Ham Radio Operators Fill the Void ‘When All Else Fails’

They don’t get paid, they do it strictly as a hobby, they are largely overlooked or taken for granted and they also just happen to be the last failsafe of communication when all else fails.

In the age of satellites and digital communications, many people don’t realize the importance that ham radio operators still play when emergencies like Hurricane Irene crop up from time to time.

In East Granby on Friday afternoon, several ham radio operators were setting up at the Emergency Operations Center at the public safety building and Town Hall in preparation for the big storm.

“As the hurricane comes up the east coast, cell towers will be knocked out while [cellphone] usage will increase 200 percent,” said East Granby’s Emergency Operations Director Skip Colton, who has been a ham radio operator since 1955. “We do support communications.”

Colton recalled, for example, the 1979 tornado that swept through Windsor Locks, when regular radio and telephone communications were knocked out.

“Ham radio operators were literally using their walkie-talkies to follow the first selectman, the health people and the building officials so they could at least get to talk to each other and state officials,” Colton said. “We still do the same thing.”

The digital age has diminished the importance of ham radio in some areas, but it’s still vital as a backup “when all else fails,” Colton said.

That’s because cellphone towers are built mostly on hills, making them susceptible to falling in high winds, and power lines are generally taken down when trees hit them, Colton said.

But ham radio operators, using a small piece of bandwidth on the radio spectrum, will still be there regardless of the storm’s severity.

“East Granby, like so many other small towns, (doesn't) have the money to invest in a sophisticated communications system,” Colton said. “The fire department can’t talk to the police, who can’t talk to ambulance."

That's when ham radio comes in.

"It might sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back,” Colton admitted.

Town officials, for their part, don’t seem to mind.

“We’re fortunate they’re there to assist us if communications are knocked out,” First Selectman Jim Hayden said. “We’re able to communicate with the outside world, which is so valuable in the event of a worst-case scenario.”  

First and foremost, ham radio is a hobby pursuant to FCC rules; in exchange, the FCC permits ham radio operators to use bandwith without charge.

“I can’t take a dime for my services,” Colton said. “No one can even buy me a cup of coffee. There is no money involved. … Some people fish; some people scuba dive. We like to communicate with people all over the globe - be it through Morse code, microphone or, now, digitally.”

Serving as the last-in-line communication in emergencies is just one of myriad functions that ham radio has.

Before satellites, for instance, ham radio was used to communicate with researchers at the South Pole, Colton said.

More recently, in June 2009, ham radio was used to communicate that Jim Calhoun had fallen off his bike during his annual charity ride in Simsbury.

“Cellphones in that area [of the ride] did not work,” Colton said. “We got the message to (the) ambulance and got things going that way.”

But mostly, ham radio is used for fun, as Colton noted an 24-hour contest to see which operator could connect to the most people.

Still, residents can take solace in knowing that they will not be totally disconnected to the outside world in the event of a dire situation.

Dick Lydon, a ham radio operator of 35 years, said that he got the bug to engage in the hobby while serving as an electric technician in the Navy.

“Helping people is a small aspect of ham radio, but it attracts me,” Lydon said.

For more information on ham radio, log on to the American Radio Relay League’s website at www.arrl.org.