Ham radio field day set

Despite the Internet, cell phones, e-mail and modern communications, every year people find themselves without reliable forms of communication.

Tornadoes, fires, storms, ice and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has not failed is Amateur Radio.

Amateur radio operatores, often called “hams,” provide backup communications for everything from the American Red Cross to FEMA and even for the International Space station.

Members of Benton County Radio Operators will provide a demonstration of the new capabilities of amateur radio from 2 p.m. Saturday, June 22, until 10 a.m. Sunday, June 23, at Pea Ridge City Park as part of the annual “Field Day,” the climax of a weeklong Amateur Radio Week sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio.

Over the past year, there have been many reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies across America. When trouble strikes, amateur radio members are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications.

During the weekend of June 22-23, the public will have an opportunity to meet and talk with Benton County 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.

Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators across the nation will construct emergency stations i 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 crises. More than35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year’s event.

“The fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications,” Allen Pitts, of the ARRL, said. “From 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.

Because ham radios are not dependent on the Internet, cell towers or other infrastructure, they work when nothing else is available.

We need nothing between us but air.”

Amateur radio is growing in the U.S. There are more than 700,000 amateur radio licensees in the nation and more than 2.5 million around the world.

Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergencies Services program, ham volunteers provide both emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies and none-emergency community services, too. It is all free.

To learn more about amateur radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org. The public is invited to attend the events.

Community, Pages 6 on 06/19/2013