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Enid Amateur Radio Club will have its annual Hamfest on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.
Enid Hamfest, which is an annual gathering of regional ham radio operators for the renewal of friendships and interests and for a swap meet, will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Stride Bank Center.
The event has been going on since at least the mid-1990s and was held at the Hoover Building in previous years, said Bill Nokes, a member of the EARC, adding that people from all over Oklahoma and surrounding states are expected to be there.
“(The Hoover Building) just got too small for us,” Nokes said. “We’re growing, and that’s good.”
This year’s event will feature about 150 vendor and private booths, kit-building and training sessions, prize drawings and amateur radio license testing, Nokes said.
Tickets will be available at the door for $10. Children 12 years old and younger can enter the event for free but must be accompanied by an adult.
There are more than 700,000 licensed ham radio operators in the United States, and Nokes said amateur radio offers a spectrum of activities, including local or worldwide point-to-point communications; competitive events; contests and award programs; basic electronic training; ultra-high-frequency experimentation; and training and preparation to provide emergency communications support when public systems fail or overload.
Thousands of people every year receive their ham radio licenses, and individuals of all ages, as long as they pass one of three levels of the Federal Communications Commission examination, can be on the air as an amateur radio operator, Nokes said.
“It’s a great, great hobby, and anyone can get into it,” Nokes said. “You don’t have to spend a ton of money ... to get on the air and just have fun.”
Enid Hamfest is sanctioned by the American Radio Relay League, which is the national organization of U.S. amateurs. For more information about the event, visit https://enidarc.org/enidhamfest, and for more information on every aspect of amateur radio, visit https://arrl.org.
EARC, which has been functioning since 1936 and is Oklahoma’s oldest radio club, meets at 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month at various locations. For an invitation, call (580) 542-1054.
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