Ham Radio More Than A Hobby
By Ashley Cooper
Several years ago Thomas Spann was driving his motorcycle outside of Beaver Crossing when its battery died. He didn't have a cell phone then, but he did have his amateur radio transmitter on board, so he sent a signal on the radio waves asking for assistance.
A Hastings man traveling toward Lincoln heard Spann's message and stopped to help a fellow amateur radio operator.
Over the years, Spann, associate professor of broadcasting at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has accumulated many stories about his amateur radio contacts.
"It's come in handy enough," Spann said of his portable amateur radio device.
Spann added that the Internet and cellular phones have replaced popular culture's reliance upon amateur radio, but the mode of communication itself has survived for several reasons.
Spann said amateur radio operators are recognized as public servants in reporting during national emergencies like electrical blackouts and natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes, when power lines and commercial radio towers are vulnerable to destruction. What's more, amateur radio remains one means of communicating with countless international populations.
Amateur radio allows one to send one message to dozens of people - most of whom the operator does not know, Spann said.
Now Spann is helping get students and other faculty involved in amateur radio operations. For the first time in the college's history, it has the resources to transmit and receive amateur radio frequencies.
When the college moved to Harold and Marian Andersen Hall, on the corner of 16th and Q streets, in fall 2001, it designated a remote storage room on the fourth floor for use as an amateur radio operating station. The building's rooftop antennas and receivers allow the college to monitor high- and low-frequency radio waves, including international amateur signals.
Spann, a licensed amateur radio operator, said the set-up is ideal for getting students and faculty involved in amateur radio. Spann said he hopes to engage journalists and amateur radio hobbyists alike with this mode of communication by having a receiving box installed in the newsroom on the second floor of the college and by reinstating the UNL Amateur Radio Club, a student organization that lost its charter in the mid-1980s after the club's faculty adviser retired.
Seven students attended an initial meeting in October and met again in December to organize into a student organization. Once the on-campus process was complete, Spann planned to apply to the Federal Communications Commission for a club license. And then he hoped to apply for a vanity call sign, "something that will immediately identify us as UNL."
Spann said the student group likely will cooperate with the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club to provide training and licensing, which is required by the Federal Communications Commission and is conducted through the American Radio Relay League, the national amateur radio organization. The university group, however, will provide opportunities for students to explore the medium, to use equipment on campus and to participate in amateur radio contests sponsored by the ARRL, Spann added.
Spann said he plans to run a cable from the fourth floor station to a receiver in the newsroom - a task he anticipated being completed by spring 2004 - to engage student journalists in understanding the value of amateur radio as a newsgathering source.
For example, Spann said, instead of relying upon the National Weather Service to issue storm warnings, journalists can monitor the amateur radio frequencies and gather their reports five to 10 minutes ahead of the weather service.
Although journalism professors ultimately will decide how to use, or not use, the transmissions in their classrooms, Spann said the college has a responsibility to its students to provide them with the capability to monitor international broadcasts and to tap into first-hand sources of information such as weather-spotter reports.
John H. Flowers, a psychology professor and member of the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club, agreed with Spann that a university amateur radio club could introduce a younger generation to this mode of communication.
The club, Flowers said, could provide a forum for students who are interested in participating in contests, having access to equipment to hone their radio skills and enjoying a new hobby. It could also introduce a new generation to the public-service and technical aspects of amateur radio.
"Amateur radio has gone into decline in the last couple years," Spann said. Getting students involved is important to the vitality of the medium, he added.
