The Amateur Radio Society at LSU is speaking all week with people in foreign countries, and the student organization is using unique methods.
In a small room directly beneath the Landolt Astronomical Observatory in Nicholson Hall, group members tune a shortwave radio to communicate with other two-way radio operators as part of a national contest.
The group of about 30 undergraduate and graduate students is participating in the annual School Club Roundup, a national contest sponsored by the National Association for Amateur Radio.
The winner in each of the categories - elementary and high schools, colleges and individual operators - will have the highest score based on the number of contacts they make and the location of those operators. The first-, second- and third-place winners in each category will receive a certificate "and bragging rights until next year," said Jim Giammanco, physics instructor and ARS faculty adviser.
"This is Kilo Five, Louisiana State University," ARS president and graduate student Meghan Radtke said into the microphone Tuesday afternoon, speaking in the phonetic alphabet recognized internationally by two-way radio operators.
Radtke was giving the group's station call sign of K5LSU to a retired elementary school teacher in Los Angeles.
"This is Echo Delta," a statical voice responded through the receiver. The E and D meant his name was Ed.
The contest is one of many among ham radio operators as an effort to get young, new operators on the air.
Ham radio is the hobbyist version of two-way radio. Operators use two-way radio stations to communicate from their homes, cars, boats and outdoors.
K5LSU is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission for ham radio purposes - mainly communications and ham radio events bulletins unless there is an emergency.
Although the station itself was not an emergency contact during and after Hurricane Katrina, ARS members and other Baton Rouge operators helped organizations including the Salvation Army and Louisiana Red Cross communicate with those in devastated areas deprived of communications.
"Anything you wanna know about California?" Radtke turned around and said while communicating with "Ed."
After her conversation with him, Radtke said making two-way contacts is more addictive than it looks.
The ARS came in second place in 2002 in the college category of the week-long contest with 407 global contacts.
K5LSU is not the same as the one-way transmission of KLSU 91.1. Ham operators typically transmit at much lower radio frequencies and with much less power than AM and FM station operators.
Dana Browne, physics professor and another faculty adviser to ARS, said college students participate in such contests to acquire better skills at operating two-way radio under difficult conditions such as weak signals.
"These skills can be helpful when the communications system falls apart," Browne said. "During Katrina, [the town of] Bogalusa lost all electricity and communications, but a ham radio operator there passed on information to ham operators at the State Emergency Operations Office near the airport."
The ARS started at the University in the early 1920s with an experimental radio station in Nicholson Hall at a time when playing with radio was analagous to playing video games today.
Radtke resurrected the group in 2001, but they are not all FCC-licensed radio operators.
Ed Ireson, a business administration freshman and ARS member, became licensed in the fall to help operate the first aid radio network at the Tiger Stadium football games.
"I do this to practice my emergency radio skills and get better," Ireson said. "I'm not interested in sitting around talking to a bunch of old people. But if another hurricane happens, I'll have the skills to make a radio work and report emergency information."
Contact Chris Day at cday@lsureveille.com
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