Ham radios, Morse Code go on through this man

In a small room a series of dits and dahs regularly are sent out for the rest of the world to hear via ham radio.

In a small room stacked to the ceiling with books, radio technology and eclectic interests in a house in Avon Lake, a series of dits and dahs regularly are sent out for the rest of the world to hear via ham radio.

Chet Roberts, owner of ANCR Sundials, has continued to pursue his radio hobby that he picked up in high school.

As a result, Roberts has made international connections with other enthusiasts like himself.

“Amateur radio provides an incredible service to the community, so far as if you’ve ever been in a power outage and cell phone towers are lost, all of a sudden communication is down to zero,” said Roberts, 76, adding that he has outfitted his house with three different radio antennae. “I can go through the radio because I have my own power supply.”

A high school hobby

Roberts said his interest with ham radio initially began back in the 1950s when he was at Notre Dame High School in Detroit, when war surplus equipment from World War II flooded the market for everyday consumers.

He graduated from high school in 1960.

Roberts said he first began building broadcast and transmitting equipment by buying kits for sale, as well as obtaining licenses for operation, which were needed at the time.

“Back then when it first started out, you could get a novice license, which was good for one year,” Roberts said. “You had to know basic regulations and a little bit of radio and copy code at five words a minute.”

The general class required 13 words a minute, while the extra class license required 21 words a minute, he said.

In the early 2000s, the Federal Communications Commission eliminated the requirements to access amateur radio, opening up its audience to hobbyists.

“Because it was no longer a license requirement, people did it out of the sheer joy of it,” Roberts said.

Now, he has an amateur extra class ticket and is a member of both the American Radio Relay League and Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, where he gives presentations on a variety of subjects like how to build antennae for communication.

Roberts said his retirement from WJW-TV Channel 8 and WEWS Channel 5, where his job titles ranged widely from photojournalist to associate producer, allowed him more time to become reacquainted with the new technology that has made its way to amateur radio, when he joined Facebook groups with other radio enthusiasts.

Additionally, he designed a lapel pin for those who wanted to boast their hobby, and has sent them across the nation and to Japan, Denmark and Germany.

Radio now

Roberts said advancements in technology as they are now are some that he would have deemed impossible when he first started coding and working amateur radio.

“Amateur radio operators now can actually bump signals off the moon,” he said, adding that the act is called EME, or earth moon earth. “It’s mind blowing.”

Needing only a receiver, transmitter, antenna and ground, Roberts said it doesn’t take too much to chat with people from around the globe once sending code has been mastered.

“When you have a cell phone, you’re basically talking to people you know,” Roberts said. “When you’re on ham radio, you put out, generally speaking, what is called a general call to anybody who might be listening.”

His call, K8KIZ, is an original arrangement of letters that no one else has.

After he has made contact with someone else, Roberts fills out a time card, documenting the call’s strength, readability, frequency and the date, among other details.

“You’re meeting new people around the world,” he said. “It’s actual communication.”

Roberts said that although he doesn’t commit an extensive amount of time sending his call out, he finds solace in having the opportunity to when the need arises.

“If you are in love with something, you don’t have to be doing something every moment,” he said. “It gives me great pleasure to have my equipment here.”

Roberts said he first began building broadcast and transmitting equipment by buying kits for sale, as well as obtaining licenses for operation, which were needed at the time.