Conejo Valley group shows ham radio's essential purpose in 24-hour race to connect

A cluster of casualty management tents surrounded by antennas and generators in Newbury Park Saturday had the trappings of a disaster. 

But the gathering inside leaned both festive and nerdy.

This marathon stint of emergency communication via ham radio was more than a hangout for hobbyists, however.

During disasters — including the Thomas, Woolsey and Hill fires, for example — amateur radio operators sometimes provide the only means of communication when cell phone and internet connections go down.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club set up on a grass field at Maple Elementary School to take part in Field Day. The annual event has connected clubs and individual operators around the United States and Canada since 1933.

Each June, Field Day pits some 40,000 licensed enthusiasts in a 24-hour contest to connect with one another. It is put on by the national association for amateur radio, known as ARRL.

"People around the world are setting up portable stations," Stu Forman, president of the Conejo Valley club, said Saturday afternoon. More than 50 of the local club's 150 or so members were expected to take part, he said.

The setups mimic emergency conditions that confront ham radio operators in an emergency, Forman said.

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Participants were completely off grid. At the Newbury Park site, long tables of equipment under multiple tents were powered by generators and solar panels. Laptops were everywhere, but there was no cell phone or internet connection.

Field Day also serves as an open house for amateur radio. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, members of the public were invited to check out the operation.

Visitors included Boy Scout troops from Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. Members of troops 730, 754, 765 and 485 earned radio merit badges at the event.

Others were drawn out of curiosity.

Jake Dellacort, 13, spoke into a handheld microphone at a station for first-timers overseen by licensed operator Benjamin Kuo. The Thousand Oaks teen and his father, Mike Dellacort, were thinking about getting into ham radio after seeing it at a Boy Scouts of America Camporee event.

Kuo's gear featured a high-frequency radio transceiver that can communicate around the world by bouncing signals off Earth's ionosphere, Kuo said. He described the ionosphere as a "layer of electrons around the world, way up in space."

Most of the Field Day stations were for licensed amateur radio operators.

At some, the antique art of Morse code came into play. Morse code is no longer required for a ham radio license from the Federal Communications Commission. At the local event, experienced hands like Greg Lane and Adrian Jarrett expertly tapped out dits and dahs as the 24-hour contest was underway.

Some newcomers nevertheless remain drawn to Morse code, including 15-year-old Cayden Spivey, of Thousand Oaks.

"I thought it was going to be the hardest thing to learn, but it's really easy," said Cayden, who was taking part in his first Field Day Saturday.

The event leaned heavily male, but women were also on hand.

Heather Knoedler, of Newbury Park, and her 10-year-old son, Chris, were continuing a family legacy, she said.

Heather Knoedler got her license in sixth grade and grew up knowing Morse code. Her father made the whole family learn ham radio so they'd be able to stay in touch in the days before cell phones, she said.

Her son Chris had earned three levels of licensing in the months preceding Saturday's event. At one voice station, he made radio contact with a participant in British Columbia to score a tally for the local group.

Though Field Day is a contest of sorts — to see who can make the most connections — it's really more of an exercise for operators to practice skills in less-than-ideal situations, participants said.

"A lot of this is about service," said Kuo, who ran the newcomers' station, of the ham radio bug.

Many of the local members got interested after the 1994 Northridge earthquake knocked out phone lines, he said.

Kuo got involved more recently after his son became interested.

When Hurricane Maria crippled the tiny island of Dominica in 2017 before moving on to Puerto Rico, Kuo worked with the U.S. State Department to help evacuate Americans and others.

The small Caribbean island had lost all power, phones and internet.

"The outside world didn't know anything was wrong," he said. "Amateur radio was the only way they could get help."

For more information about the Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club, email info@cvarc.org.

Gretchen Wenner covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at gretchen.wenner@vcstar.com or 805-437-0270.