Public Demonstration of Emergency Communications June 23-24th – La Honda Gardens
by Sherry Niswander, KG6LGO
Despite the high level of communications available in our area, during emergencies this important tool is often the first lost. Neither the internet, cell phones nor land lines can withstand heavy winter storms, tornados or major earthquakes. One consistent service has never failed – Amateur Radio. The La Honda’s ham radio club, SC4ARC, will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capabilities this weekend.
Local ham radio operators have provided the critical communications during unexpected emergencies, such as last year’s tsunami from Japan and the heavy winter storms of past years. On the weekend of June 23rd and 24th the public will have the chance to meet and talk with ham radio operators at the La Honda Gardens and see for themselves how the systems work as hams all across the USA and Canada will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communication’s abilities.
Field Day is an annual event that is the climax of Amateur Radio Week sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations and spend 24 hours (noon to noon) contacting each other to practice sending messages in many forms under crisis scenarios, without the use of phones, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.
In the La Honda area, the SC4ARC ham radio club www.sc4arc.org will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at the La Honda Gardens on Highway 84 (behind Cuesta Café) on June 23rd 12:00PM to June 24th 12:00PM. They invite 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. A GOTA (Get On The Air) station will also be set up, which allows unlicensed operators to transmit. Come out and try your hand and see what ham radio can do for you and your community.
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