Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club joins in national deployment

Public Demonstration of Emergency Communications June 25^th & 26^th

PEPPERELL, MA, May 8, 2011. The Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club (http://www.n1nc.org) will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at The Heald Street Orchard, Pepperell, MA on Saturday June 25^th and 26^th. The club invites the public to come meet and talk with local amateur radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. Demonstrating a variety of radio communications capabilities, including historic Morse code, “Hams” from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications capabilities.

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. Local Amateur Radio operators will join with thousands of operators throughout the United States to show off their emergency capabilities on June 25^th and 26^th. Using primarily emergency power sources, “Ham” radio operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, "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. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

Over the past year the news has been full of reports of amateur radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events worldwide. Following the April tornadoes in the US, Amateur Radio – often called “Ham Radio” - was often the ONLY way people could communicate. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s volunteers are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications.

There are over 650,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, “Hams” provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies, all as unpaid volunteers.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to http://www.arrl.org/public-service.

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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