Members of the Denton County Amateur Radio Association will be demonstrating their emergency capabilities this weekend, and area residents are invited to take a close look and lend an ear.

The local group will be participating in Field Day, an annual event that caps off Amateur Radio Week, sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio.

The local “hams,” as they are commonly known, will begin setting up their communications equipment at 8 a.m. today at the Denton County Emergency Services building, 9060 Teasley Lane, said Mike Carline, the group’s vice president and public information officer. Operations will begin at noon and continue for 24 hours, wrapping up at noon Sunday.

The group has invited local elected officials and many of the area’s fire and police chiefs to participate and learn about ham radio’s new capabilities. Visitors also can learn how to get their own FCC radio license.

Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country on Field Day. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators participated in last year’s event, Carline said.

When trouble is brewing, amateur radio operators are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications, and they sometimes provide the only communication links available during disasters, members of the local group said.

“Field Day was kind of brought about back in 1933, where the ARRL wanted to test amateur radio capability,” said Ken Raney, a member of the Denton County association from Oak Point. “It was done to see how well amateurs could perform under abnormal conditions. We’ve kind of built on that through the years.”

Field Day also offers members of the local amateur radio organization an opportunity to build public awareness of the role played by amateur radio operators, said member Eric M. Gildersleeve of Denton.

“Amateur radio operators have been in the forefront of technology since Marconi and Tesla, developing many forms of modern communications, including broadcast radio, cellular phones and even satellite radio,” he said.

Working with Denton County Emergency Services, the group’s members will be testing the capabilities of the county’s Mobile Command Center, Emergency Operations Center, and Denton County Amateur Radio Association’s own communications trailer, as well as other systems, Gildersleeve said.

Field Day provides a chance for amateur radio operators to practice under actual field conditions, said DCARA member Galen Gann.

“The basis for the weekend is to practice emergency communications from some other place than our private vehicles or homes where we are already set up,” Gann said. “We’ll practice communication with everybody, basically, worldwide.

“We intend to have a good time doing it. It’s fun for us to get to practice.”

The local group will have about 140 members participating in Field Day’s 24-hour run, Raney said, with as many as 40 to 50 operators on the scene throughout the night.

“It’s kind of a contest,” he said. “How many people can you talk to, how many people can you contact?”

There are more than 650,000 amateur radio licensees in the United States and more than 2.5 million around the world, according to information provided by the local association. Through ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies.

LES COCKRELL can be reached at 940-566-6887. His e-mail address is lcockrell@dentonrc.com. 

ON THE WEB

www.emergency-radio.org

www.dcara.net/projects/field_day/fd_2009.html