Ham radio operators set ‘Field Day’ exercise
EDMOND — Members of the Edmond Amateur Radio Society will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise Saturday and Sunday at Edmond Fire Station Five, Interstate 35 and Covell Road.
The event is open to the public, and all are encouraged to attend.
Since 1933, ham radio operators across North America have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio.
More than 35,000 people from thousands of locations participated in Field Day in 2017.
“It’s easy for anyone to pick up a computer or smartphone, connect to the internet and communicate, with no knowledge of how the devices function or connect to each other,” said David Isgur, communications manager for the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio. “But if there’s an interruption of service or you’re out of range of a cell tower, you have no way to communicate. Ham radio functions completely independent of the internet or cellphone infrastructure, can interface with tablets or smartphones, and can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. That’s the beauty of Amateur Radio during a communications outage.”
Anyone may become a licensed amateur radio operator. There are more than 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, as young as 9 and as old as 100.
This year, Edmond Amateur Radio Society has planned to set up the largest Field Day Station in Oklahoma. The group has scheduled 20 to 30 operators to keep the station operating from 1 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday. For more information about Field Day or amateur radio, contact Clay Mayrose at 405-659-4489, wa6lbu@gmail.com, or go to www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio.