Amateur Radio Field Day

| No Comments

Jon Fournier over at Da Tech Guy Blog has a good post on Field Day:

When all else fails there’s Amateur Radio
The title of this article is not just a slogan; those are words amateur radio operators live by. Whenever there is a major disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane, amateur radio proves to be the only form of communication into and out of the disaster area. This was especially true during Hurricane Katrina. The winds and storm surge devastated the regular telephone service, cellular communications networks, police communications, fire communications, and the internet, along with the electric power grid. Over a thousand amateur radio operators converged on the disaster area and very quickly re-established communications with the affected agencies and over 200 evacuation centers.

Amateur radio operators work very closely with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, local police and fire, along with many other agencies to provide emergency communications. Emergency communication is what amateur radio operators do best. Immediately after a disaster we can get on the air because our equipment is portable and can be powered by a car battery or a small generator. A slingshot and some rope are all it takes to get a wire antenna up into a tree. A mast of PVC or metal pipe will also work as an antenna support. With that simple setup an amateur radio operator can talk to just about any part of the globe.

The knowledge and expertise that is essential for successfully handling communications during an emergency is far more important than the specialized equipment. Throughout the year amateur radio operators practice for emergencies by providing communications for events such as parades, road races, and other similar events. In October amateur radio operators take part in a simulated emergency test. There are two organizations within the amateur radio community that specialize in training and organizing emergency communications. They are the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.

The fourth weekend in June is set aside for the single largest emergency communications exercise in the United States. This exercise is called field day. That weekend 30,000 amateur radio operators converge at thousands of locations, such as parks, across this country. They set up complete stations, housed in tents or trailers, where no facilities exist. All of the equipment is powered emergency power and all antennas are set up using temporary supports or trees. The setup takes only a few hours and the stations are kept on the air for 24 straight hours. This year field day begins at 2 pm on Saturday June 24th and ends at 2 pm on Sunday June 25th. Many groups will begin the setup process on Friday the 23rd at 2 pm.

Jon lives on the East Coast - for us, it is from 11:00AM to 11:00AM. The ARRL has an interactive map showing the 1,524 sites listed so far.

Leave a comment

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on June 21, 2017 5:39 PM.

An observation - the Georgia race was the previous entry in this blog.

Kill it with fire - now! is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9