Amateur Radio Clubs Plan Field Day Demo for Disaster Prep in Loma Linda

Amateur radio operators are planning a Field Day Demonstration on Saturday June 23 outside Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center in Loma Linda.

The event is billed as a key to local readiness for disasters.

Members of the Jerry L. Pettis VA Amateur Radio Club will set up several radio stations and broadcast in a parking area outside the VA hospital, according to organizers.

Two other local clubs are helping organize the event: American Legion Post 106 of Redlands and Yucaipa Valley Amateur Radio Club.

The Field Day Demo is free to the public, and "those attending can get an up close look at the equipment and introduction to the art of being a HAM operator," organizers said in a statement.

The event will be staged entirely outside the hospital, Kristin Hall of public affairs for the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System said.

"We'll be in the southwest parking lot adjacent to Barton Road and Benton," Keith Tomas, president of the Pettis VA Amateur Radio Club and a volunteer at the hospital, said Wednesday in a phone interview.

Tomas said he's been a ham radio operator since 1986, when he lived in the Yucaipa area, and he currently lives in San Bernardino. His disaster experience includes volunteer radio work with San Bernardino County during the October 2003 Old Fire that destroyed a thousand homes and contributed to six deaths.

"Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark" during disasters, including fires, floods, wind events and earthquakes, organizers said.

"In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio," organizers said. "These radio operators, often called 'hams' provide backup communications for everything from the American Red Cross to FEMA and even for the International Space Station."

The event is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. June 23. The street address for Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center is 11201 Benton St., Loma Linda.

To find out more about the June 23 event or to volunteer contact Keith Tomas at (909) 825-7084 at extension 1985 or keith.ke6tt@gmail.com.

For more information about Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center visit www.lomalinda.va.gov.