Hams Have a Field Day on Rasnow Peak : Hobbies: The Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club sets the controls for a long-distance communication contest.

The scratchy noise emitting from the small black scanner was unintelligible to the average person’s ear. But to the radio wizards gathered atop Rasnow Peak on Saturday, it was music.

For the 30 or so members of the Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club perched on the Newbury Park hilltop, the muffled voice represented a point in a 24-hour contest, ending today at 11 a.m., that tests the skills of radio operators worldwide.

The club has won the event for the last four years--to the bewilderment of some members.

“I don’t know why, it’s kind of a kick-back operation,” said Thousand Oaks resident Don Munding, tapping a Morse code message from the shelter of his parked van.

Munding’s vehicle was one of 15 stations atop the hill where amateur radio buffs--or hams, as they call one another--were tapping, calling and typing messages to other hams participating in the radio relay exercise. Each time a member connected with a distant radio operator--in, say, Texas, Florida or Germany--the club scored a point.

Beneath the eclectic assortment of tents, truck beds and flimsy awnings, members sported a sophisticated collection of high-tech equipment for the marathon event, including personal computers, antennas and satellite dishes--each transmitting a mere five watts of battery-operated power.

Other Ventura County ham groups participated in the 24-hour field day as well. Clubs from Ventura, Point Mugu and Camarillo set up camp at Point Mugu, while an Ojai group transmitted from Dennison Park.

In addition to being a worldwide contest, the field day provides an opportunity for hams to practice radio communications in a simulated emergency.

“This really tests your mettle,” said club President Eddie Pierce, known among hams as WB6DFW, his radio call sign. “It’s preparing everybody for emergency operations.”

In fact, the group was operating from a disaster site--the burned-out lot where Hank Rasnow’s home was destroyed in last fall’s Green Meadow fire.

Sitting under a canopy in the spot that was once Rasnow’s pool, UCLA student Gerry Dong talked about how he used a ham radio to help the Los Angeles Police Department in the days following January’s earthquake.

“When the LAPD needed help with field operations, we helped for a few days,” he said. Other Conejo Valley club members helped with communications in the aftermath of the disaster as well.

Ham radio operators are trained to transmit communications on various frequencies during emergencies, Dong explained, enabling them to send and receive messages when standard communication systems are jammed or fail. And the hobby has come a long way.

“In the older days, Morse code was the form preferred,” Pierce said. “But now digital operations are the form preferred.”

Hiding from the midday sun in their tent, Norm Campbell and Memo Hernandez tried to contact other radio buffs using a laptop computer to message.

“It’s like E-mail,” Hernandez explained, moving the cursor along a list of random call signs displayed on the monitor. “Instead of using a microphone or a key, we use a computer.”

A few yards away, hams were sending messages to other hams via satellite. Using a computer tracking system, the operators followed the pattern of passing U.S. and Russian satellites. When one appeared over Ventura County, the hams transmitted a voice message to space.

Later, Camarillo ham Hugh Wilcox said, when the satellite passed over again, they expected to hear the message transmitting back from space. Using this high-tech method, the radio operators hoped to contact distant locales such as Germany, Australia and Japan.

Longtime ham Munding wants nothing to do with satellites or computers. He prefers to communicate the old-fashioned way--by Morse code.

“You get hoarse talking on the microphone,” he explained.

And in the 20 years that he has been clicking signals, Munding has tapped into some remote locations. “One time it was a Russian South Pole expedition,” he said. “That was the farthest.”

Munding said Conejo Valley’s enterprising hams are a mixed group.

“We have nerds, geeks, dorks, wimps,” he said. “People from all walks of life.”

FYI

The Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club has about 100 members, but anyone interested in joining or learning about radio communications is welcome. For information, write the club at P.O. Box 2093, Thousand Oaks 91358, or call 372-7550.