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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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St. John Amateur Radio Hams Featured on National Website

Some sleuthing by members of the St. John Amateur Radio Club eventually turned up the reason why radio transmissions between St. John Rescue members had interference, an incident that earned the club some national attention.
The club has been featured on the American Radio Relay League’s website, www.arrl.org.
"It’s a neat story," ARRL spokesman Allen Pitts said from his office in Newington, Conn.
The story began to unfold in June when St. John Rescue members discovered interference on their radio frequency on calls that went through the Mamey Peak repeater. Member Paul Jordan said that wasn’t the case with calls routed through the Bordeaux repeater.
The situation posed a serious problem because St. John Rescue members couldn’t communicate with each other, a crucial factor when emergencies occur.
"It had to be resolved quickly," Amateur Radio Club spokesman Phyllis Benton said.
Jordan and other members hauled antennas to various locations around St. John. Eventually, they pinpointed the interference to a spot in Pastory, but that turned out not to be the location. Instead, because the signal was so strong, the interference originated 180 degrees in the opposite direction on the western end of St. Croix.
The interference happened, Jordan said, because the interfering signal’s frequency was very close to the one used by St. John Rescue. St. John Rescue’s frequency is assigned to only that organization, but the interfering frequency’s bandwidth overlapped the one used by St. John Rescue.
It only happened when calls went through the Mamey Peak repeater because Bordeaux Mountain blocked the signal at the Bordeaux repeater.
According to Jordan, the interfering signal came from the site where the V.I. government has contractors installing the territory’s new 911 emergency system. The interference came from a test that ran continuously. Jordan said it took a week for to located the problem, but after they did the test was shut down and the problem temporarily resolved.
However, Jordan said St. John Rescue was asked by the contractor, Bronx Communication, to change its frequency, no easy task since it would involve reprogramming 40 handheld and mobile radios as well as several repeaters.
"The cost is all in time and we’re all volunteers," Jordan said.
No one could be reached at the Bureau of Information Technology, which oversees the set up of the new 911 system, for comment.
As for the members of the St. John Amateur Radio Club and the 657,000 ham radio operators around the country, Pitts said they were the type of people who, when they get a new piece of equipment, they open the box, take the equipment apart and figure out how else it can be used.
"They don’t just use it, but understand how things work," Pitts said.
He also noted the St. John Amateur Radio Club’s unique location in the Caribbean, coupled with the fact that members provided assistance to a rescue organization, helped lead to the decision to feature the group’s efforts on the ARRL’s website.
"It shows the strength of amateur radio," Pitts said.

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