Falmouth Hosts Amateur Radio Association Field Day

Members of the Princeton Ham Radio Club will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 25 and 26 at the City/County Park Pavilion in Princeton. These same individuals have further demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing free radio communications for local parades, runs, walk-a-thons, fairs and other charitable public events. Although numerous weekend events will be similar, there will be differences.

The annual event, called “Field Day”, is the climax of the weeklong “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, which is the national association for amateur radio.

Membership is open to those who are licensed radio operators. The event is scheduled from 1 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m. Sunday; the public is invited to stop by during that time.

On Lopez Island Field Day activities will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 25, 2016 by Fire Station 41 in Lopez Village. Signs will be posted along the way to guide residents to the field day. Radio operators try to contact as many other Field Day stations as possible. “Although I understand how radio works, it still has a magical element to it”, said Norris. It is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada.

GCAR meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m.at Garden City Presbyterian Church, 1841 Middlebelt Road.

“We want to get the community involved”, Riffle said. “It’s not always about radio but always about science”. Other members were participating in the statewide natural disaster exercise Cascadia Rising.

The Mid-Ohio Valley Amateur Radio Club was formed in the 1950s. Because ham radio is not dependent on local infrastructure, it works when nothing else is available.

Amateur Radio is growing in the US.

“Hams can literally throw a wire in a tree for an antenna, connect it to a battery-powered transmitter and communicate halfway around the world”, Kutzko added. “Hams do this by using a layer of Earth’s atmosphere as a sort of mirror for radio waves”.

During Hurricane Katrina, amateur radio, also known as “ham radio”, was the only way people could communicate and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property. They have been a valuable asset during recent large scale disasters.