NAVARRE — Members of the Emerald Coast Amateur Radio Association will participate in the National Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 22-23, on Santa Rosa Island in Navarre, next to the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station. Since 1933, ham radio operators across North America have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio. The event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.
Field Day will start at noon Saturday, June 22, and will operate until 1 p.m. Sunday, June 23.
If you have a ham radio, talk-in frequency will be 444.200 (100.0 hz tone). GPS coordinates are 30.22.57 North 86.51.40 West.
Field Day is a showcase for how Amateur Radio works reliably under any conditions from almost any location to create an independent communications network.
“Ham radio functions completely independent of the internet or cell phone infrastructure, can interface with tablets or smart phones, and can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. That’s the beauty of Amateur Radio during a communications outage,” says David Isgur, call sign N1RSN, communications manager for ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, (WWW.arrl.org) which represents Amateur (or ham) Radio operators across the country.
“In today’s electronic do-it-yourself environment, ham radio remains one of the best ways for people to learn about electronics, physics, meteorology, and numerous other scientific disciplines, and is a huge asset to any community during disasters or emergencies if standard communications infrastructure goes down."
Anyone may become a licensed Amateur Radio operator. There are more than 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, as young as nine and as old as 100. And with clubs such as Emerald Coast Amateur Radio Association, it’s easy for anybody to get involved right here in Santa Rosa County.
For more information about Field Day or Amateur Radio, contact Jack Holladay, call sign W4JPH at jhoofheart@bellsouth.net.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Amateur radio 'Field Day' in June