As recent events have shown, emergencies don’t only happen during inclement weather, so members of the Point Roberts Amateur Radio Club (PRARC) will be holding a winter version of their successful summer field day.
Starting on Friday, January 25 club members will begin setting up their antennas at the Gulf Road community center and aim to be on the air by 11 a.m. Saturday, January 26 until noon the following day. “We plan to have multiple radio stations on the air at the same time,” said club secretary Halden Field. “We’ll be making as many contacts with amateur (or ham) radio operators throughout North America as we can.”
In June 2018, PRARC made contact with 137 radio operators as far away as Santiago, Chile as part of the American Radio Relay League’s annual field day. The Winter Field Day’s goal is similar – make contact with as many other amateur radio operators as possible in 24 hours, but under more challenging winter conditions. “This time we will be using the Community Emergency Response Team’s trailer and/or tent for shelter,” Field said.
Since amateur radio operators played a key role in coordinating community response to the recent December storm, club members are encouraging community members to come out and see citizen radio communication in action.“We’re eager for community members to stop by, help raise antennas and discuss their own emergency communication needs as well as those of Point Roberts,” Field said. “Hopefully some of them will decide they would like to do it themselves.”
The group is looking for volunteers to help with antenna setup on Friday and early Saturday morning.
For more information on how to participate, contact Field at incorridge@yahoo.com.
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