Local amateur radio club preps for weekend summit

From left to right, Tim Mayfield, Jimmy Dunn, Sam Timberlake, Scott Somerset do a test run at Smith Mountain Fire Tower on Oct. 25. The club will broadcast this Saturday starting at 9 a.m. and will run until shortly before dark. | Betsy Iler

The National Weather Service is predicting partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the upper 60s for Saturday’s ham radio special event at Smith Mountain. About a dozen members of the Lake Martin Amateur Radio Club (LMARC), in cooperation with the Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail Association, will operate from two temporary stations at the base of the Smith Mountain fire tower to commemorate the first anniversary of tower’s rededication.

“The weather has been ideal,” declared Scott Somerset, LMARC member and organizer of the event. “We want to talk to as many other amateurs as we can in as many different locations as we can. Smith Mountain is a prime location for transmitting because of the height. That makes it for ideal radio communications. We would more than welcome the public to come and observe. Watch us operate and see what ham radio is all about.”