Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub Ham dials Field Day June 25 | News, Sports, Jobs

Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub President Mike Richards, left, and Treasurer Jane Hulce, right, hosted a 90th birthday party for Curt Fouse, center, at the club meeting in June. Fouse, who turned 90, was born on Flag Day, June 14. (Photo provided)

PARKERSBURG – Ham radio Field Day on June 25 will honor the “old” with the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub, including Curt Fouse who turned 90 on Tuesday, June 14.

Fouse, who lives in Washington Bottom, has been a member of the American Radio Relay League for more than 60 years. The Radio Relay League, which organizes and sponsors the annual Field Day, represents the interests of amateur radio operators with the Federal Communications Commission and other government entities to preserve assigned amateur radio frequencies and to develop rules and regulations that govern the hobby.

He taught classes and administered tests in Ohio’s Central Valley for decades, qualifying people to become ham operators.

Fouse has used all the different modes of communication in past Field Days. He made a satellite dish which he used to bounce radio signals from the moon to earth. Earth-Moon-Earth communication is a radio communication technique that relies on the propagation of radio waves from a terrestrial transmitter directed by reflection from the surface of the moon to a terrestrial receiver.

Fouse served in the US Army during the Korean War and retired from DuPont after more than 40 years of service.

Curt Fouse, K8UC Amateur Radio Operator, hand built the parabolic microwave antenna shown here for Earth-Moon-Earth radio transmissions. The derrick in the background is from an abandoned oil field operation circa 1965 and was dismantled by Fouse and reassembled at his home in Washington Bottom. The rig supports other amateur radio antennas which it uses on other frequencies within the amateur radio bands. (Photo provided)

He owns and has rebuilt over half a dozen antique show cars. Fouse owns and drives his father’s 1940s model Chevrolet, of which he has the original bill of sale and documentation from McClinton Chevrolet.

Field Day takes place every year during the last weekend of June.

The event hosted by the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub will take place June 25 at 2 p.m. at Fort Boreman Park where club members and friends will use batteries, solar power, portable generators and other sources to power the equipment,” said club member Larry Dale. Wires will be hung from trees and even the flagpole in the park to be used as portable antennas, he said.

The purpose of the field day is to demonstrate the preparedness of amateur radio stations to communicate in an emergency. Often in an emergency, cell phone service and broadcasts from commercial radio and television stations are interrupted, leaving amateur radio as the only means of communicating with first responders and spreading other information to the affected areas. Hams use Morse code, single sideband, radio ticker, and other digital modes of communication.

Field Day is open to the general public. Residents can watch and listen to all of these mediums in the park while members and club leaders answer questions about how to get a ham license.

From left, Korean veteran Curt Fouse, K8UC, will join Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub President Mike Richards, WB8BTI, and other club members on American Radio Relay League Field Day at 2 p.m. June 25 at Fort Boreman Park. The public is invited. (Photo provided)