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Ham Radio Field Day Saturday

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Members of Ramona Outback Amateur Radio Society (ROARS) invite the public to join them at their Amateur Radio Field Day exercise June 25 and 26.

The amateur radio operators will have their equipment set up outside Ramona Fire Station 82, 3410 Dye Road, and will start the 24-hour event at 11 a.m. June 25 and conclude at 11 a.m. the next day. During that time they will talk to as many people around the world as possible, using various forms of radio equipment.

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.

For about 100 years amateur radio, also called ham radio, has allowed people from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster, all without needing a cell phone or the Internet.

Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location to create an independent communications network. Over 35,000 people from thousands of locations participated last year in Field Day.

“It’s easy for anyone to pick up a computer or a smartphone, connect to the Internet and communicate with no knowledge of how the devices function or connect to each other,” said Sean Kutzko of 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 cell phone 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.

“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. Hams do this by using a layer of Earth’s atmosphere as a sort of mirror for radio waves. In today’s electronic do-it-yourself environment, ham radio remains one of the best ways for people to learn about electronics, physics, meteorology and numerous other scientific disciplines, and is a huge asset to any community during disasters if the standard communication infrastructure goes down.”

Anyone may become a licensed amateur radio operator. There are at least 725,000 licensed hams in the United States — as young as 5 years old and as old as 100.

ROARS continues to grow and has about 45 members. It meets at 7 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month in Ramona Library, 1275 Main St.

For more information about Field Day, contact Steve Stipp, 760-788-2012, or visit www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio.

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