said. “We haven’t had contact with any Martians yet,” he quipped, “but we do get signals back from the Lunar Rover device they have up there. It sends back pictures and signals as NASA moves it around. NASA tells it where to go and what to do.”
At a nearby table, Frank Johnson, club treasurer, Doris Le Favour, from the Village of Sanibel, and Village of Collier resident, Len Klein, were discussing their hobby with Jim Jacobson, a new one-month Lady Lake resident who was looking to join the group. Len Klein’s golden doodle ‘Nubbins’ was relaxing on her leash.
Club president Marty Brown, who answers to her call letters WBZVYK ,said her group is using ‘Radio on the Square’ as an opportunity to show HAM Radio to the public. We are demonstrating an emergency relay setup, which uses a simple antenna, to show people you don’t have to have a lot of expensive equipment to get ‘on the air.’ Since you have to be licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate a HAM radio, we have a tech class coming up, starting on Tuesday, Jan. 13, people may want to know about. We use VOIP — voiceover Internet protocol. You can do almost anything you can do with a regular radio with this setup.”
A flier from the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, describes a technology that’s “as cool as you want to make it.” It’s a way to talk with people around the world without the Internet or cell phones — and you can build a network of ham radio friends. HAM radio operators can talk through satellites and with astronauts on board the International Space Station; they can become weather spotters and can help support recovery efforts in emergencies.
There are more than 700,000 HAM radio operators in the United States and three million worldwide. After passing a 35-question exam for an Amateur Radio License, anyone, of any age, can be ‘on-the-air.’ Website: www.arrl.org.