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On their own, ham radio operators help NPS celebrate 100 years of public parks
by Lisa McDonald · News · June 30, 2016


An Illinois couple made 374 ham radio contacts in two day from Herbert Hoover Historical Site as part of the American Radio Relay League’s National Parks on the Air (NPOTA).


ARRL created the event as a way to help the National Park Service celebrate its 100th anniversary, though there is no formal partnership between the two organizations. The event started Jan. 1 and runs all year.

Site Superintendent Pete Swisher said the rangers were not aware of the program until ham radio calls to the park looking for other ARRL members increased at the beginning of the year. He said while there are many programs taking place for the centennial, a ham radio event was not something the park conceived.

ARRL member Kurt Eversole and his wife, Sheila, drove from Roscoe, Ill. to broadcast from the Herbert Hoover Historical Site June 22 and 23.

Eversole explained the event has two parts: Activators, like himself, travel to NPS parks, monuments and historical sites across the country to activate, i.e., broadcast, from as many sites as possible. Chasers attempt to contact as many Activators as possible. NPOTA participants are free to serve in both roles.

Eversole said two activations occurred at the Herbert Hoover Historical Site before he came, but combined only made 88 contacts.

Most of Eversole’s contacts came from around the United States, 11 came from Canada and one came from Slovenia, he said.

“That international reach is symbolic of the Hoover legacy,” Swisher said. He said in his experience Hoover’s philanthropy is more well-known in Europe than it is in America.

Swisher said the park hopes that, through the centennial, to reinvent and reinvigorate NPS to the public, but events like NPOTA show the rangers “support was always there.”

Swisher said he would be open to establishing a more permanent relationship with ARRL and have ham radio operators broadcast important Herbert Hoover events like Hoover Days, Hoover’s birthday and Hoover’s memorial.