Amateur Radio Field Day

NEWS RELEASE

Norm Schklar

480 N Peachtree Street

Norcross, GA 30071

770-840-9664 

norman@schklar.com

Ham Radio Operators show off for Gwinnett County residents

 Public Demo of

Emergency Communications June 28-29

Lawrenceville, GA June 24, 2014 – Thousands of Ham Radio 

operators will be showing off their emergency capabilities this weekend. Over the past year, the

news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical

communications in emergencies including the California wildfires, Oregon and Michigan

storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio –

often called “Ham radio” - was often the ONLY way people could communicate,

and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property. When

trouble is brewing, ham radio people are often the first to provide critical information

and communications. On the weekend of June 28-29, the public will have a chance to meet

and talk with these ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur

Radio Service is about.

Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice

communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be

holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.  

This annual event, called "Field Day" is the

climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the national association

for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct

emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards around the country.

Their slogan, "Ham radio works when other systems don't! " is more than just

words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms

without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be

compromised in a crisis. More than 30,000 amateur radio  operators across  the country participated in last year's event. 

"We hope that people will come and see for themselves,

this is not your grandfather's radio anymore," said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. "The

communications networks that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives in the

past months when other systems failed or were overloaded.”

 At Harbins Park, Main Entrance, in

Dacula, Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society (GARS) and Gwinnett County Amateur Radio

Emergency Services will be demonstrating Amateur Radio continuously from 2pm on

Saturday thru 2pm on Sunday afternoon.  More info www.GARS.org

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.

 There are 650,000

Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s ARES program, ham volunteers

provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency
response agencies, all for free.

 To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to

www.emergency-radio.org. The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams.

See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air!

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