Alachua County ham radio volunteers score high in 24-hour radio showdown
Press release from North Florida Amateur Radio Club
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Nineteen local volunteers filled the Alachua County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for 30+ hours over the weekend and turned in a nationally leading result in a disaster communications ham radio exercise. Last year, over 31,000 participants were part of the competition.
A 35-foot portable radio tower sprouted in the back EOC parking lot with a 25-foot wide antenna rotating above it, below an American Flag. The group was wonderfully overwhelmed by community interest, with 17 visitors literally getting “on the air” at a special ham radio station organized by volunteer Leland Gallup.
Completing 1,661 total two-way contacts with specific information transferred in both directions and acknowledged, the crew is almost at the top nationwide score in their category, achieved in last year’s competition. One local 7th-grader was so fascinated, and his family so impressed, that he spent hours learning about radio “on the air,” and the visitors made 203 of the total contacts! For the North Florida Amateur Radio Club, affiliated with Alachua County Emergency Management, this was a first.
Fifty-six states and U.S. provinces were reached, along with nine foreign nations.
Database communications between the four transmitting stations were tied together by a secure, private microwave network built by Earl McDow and his assistants. With stations 300+ yards apart, this was crucial to prevent duplicate contacts. Lightning threatened the group more than once, and the high-speed microwave system was used to notify teams inside the fortified EOC that their antennas were at immediate risk.
The grueling 24-hour annual contest allows local community volunteers to “wring out” their gear and procedures. In the preparation, two equipment failures were rectified, and during the continuous communications, two electrical filters announced their failure with pungent odors! Demonstrating resiliency, team leadership, including David Huckstep and Leland Gallup, came up with innovative replacement solutions, just as they would need in a large disaster communications scenario.
The Alachua County NFARC crew (https://www.nf4rc.club/) provide volunteer backup communications for Alachua County Emergency Management, and Assistant Director David Peaton gave praise to the group in an educational address before the start of the competition, pointing to the financial savings the group provides (estimated at $60,000 in 2024). Twenty-four hours a day, they are able to directly reach the State of Florida EOC in Tallahassee by radio, without any need for Internet or cell phones, and they also provide backup communications to hurricane shelters and the volunteers to operate the radios at those shelters.