ARRL Ham Radio Field Day 2013, June 22-23

Field Day 2013

Tens of Thousands of “Hams” go On Air this Weekend

Jefferson County, TN: Tens of thousands of Amateur Radio operators will be firing up portable radio stations from unexpected locations this weekend. These radio operators aid in emergency communications support during major emergencies.

Called “hams,” they are often among the first to provide rescuers with critical information because they can send messages from isolated and remote locations without phones or Internet. On June 22-23, the public can meet these radio operators and, in some cases, get a chance to get on the air under the supervision of a ham. Over 35,000 operators will operate from parks, malls, schools and yards around the country. They’ll send and receive messages to other operators in the U.S. and around the world. Using everything from digital and satellite communications to Morse code, “Field Day” is the climax of the week long “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of Amateur Radio operators providing communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. The fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications. From the tsunami in Japan to tornadoes in Oklahoma, ham radio provides reliable communication networks in the first critical hours of the events. Because ham radios are not dependent on complex systems, they work when nothing else is available.

Their slogan, “Ham Radio Works” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.. The Jefferson County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (JCARES) will again be participating in Field Day this year and will set up three “stations” at the Boys & Girls Club located at Ruritan Park on Highway 92 in Jefferson City starting at noon on Saturday the 22^nd and ending at noon on Sunday the 23^rd. JCARES invites 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

There are now over 700,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ARES^®, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies and non-emergency community services too, all for free.