A modern receiver used by the Medicine Hat Amateur Radio Club. (CHAT News photo).

By Alex McCuaig

Hamming it up

Ham radio operators still transmitting

May 19, 2020 | 4:55 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The radio waves were the home for chatrooms for most of the 20th century and long before the advent of the internet. And despite the world relying more and more on the World Wide Web, amateur radio operators continue to talk the talk in the city.

Ralph Garnett, chair of the Medicine Hat Amateur Radio Club, says there are still about 300 licenced operators in the city but likely only a few dozen who are active.

But while ham radio is largely considered a hobby which allows people to communicate offline across the planet, it’s the ability to utilize the older technology in emergencies which also allows it to continue.

“The facilities we have here in town, we’ve used to assist Medicine Hat Search and Rescue looking for lost individuals, we were deployed here during the flood here in Medicine Hat several years ago when normal communications were not reliable,” said Garnett.

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The addition of an antenna to the city-owned tower will be up for debate during Tuesday’s regular council meeting after the municipality’s Delta tower was removed last year.

The addition of the antenna near Monsignor McCoy High School is anticipated to improve the signal for about 100 kilometres around the city.