Amateur Radio Club plans Field Day

Van Wert independent/contributor content

Amateur radio operators … “hams … of the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club will join with thousands of amateur radio operators who will be showing off their emergency capabilities this weekend.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America, including the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events worldwide. During Hurricane Katrina, amateur radio — often called “ham radio” — was often the only way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property.

This annual event, called “Field Day,” is the climax of the weeklong “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for amateur radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works,” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, Internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.  More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year’s event.   “We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather’s radio anymore,” said Allen Pitts, W1AGP, of the ARRL. “The communications that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives when other systems failed or were overloaded. And besides that, it’s fun!”

The Van Wert Amateur Radio Club will be demonstrating amateur radio capabilities at the office of the Van Wert County Homeland Security/Emergency Management Agency across from the Marsh Foundation. The club invites members of the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities, and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.  Operating hours are 2 p.m. Saturday through 2 p.m. Sunday.

When trouble is brewing, the Amateur Radio Service’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. This weekend, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Van Wert area ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about.

Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications, and even historical Morse Code, hams from across the country will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

There are over 685,000 ham radio licensees in the U.S., and more than 2.5 million around the world.

Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide both emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies and nonemergency community services too, all for free.

To learn more about the Amateur Radio Service, go to the website of the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club … www.w8fy.org … or www.emergency-radio.org.