From Mullingar to Australia

Eilís Ryan

We may have multiple choices these days when it comes to communication worldwide, but despite the advent of the mobile phone and the internet and all the apps we now use, there is still a band of people who love the challenge of using amateur radio, or as it’s commonly termed, ham radio.

Last year, hundreds of them descended on Mullingar for this country’s first ever ‘hamfest’, and this August, they’re returning, having booked the grounds of the Mullingar Agricultural Show committee at Cullion to accommodate the event.

And, reveals Howard Guo, who is PRO of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS), organisers of the event, anyone interested in finding out more about the hobby, and even seeing some radio set-ups in action is welcome to drop by.

Though this is to be just the second-ever hamfest in Ireland, amateur radio has been in use for well over 100 years.

“It was the original geeky hobby before the era of personal computing,” says Howard, explaining that there is a great kick to be got out of getting hands-on experience with something so hugely technical, and with figuring out how to tune the device and potentially make contact with someone half a world away.

“It’s a fulfilling experience,” he says, revealing that he has on two occasions managed to speak to other ham operators as far away as Australia.

In fact, by this stage, Howard has managed to make contact with amateur radio users in 74 different countries worldwide. He is hoping to get that number up to 100, a milestone that would get him recognition from American’s equivalent to the IRTS, the American Radio Relay League (AARL).

The IRTS fulfils an educational role for ham operators, organising exams; helping them get licensed, and just generally making sure the amateur radio hobby goes on smoothly for the radio operators in Ireland.

The committee have also begun using social media to raise awareness of the IRTS’s existence and to let people know what they do: “The hobby is so old that its social media presence is kind of limited, or at least not as well as other, let’s say, popular sports, so we bring them to social media as well,” says Howard.

Another responsibility the IRTS has given itself is that of maintaining registries for the well-known radio stations, repeater stations (which serve to extend the communication range for individual operators), and the affiliated clubs around Ireland.

Radio can also be useful at times of national disasters or when the grid is down: “We rarely have natural events, so while the emergency community communication function exists, we, fortunately, have not had to use it,” Howard says.

However, he stresses, amateur radio operators are ready to assist with the equipment they have should such a need arise.

Those involved in the IRTS are all volunteers: “Nobody takes a wage or an income from this, and we are all just enthusiasts who are keen to make the hobby work for everybody,” says Howard.

The need for radio is likely to persist into the future, Howard believes: “Technology has pretty much satisfied everyone’s needs for high bandwidth communication, but what goes on behind the scenes is that there are cables around, there are subsea cables, communication cables, for example, and some locations rely on satellite as a radio relay, similar to a radio repeater.

“In fact, most satellites are radio relays, and so what goes on behind the scenes is what fascinates many people, especially the more, let’s say, the more technically minded people, who are just very curious about how things actually work, so it’s similar to, for example, when an IT student learns about programming.”

To get started, Howard explains, there is a licence exam, for which the IRTS has a textbook learners can download for free. “So once you are familiar with the basic safety regulations, for example, how much output power is allowed over the radio; on what frequencies are operations allowed, and in which modes of operation; and then how to correspond with someone over the radio, how to identify oneself over radio, and how to get a message through – those kind of operational procedural things – so once you are, once you are familiar with them, pass the exam for the licence, and you are a licensed radio operator, and you can try all kinds of radio experiments.

“Often operators find a lot of joy in just trying to use as little radio power as possible to make contact with stations as far as possible. I myself have made two contacts with that two-way radio contacts with stations in Australia, for example,” he states.

As with many hobbies, expenditure becomes a ‘sky’s the limit’ scenario, but starting out, operators can get going without breaking the bank, maybe with a small radio for about €20.

“But then there is no ceiling to how much more expensive it can go,” says Howard. “I’ve seen some amateur radio operators who spend like 15 grand on their equipment, they are just so enthusiastic about the hobby, and they really want to sort of get the greatest joy out of the best equipment there is available.”

Once you have the equipment, it costs nothing to connect, and the main regulatory rule to be observed is that messages sent must not be encrypted or encoded.

The Ham radio community comes together in clubs; there are also around 10 ‘radio rallies’, which Howard describes as being like garage sales, held annually: “You bring all the operators who have some equipment for sale into one location… and you also get some, let’s say, distributors who are more keen to sell equipment in a commercial capacity.”

The Mullingar event (Hamfest) is less about exchanging equipment: it is more of a show and tell live demonstration of what people can do over radio, and an opportunity to learn from each other’s techniques.

“The main message is come together and see what cool things others are doing over radio, that makes it just extra, like it’s an educational experience for everyone involved, and it encourages the operators to bring their own equipment to show others as well, which find quite nice,” he says.

Some of the participants will come the night before and camp overnight, and as last year’s was such an enjoyable event, there were lots of requests to the IRTS to run it again this year.

“It’s also an opportunity to come and see what radio operators are doing. If you are interested, it doesn’t matter whether you have a radio experiment background or not, everyone is welcomed to come and find out.”