No Bacon To Be Found At This HamFest

By John Voket

Hungry travelers who may have seen signs directing those exiting Interstate 84 last Sunday to the local HamFest would have left disappointed after learning the event was actually an annual gathering of amateur radio enthusiasts.

The September 12 HamFest was one of the premier activities of the Candlewood Amateur Radio Association (CARA), the Danbury region’s general-interest amateur radio and ham radio club.

According to its website, the club has regular meetings on the second Friday of each month plus various other activities, including its well-attended HamFests. Those gatherings, held annually at Edmond Town Hall, provide an opportunity for ham radio enthusiasts from southern New England and eastern New York, to buy, sell and swap ham equipment, books, software, as well as related new and used electronic goods.

The Newtown event also featured a workshop on how to select, erect, and safely secure radio communication towers, which was of particular interest to several members representing Newtown volunteer fire companies that have interests in procuring and installing new radio towers in the coming months.

Walking amid racks of mobile antennae, carefully constructed boxes of couplers, tubes and ferrites — magnetic iron and ceramic plates typically used for transformers — faithful fans of the airwaves ooohed and ahhhed as they discovered beautifully crafted vintage radio consoles, miles of coaxial cables, even a gently used bass guitar, and a table full of collectible Beanie Baby stuffed toys.

According to club representatives, CARA also hosts license exam sessions in March, June, September. and December, at the Stony Hill Fire Station in Bethel.

As detailed on the CARA website, one of the reasons amateur radio is still allowed to exist — taking up slices of the radio frequency spectrum, which is coming to be viewed more and more as a valuable commodity — is the service that hams provide in times of disaster.

When disaster strikes, be it hurricane, earthquake, explosion, fire, or anything else, amateur radio is often the only means of communication available to the outside world — or within the area affected.

Many CARA hams participate in emergency communications in the Candlewood Lake area, taking part in ARES/RACES training sessions, nets, and meetings, and occasionally serving in an emergency situation in the area.

CARA also sets up a “Field Day” site on the fourth weekend of June each year. Field Day is a nationwide emergency-preparedness exercise sponsored by the American Radio Relay League in which individuals, groups, and clubs set up an emergency station (often in a field, giving the exercise its name) and try to communicate with as many other such stations as possible.

For a period of time, particularly in the late 1970s, ham radio frequencies served as the home to a motley group of pirate radio stations. A website DXing.com relates that if there was one station that can be considered as the “starting point” for pirate radio today, that would be the Voice of the Voyager.

This station took to the air in early 1978 on 5850 kHz from a location near Minneapolis, Minn., and could be easily heard throughout North America. It operated on a regular schedule late on Saturday nights.

The operators were all short wave radio listeners themselves, and soon attracted a wide audience with their parodies of the FCC and SWLing clubs/personalities. They also played rock music, and broadcasts sounded very much like a group of young people having a party.

Unfortunately for the Voice of the Voyager operators, the FCC’s St Paul, Minn., office raided and closed the station in August 1978. The FCC officials seemed more amused than angry — according to the report, even asking for souvenir calling cards — and issued no fines nor took any other actions against the operators.

To learn more about CARA and its activities, click on: http://www.danbury.org/cara/index.htm