The airwaves were especially active over the weekend as amateur radio enthusiasts gathered across the U.S. and Canada to showcase the hobby and, for some, try to best thousands of competitors over 24 hours.
But while some clubs strived to rack up points for connecting with other operators around the continent, that wasn’t the focus for a quartet of Peninsula clubs that set up behind Northampton Christian Church in Hampton.
“We’re not about winning, we’re just having fun,” said Chris Hosman, president of the Hampton Public-Service Team.
The annual field day is considered amateur radio’s “open house” by ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, which organizes the event on the fourth weekend of June.
Clubs set up transmitters and antennas in public places where licensed amateur radio operators, also called Hams, demonstrate the tech’s capabilities to the uninitiated. Some Hams will spend the day feverishly making as many contacts with other operators as possible.
The more contacts made, the more points a club earns. Contacts made on digital modes are worth more than voice contacts. Clubs can also secure points through youth participation, using solar power and getting visited by elected officials during field day. Final scores are released in a few months, ranking clubs by class as determined by the number of active transmitters and the type of set-up used.
Don Mertz, vice president of the Hampton Public-Service Team and Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Klub, said the competition used to be a bigger deal locally.
“It was pretty normal for us to get 1,000 contacts in 24 hours,” he said.
This year, he said, “we’ll end up with 200 or so.”
Emergency preparedness is more important now for the four local clubs, which were rounded out by the Newport News Amateur Communications Team and the Peninsula Amateur Radio Club. Mertz said that’s partly a result of the area’s geography and storm potential, but emergency communications is also a throughline in the amateur radio world.
It’s common for operators to support emergency management operations around the U.S., with Hams serving as a communications backup during hurricanes and severe weather events. Networks of licensed amateur radio operators were crucial for reporting damage, coordinating assistance and relaying messages when Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina in 2024.
“Amateur radio operators can put up in a field the ability to talk to people anywhere in the world if they want to” with their gear and a battery or power generator when the electricity goes out and other modes of communication have failed, Hosman said.
The Hampton Public-Service Team and Newport News Amateur Communications Team support the emergency management offices of their cities, and they share members with the two standard radio clubs on the Peninsula, several of whom are former military and first responders.
Hosman said getting that network well-acquainted with one another is a big part of field day.
“Rapport is built up in these kinds of events,” he said. “Somebody comes up on the radio and is reporting something ridiculous, if we don’t know that guy then we probably aren’t going to trust his report.”
Finding new recruits is crucial for maintaining those networks, and for keeping amateur radio alive. The number of licensed Hams in the U.S. has fallen fast during the past five years, totaling 743,005, according to ARRL. That’s down more than 35,000 from 2021, wiping out gains made since 2014. Virginia has lost more than 800 licensed Hams since 2021.
It’s why getting younger people exposed to the hobby and potentially into a club, is a focus. Mertz said getting younger newbies to step up as mentors for younger prospective Hams will help.
“So instead of the 15-year-old having to listen to the 75-year-old, he can listen to a 20-year-old”, he said.
Siblings Mary and James Wright were at field day, both licensed as of February. Fifteen-year-old Mary said the new youth movement by ARRL could pay off if done well. Her brother, 17-year-old James, who sped his way to the highest license offered to amateurs by April, agreed.
“The more people that get involved with Ham radio, the more it’ll get out there,” he said. “I’ve made contact with someone in China over Ham radio and I just thought that was so cool – because that was, like, a 7000-mile-away contact.”
