BRUNSWICK

Ham radio operators across Brunswick imagined a world without internet or cellphones over the weekend as they participated in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise.

The event was an opportunity for ham operators in the area to hone their skills. It also let them demonstrate a system of information transmission that, though often thought of as outdated, is most reliable in its ability to create an independent communications network almost anywhere in the world.

Under simulated emergency conditions, six members of the Merrymeeting Amateur Radio Association operated from their home stations, making contacts all across the world.

The ham radio association, which primarily included members from Brunswick and Topsham, began in 1995.

Though the 84-year-old exercise is traditionally held as a group in one central, temporary location, Midcoast CERT Amateur Radio Emergency Service Assistant Team Leader Stephen Kercel said that the team operated independently this year because it was difficult to schedule all participants to meet in one spot.

Kercel, operating under the power of a 12-volt battery that barely lasted the weekend, was able to make approximately 535 contacts in just 16 hours. One of them was stationed in Hawaii. He also made 10 of his contacts with a solar-powered setup. Another goal of the field day, he said, was to demonstrate the practicality of alternative power.

Ham radio operators use a variety of frequency bands to communicate in two-way conversations with other hammers. In an age of internet and cellphones, many hammers maintain that amateur radio is still fundamental to not only the study of wireless technology, but basic survival. Many members of the MARA also hold credentials as Amateur Radio Emergency Responders.

“We’re able to work in a totally grid-down situation,” Kercel said. “We have emergency power and we’re not using the internet or other infrastructure. Our long-distance communication is based on the Earth’s atmosphere. We’re keeping up the last line of communication when literally everything else fails.”

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