20 Thursday, July 3, 1997 Pahrump Valley Gazette
:: Ham Radio Field Day 1997
photos by Dave Downing
TONOPAH -- Amateur "ham" radio operators
from throughout north and central Nevada descended
on Tonopah this past weekend to participate in an
emergency exercise and contest.
The hams are members of the Rural Amateur
Radio Association and operated under the callsign
of the local Tonopah branch, KC7WIR. The exer-
cise is sponsored by the American Radio Relay
League, Newington, CT and involves the participa-
tion of hams throughout North America and the
world.
Hams are allowed only several hours to set up a
station in a remote location without any commercial
power. They then operate the station for 21 hours and
contact as many other amateur stations as they possibly
can. They get special points for space communications.
Amateurs have their own satellites in orbit and these
orbiting "radio stations" can be remotely operated by
the hams on the ground.
Local amateurs selected the Tonopah Historic Min-
ing Park as their base of operations. Utilizing the
existing headframe of the famous Mizpah Mine the
amateurs climbed the frame and strung antennas in
all directions. Solar panels and other power sources
were laid out and the entire assemblage of wires
were Strung into the Mizpah hoist engineering build-
ing.
According to Kris Dean, field day chairman, the
group made 450 contacts throughout the United
States and Canada during the 21-hour event.
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