Anyone looking to chit-chat, tinker, aid disaster relief or beam messages into outer space is invited to join a ham radio course coming next month.
The Southeast Missouri Amateur Radio Association is holding a 4-week course over Zoom, beginning with a session at 7 p.m. Sept. 12, and at the end, students will know everything they need to earn their technician FCC amateur radio license. Men and women of all ages are welcome.
“The class gives them some basic knowledge and basic background, but they’re still required to do about 20 hours studying on their own in order to pass the test,” explained member Robb Bledsoe.
Registration is free, and books are available for $26 each. There will be a $15 testing fee for those participating after the class.
Ham radio is a slang term, possibly dating back to the telegraph era, for operators who use radio for personal communication, recreation and assistance to emergency services. Bledsoe said there is no need to learn Morse code to become a ham.
A press release from the association stated there are over 200 amateur radio clubs and over 600,000 ham operators in the United States, and over 2,000,000 operators worldwide. Bledsoe earned his license as part of an emergency preparedness effort by his church but now enjoys a community stretching from Germany to South America.
“The fun thing about ham radio is you’ll make great friends. You’ll know their first name. You’ll know their call sign. A lot of times you won’t know their last name, but you’ll talk to them almost every day,” he said.
Ham radio also saves lives. Bledsoe recalled a 2021 storm in Carter County that caused severe flooding and took out both phone service and first responders’ repeaters, limiting emergency services to short-range communication.
“They were relying on ham radio operators and the Carter County hams jumped in,” he said. “They were relaying messages to the police. They were relaying messages to the fire department. They were relaying people from St. Louis trying to get a hold of family members that were affected by the flood.”
In Butler County, hams aided FEMA in a similar situation in 2015, because the agency lacked cell phone coverage in Southeast Missouri. This time, they relayed information on home damage, helping residents get relief money.
Operators also enabled communication after the Joplin, Missouri tornado in 2011 and the Maui wildfires this month, according to the press release.
Bledsoe went on to explain how versatile ham radio is. Hams can set up small TV stations and transmit digital information with the right equipment. If the stars are aligned, operators can even reach the International Space Station.
“You can talk to the International Space Station when it goes overhead. Now, it’s only overhead for 20 seconds or so where you can talk to them, but if they’re not busy, they will talk to you back,” Bledsoe said. “They’ll exchange information and say hello to you, and then you get a little feather in your hat that you talked to the International Space Station.”
Besides having a wide community and great potential for disaster aid, ham radio is also an affordable hobby. Bledsoe said operators can invest as little as $40 or as much as $400,000.
“If you’re only interested in it as a hobby, it’s a great one. If you’re interested in it to help out during emergencies, it’s an awesome way to do that,” he said.
Registration is required for the course. To sign up, contact Bledsoe (call sign KC9NNT) at 573-727-0025 or robbkc9nnt@gmail.com.