Ham Radio Operators Salute Fort Sherman Organization To Broadcast Birthday Message Today

The 117th birthday of this city’s first white settlement was about to slip by as silently as a cat in socks. Then the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society took charge.

The society plans to broadcast a birthday message to the world right from Fort Sherman, which is now North Idaho College. The hams will broadcast today, though, so they won’t conflict with Easter festivities.

“We were looking for a special event and no one else has done much for Fort Sherman’s founding day lately,” said Phil Corlis, editor of the society’s monthly newsletter.

Fort Sherman commemoration ceremonies fizzled after Idaho’s big centennial bash in 1990. Coeur d’Alene historian Robert Singletary began trying this spring to revive the birthday celebration.

“But it was coming just too soon to get much going this year,” he said.

That’s when the amateur radio club stepped in.

Amateur radio operators collect “wallpaper” - certificates of notable events they hear about over the public airwaves.

Kootenai club members have the wallpaper to prove they’ve responded to calls from other areas. But they’ve never offered their own.

Corlis suggested the club send out wallpaper commemorating Fort Sherman’s 117th birthday. He designed a fancy certificate on his computer and reserved the room in which NIC’s radio equipment is housed.

All day today, club members will send out their call and log the names of people who respond. Corlis said he expects responses from all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. If climatic conditions are favorable to radio waves, the club may even reach callers in Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

“It’s sort of like fishing,” he said. “You hope to catch the big one - some real rare country.”

Club members will share with callers the limited historical information they have on Fort Sherman: that it was established in 1878 to settle the area and to complete work on the Mullan Road.

But birthday information isn’t what callers will want.

“They won’t be that interested in Fort Sherman,” Corlis said. “They’ll just be chasing wallpaper.”