Ham radio Field Day this weekend
WILTON, N.Y. » Saratoga County Amateur Radio Association members will participate this weekend in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise.
Locally, it will be held from 2 p.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Sunday at Wilton EMS headquarters on Jones Road, off Route 50, in Wilton.
During this free public event, ham radio operators across North America establish temporary stations in public locations to showcase the science and skill of amateur “ham” radio.
Ham radio allows people from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as providing a free public service to their communities during a disaster, when cell phones and the internet aren’t available.
Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under emergency conditions from almost any location without commercial power.
Over 35,000 people from thousands of locations participated in Field Day 2016.
“Anyone can pick up a computer or smartphone and communicate,” said Sean Kutzko of the American Radio Relay League. “But if there’s an interruption of service or you’re out of range of a cell tower, you have no way to communicate. 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. When all else fails, ham radio works.”
There are currently over 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, from ages 5 to 100 and it is easy for anyone to become a licensed operator.
Visitors to this weekend’s Field day will see ham radio in action and have a chance to get involved by talking to operators.
For information go to: www.k2dll.org or www.arrl.org.