Amateur Radio Club hosts Winter Field Day

Published 10:54 am Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Last weekend, the Thomasville Amateur Radio Club participated in the annual Winter Field Day, a North American amateur radio event, and made contact with 176 other stations throughout the nation.

Larry Ochalek, the treasurer of the club, said that they had good conditions for making contacts, with clear weather and little disturbance from the usual suspects, such as solar flares. 

“Saturday and Sunday were good days, the bands were amazing,” Ochalek said. “Sometimes, it kinda depends on the sun, the solar flares, if there’s a solar storm, if there’s any other disturbances in the ionic sphere, you either have a really good day or a bad one, it’s a lot like fishing. That’s part of the fun.”

In total, the Thomasville Amateur Radio Club made 176 contacts, according to Ochalek, and the furthest contact they made was with a station in Hawaii. He added that, apart from the contest, he even managed to talk to some people in Europe, a perk of radio. 

“I, myself, I think I had 60 contacts, it was really doing well there towards the end,” Ochalek said. “I made a contact with England and Germany, apart from the contest, but that just goes to show you how radio works.”

Opening up their station at the Thomas County EOC to the public, he said that they had a few interested individuals come by, some with very interesting stories about their personal history with radio. 

“I think we had 3 or 4 people that came by,” Ochalek said. “We had one fella that came by, and he lives in Grady County, and he’s been in radio since 1962, so he’s been involved in electronics his entire life. That’s nice, that someone like that would stop on by, he strictly does morse code, or CW. Almost a lost art now.”

A public service organization, Ochalek added that those interested in technical work and radio could find more information about the Thomasville Amateur Radio Club at their organization page found at w4ujc@groups.io.