Musselshell Amateur Radio Club (KF7ELT)

For those of you who may have noticed the event in the paper last week for the meeting of the Musselshell Amateur radio club, you will have noticed that it is Ham Radio that the group is meeting about, not a radio group for the music you hear in your car. I wanted to know more about the club, and what they do. Having no understanding of this technology, but just curiosity, I met with the current organizer, Keith Regli. Keith maintains the website http://www.kf7elt.org, and writes the newsletters.

Ham radio is a non-commercial radio system. It is different from walkie talkies, the CB radio, or your car radio. You have to get a license to use a ham radio, and pass a test on theory and regulations. Keith explains that you used to have to go to the FCC office and also know morse code to get licensed. Times have changed, and now you do not have to know morse code and the tests are given by radio clubs. Every other month in Billings the club has a class and you can test.

About twenty people in Musselshell County are licensed for Ham radio. Only about a dozen are active members of the club. Ham radio can be used in an emergency, but is primarily a hobby. The group has field days where they practice using the radios, and contacting people. Some of the practice is done for marathons as a public service. Some of the practice and field days are to acquire people with technical skills. Nowadays we have cell phones, but in the past, radio operators were many of the people who helped advance technology. As Keith explains, many Ham operators are science/tech interested people. Just talking is not always an effective way to use the Ham radio because of background noises, so morse code is better, there are also encoding programs that the military uses to have better communications on the radio, particularly for naval communications. The Ham radio enthusiasts do contests to gain operating skills, and build equipment. The idea of the hobby is to get your signal as far as possible through inclement weather, also to contact and talk to a repeater, there is one on Majerus Road, and one in Red lodge. The group gets on the network and checks in every day. This is nice for the older folks in the group, as they check in on each other and have someone to talk to. That is on VHF. Repeaters are relayed through bouncing signal off of a satellite or the moon, and can easily reach someone in Russia.

Keith explains some differences with Ham radio and other radio communications. There are Marine bands that are different, they have a marine license, it is similar to a Ham radio, but it is specifically licensed for military communication. Submarines use a very low frequency even below the broadcast band, which is also very low. Their frequency is barely above audio band. They use long wave lengths which they can transmit through the water a little bit. Generally, subs come up above the water to communicate.

The Ham radio club has awards and certificates that you can earn through the club. For example, WAS means Worked All States, meaning you have communicated via Ham with every state. DX century club is worked over 100 countries, meaning you have communicated via Ham with over 100 countries. QSL cards are exchanged with people that confirms a contact with people. These are like a post card that verifies the communication and where the location is. Keith has an entire shoe box of these cards and many, many awards. Keith prefers to do morse code communication over the Ham.

The Ham radio groups have "Ham fests". These are like a convention and vendor market for enthusiasts to get together and get their awards, purchase parts, and do workshops. The Musselshell Amateur Radio Club can vary between 3 people attending to 15 people. The annual workshop used to be held annually up at the Roundup Airport, but hasn't been done since Covid in 2020. Normally it is part contest and part party, and part emergency preparedness. The group will set up the radios at a public location and set up an information desk and invite a lot of people in, and then contact people. The group also has an annual picnic. JR and Ginger Maxwell founded the local club around 2007, 2008, but tragically both passed away last summer. JR suffered a heart attack, and Ginger needed JR's care and was unable to survive without him. This was a sad loss to the group as well as the community that knew them.

Keith became the one who assumed the responsibility of running the club and maintaining the website. He was in the software industry for many years. Keith lived much of his life in New England, was born in California, and went to Arizona intending to retire, and eventually landed in Montana for the Golden years. He got into ham radio in high school. He says he was always a science tech guy, but had a cool friend, who had another friend, whose father was into Ham. He found his interest and has been doing Ham radio since then. I met Keith at his home north of Roundup, and discovered that Keith also has a hobby collecting banjos. Because of an interest in woodworking, he made a balalaika, a Russian guitar. After making the piece he decided to get a banjo and learn to play, and the hobby and collection expanded.

If Ham radio spurs your curiosity, or you think this might be the hobby you have been looking for, you can find Keith's website at http://www.kf7elt.org, or meet the group the second Saturday of every month at the Busy Bee at 9 am.