On Saturday and Sunday, the American Radio Relay League is calling out signals to states and countries throughout North America as part of an emergency drill.
The exercise lasts 24 hours, forcing members to take shifts throughout the night, making as many calls as they can into Sunday at 11 a.m.
Radio club president Bill Wimmer said members of the Paso Robles Amateur Radio Club and community members are operating in less-than-ideal conditions—in a field, running off of emergency power to stimulate disaster preparedness.
“It's an emergency preparedness drill that's primarily intended to bring us and our equipment out into a field site where there is no infrastructure set up antennas, set of radio stations, and be able to communicate to other amateur stations all over the country that are doing the same thing on that day," Amateur Radio Emergency Coordinator Scott Currie said.
On Saturday, communications ranged from states that border California, to Canada, and Mexico, but were able to reach out further when testing the equipment before the event.
“We can talk as far away as Italy, Europe," Wimmer said. "We were last night talking with a couple of stations using the computer, hooked up to the radio, talking to Western Europe. “
The radio club uses satellites in orbit to communicate with one another, including the International Space Station.
“I've got applications on my computer here where I can send an email via the radio," Currie said.
There are more than 775,000 Amateur Radio Operators licensed in the United States. While he’s not sure how many exactly are participating this year, according to emergency coordinator Scott Currie, 40,000 HAMs participated in field day last year.
“In the event of an emergency or disaster, I can hook my computer up to my radio," Wimmer demonstrated. "If we have no local internet or phone cell coverage, with just my computer, my radio, and my antenna on my house, I can send an email to another HAM radio operator, say in Texas, Colorado, who has internet, and then he can relay my message out to a family member so I can say, hey, we're okay.”
The club encourages community members to get involved in case of a wildfire or other natural disaster emergencies.
“We have training that we offer for free and we also provide the testing for that as well," Currie said. "Look us up on the on the web and join us at our meetings and would be happy to get your started. “
