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<\/a>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. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio\u2019s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 27-28, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Van Wert ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about as hams across the U.S. will hold public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Their slogan, “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works\u201d, is more than just words to 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications,\u201d said Allen Pitts of the ARRL.\u00a0 \u201cFrom the earthquake and tsunami in Japan to tornadoes in Missouri, ham radio provided the most reliable communication networks in the first critical hours of the events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because ham radios are not dependent on the Internet, cell towers or other infrastructure, they work when nothing else is available.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need nothing between us but air,\u201d Pitts added.<\/p>\n
The Van Wert Amateur Radio Club (\u201cW8FY\u201d) will be demonstrating amateur radio at the Van Wert Emergency Management Agency office, 1220 Lincoln Highway, this Saturday and Sunday, June 27-28. The club invites the public to come and see \u201cham\u201d radio\u2019s new capabilities and learn how to get a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) radio license before the next disaster strikes.<\/p>\n
Amateur radio is growing in the U.S., with more than 700,000 amateur radio licensees currently in the U.S., and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL\u2019s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide both emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies and non-emergency community services too, all for free.<\/p>\n