Posted By BY HEATHER IBBOTSON, EXPOSITOR STAFF http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1094266
Camped out in his tent trailer, with mosquito netting, a bed, a stock of food and cool drinks, a laptop computer and a ham radio, Gordon Mitchell was more than ready to tackle the 24-hour North American amateur radio preparedness marathon on Saturday. "I've got the comforts of home," the Brantford man said, as he began booting up his computer and setting his radio dials. His fingers flew across the keyboard as multiple screens popped in and out of view and a computer voice read out information that was showing on the screen. "I'm visually impaired. I'm blind," Mitchell said, almost as an afterthought. His radio cackled to life with the voice of another ham operator lost on his way to the event, held on a farm property west of Burford. Mitchell gave the man detailed directions to the property on the north side of Highway 53. Mitchell's blindness seems no obstacle to his sense of direction, or to much else in this retired computer programmer's life. Mitchell has been an avid amateur radio enthusiast for more than 40 years. He was first licensed in 1966, making him one of the longest-licensed local amateurs in the Brantford Amateur Radio Club. He earned his licence less than four years after his sight was stolen from him at the age of 21 when, in Toronto, he was shot in the face by a drunken stranger wielding a shotgun. Mitchell was one of a group of local radio club members who gathered Saturday at the Burford-area farm to set up their tents, antenna and radios and dig in for an annual Field Day, which is part emergency preparedness simulation and part contest. Camaraderie is one of the reasons Mitchell enjoys radio club functions. "I'm a kibitzer. I love joking and kibitzing," he said. "There's a great feeling of camaraderie here." John Stornelli was another BARC member who geared up for the 2 p. m. start of the 24-hour North American contest, during which ham operators would log all their contacts' call signs and locales in order to amass points. At 2 p. m., the radios came to life as operators across the continent began seeking out connections. At the end of the exercise, all logged contacts are submitted to a governing body for the tallying of points. If all went well, Stornelli said he expected to log between 200 and 300 contacts. Stornelli said he became captivated by the hobby after watching a similar Field Day exercise 20 years ago in Oakville. "I got hooked," he said. He enjoys the technical challenge of the hobby, the social aspects of belonging to the club, and the interesting people he has met from distant corners of the globe. Mitchell, too, has never lost the thrill of talking to folks in far-off places. Computers and the Internet have made long-distance instantaneous communication rather ho-hum and amateur radio enthusiasts are, sadly, becoming a rare breed, he said. "You don't need a license to be on the Internet." Mitchell recalls his early years as a ham operator and the first time he connected via radio with a man in California. "I thought I had the world by the tail then," he said. "Now you can work the world." Despite the convenience of the Internet, Mitchell believes there is still an important role to be played by amateur radio operators, especially in emergencies. His only brush with an emergency occurred during his training days in Toronto, when he was startled to receive a Mayday call from a ship at sea. Mitchell answered the call, but then another operator with more expertise weighed in and took control of the situation. The levance of amateur radio operators would be apparent in cases of dire emergency, should telephone and other communications links be knocked out. Ham operators are also among the few people who still know how to send and receive Morse code, he said. Visit http://ve3ba.com for more information about the Brantford Amateur Radio Club. Gregory S. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************* * POST TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ******************************* Medianews mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
