Anyone who has seen the movie “Contact” might recall the scenes of a young Ellie Arroway sitting in front of her ham radio set, turning knobs and repeating: “CQ, CQ, this is W9GFO. Is anybody out there?”

These scenes are, of course, a metaphor for the movie and the adult Ellie’s search for life beyond Earth.

“CQ” is the ham operator’s code for seeking contact with anyone listening. The other symbols are the operator’s call sign. A responder will answer with his own call sign.
In real life, versions of these scenes are played out daily by amateur radio enthusiasts and, on the last full weekend in June every year, by ham radio clubs across North and South America in a test of the amateur radio network’s emergency services.

Amateur, or “ham,” radio consistently has been the most reliable means of communication in emergencies when other systems failed or became overloaded.

“Ham radio provides the broadest and most powerful wireless communications capability available to any private citizen anywhere in the world,” according to the American Radio Relay League’s website.

This weekend, the Anne Arundel Amateur Radio Club members joined thousands of other operators and clubs in the annual Radio Field Day event sponsored by AARL. Radio clubs, groups and individuals take their radios into the field and broadcast using emergency power such as generators, batteries, solar panels and temporary antennas to demonstrate their ability to communicate emergencies when all other methods of communication fail.
The Anne Arundel club, which has its headquarters on the grounds of the Davidsonville Family Recreation Center, set up various stations in tents and invited the public to see what they do and to make contact with operators across the country. It also is a friendly contest to see who can make the most contacts on as many variations of equipment as possible.

“We set up in a public place so people can come see what we do in an emergency,” Club member Bob Rose said.

“We set up 10 stations in the field within a 1,000-foot circle—that’s part of the rules,” Rose said. “They’re all powered by different portable means. We set up temporary antennas because we can’t use our permanent antennas for Field Day. The test itself runs 24 hours, from 2 p.m. on Saturday to 2 p.m. on Sunday.”

Rose pointed out that one of the stations was for Morse code, even though it is no longer required for a ham radio license.

“Everything has evolved, and even the Maryland emergency plan has only one Morse code net. We use voice or digital for everything. We can even send email over the radio. But Morse is still the most reliable form of communication. Your ear doesn’t mistake dots and dashes,” Rose said.