Showing one of three stations at last year’s Field Day, with station operator “JJ, W0FAA”, on the left assisted by “Tom, N1NDM”, logging the contact.

For The Vista

Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark.

Tornadoes, fires, storms ice and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave people without the means to communicate.

In these cases, the one constant service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio.  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.

On June 23-24, your Town’s “hams” will join thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capabilities this weekend.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including, the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide.

When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with the critical information and communications.

On the weekend of June 23-24, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Crossville’s ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about as hams 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 backyards around the country.

Their, “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” 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.  About 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year’s event.

In the Crossville area, the Cumberland Plateau Amateur Radio Club (CPARC) will be demonstrating Amateur Radio in front of the Homestead Elementary School near the junction of Hwy 127 and Hwy 68 behind the Homestead Tower.  They will be operating three stations from about 1 P.M. on Saturday until late morning the following day.  They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and also to learn how to get their own FCC radio license.  There are now 700,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and about 2.5 million around the world.