D.E.A.R.S the Amateur Radio club housed in the Dresden Elementary School building has been working with local kids for over ten years to teach them the basics of electronics while also giving them practical experience. Despite having to build back their attendance after the COVID shutdowns, the response from students starting in the program this year has been great.
“COVID messed up so many things, and the group was really rolling along and doing well competing in contests, so it’s almost like we had to start all over again. I thought some of the kids forgot about radio club, but when we put the offer out there, the kids were flocking to it, especially when we opened it up to fourth-grade students, we got some great fourth graders,” stated club advisor Jim Mayercak.
The students involved in the club learn phonetics, Ohm’s Law of Resistance, basic antennas, radio theory, rules, and operating procedures.
The club has its own call sign of KD8NOM which they use to communicate with other amateur radio operators around the world. On Saturday and Sunday, June 24 – 25th the members of D.E.A.R.S. as well as instructors, gathered at the Dresden River Park along with past students who were on hand to help out, for the ARRL Field Day.
For many radio amateurs, the ARRL Field Day is the highlight of their annual calendar. The ARRL or American Radio Relay League is the national association for Amateur Radio in the USA, representing over 170,000 FCC-licensed Amateurs.
The field day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the United States and Canada. The event is always held on the fourth weekend of June each year. Thousands of radio amateurs take part in the event along with their clubs, groups, and friends and operate from remote locations. Many of the groups use the field day as an opportunity to practice what they have learned and to test their emergency response capabilities.
The continued development and training for Amateur Radio Service, often referred to as ham radio, is a necessity for their aid in emergency situations.
On the first day of the ARRL Field Day at Dresden River Park, the students and advisors got a visit from State Representative Troy Balderson who sat in with a couple of the kids as they kicked off the day calling out to other radio amateurs around the country.
MAIN PHOTO: State Representative Troy Balderson sits in with D.E.A.R.S. students Annabelle Tenney (10 years old) left, and Riley Gee-Miller (12 years old) right
