Young Hams stay connected through amateur radio
By Eric Wagner, 16 and Ben Harris, 15

Despite the fact that cell phones are most young people’s primary means of communication, amateur radios, or ham radios as they are commonly known, are being used instead by at least one group of young people in the Marquette area.

A group of young, licensed ham radio operators gathered weekly during the second half of this past school year at the Crossroads Christian Academy in Harvey to discuss their experiences with ham radio and to encourage others to get their own licenses.

Ryan Salo, eleven, of Marquette, is a member of the group. He usually talks on the radio with his parents, who have long been amateur radio operators, as well as his friends, but he points out that talking with other hams that you don’t know is fun as well.

“ I think it’s a good experience for talking to new people and strengthening your ability to talk to other people without meeting them and it’s just a good way to communicate with your friends or other people that you want to talk to,” Salo said.

The members of the group, as well as all ham operators, are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC. Once licensed, they are assigned a call sign, which includes a combination of letters and numbers. Hams must identify themselves frequently using the call sign while talking on the radio.

Adam Smith, twelve, of Marquette, is another member of the group. Smith received his license in 2008. According to Smith there are three license levels: technician, general and extra class, and an operator must study technical guides and pass a written test in order to receive a license.

“ What you have to do is you have to take a test and the most you can get wrong is seven, I believe, and if you pass the test you get a call sign,” he said.

Sam Salo, thirteen, of Marquette, is also a member of the group and he earned his ham operator’s license within the past year. He explains the studying and testing process.

“ Well you really just study out of the book. They have a 355-question pool that they’ll pick questions out of,” Salo said. “So you study the questions and right answers and just go through that until you get to the end and then just scan through them again and make sure you know all the formulas and stuff.”

The Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association, or HARA, administers the tests for the licenses locally. This organization also helps support this group of young hams and wants to recruit additional young radio operators. Richard Schwenke of Harvey is the emergency coordinator for the organization and he also administers the license tests. He feels getting more young ham operators involved is important.

“ Well, everybody is getting older and we like to get newer people involved because there are so many different activities that a younger person can do. You can use computers as well as radios,” he said. “There is a lot of knowledge to gain from it. It doesn't have to be expensive, and there's many, many things you can do as a group or as an individual.”

The young radio operators, including Salo and Smith, have been teaming up with HARA to do community service in the form of emergency communications during sporting events. This spring, the Salo brothers and Smith volunteered their services to the YMCA for its Fun Run. The Salos, Smith, and other ham radio operators with HARA also volunteer each year for races including the U.P. 200 Sled Dog Race and the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic, among others.

Smith feels that helping out with emergency communications for these community events is the most interesting thing he does with his radio.

“ You’ve got (an operator) at the start or finish of a race and then you have (operators) throughout the course, so it’s just really fun to see it all come together,” he said. “The Grand Island (Marathon) was probably my favorite race to help with.”

Schwenke, who has been a member of HARA since 1984, explains his favorite community service experience with ham radio.

“ I think the most fun thing was when Sandy Knoll (Elementary School in Marquette) first had its space shuttle program I was one of the people with the group of kids that went to supervise communications out on the first shuttle mission,” Schwenke said.

Although community service is important, Smith said that he sometimes uses his radio just because ham radio operators are really good people to talk to.

“ Well most people are friendly I mean you’re not allowed to say any bad language or anything like that, it’s really just to talk about different things so most people are friendly and they’re nice and they’re really excited to see young ham radio operators and young people doing community service.”

Karla Salo, a licensed ham operator and the mother of Ryan and Sam, is happy that her sons have shown an interest in amateur radio.

“ It’s fun for one thing and it also prepares them for careers in telecommunications, computer science, technology and many others,” she said.

Smith explained why ham radio is a good thing for a young person to get into.

“ It’s really fun, you get a lot of good experience with it and it can help you on your college resume if people see your ham radio license, or with different job applications.”

Trainings for ham radio licenses are held several times a year. If any young people are interested in learning about becoming a ham radio operator, the club has a website at http://www.qsl.net/k8lod/.