Amateur Radio Day on June 25 and 26

ARRL, the American Radio Relay League, Field Day is the most popular live event held annually in the United States and Canada.

On the fourth weekend of June each year, thousands of radio amateurs come together with their clubs, groups or simply friends to operate remotely.

Field Day is a picnic, a camp, an emergency practice, an informal contest and above all, fun!

This is a time when many aspects of amateur radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it like a competition, other groups will take the opportunity to practice their emergency response skills. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate how amateur radio could be useful in an emergency to the general public.

The contest part is simply contacting as many other stations as possible and learning how to operate our radio equipment in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions.

We use these skills when helping out with events such as marathons, bike-a-thons, etc. These are large non-urgent activities planned in advance.

Despite the development of very complex modern communications systems, or perhaps because they ARE so complex, amateur radio has repeatedly been called into action to provide crisis communications when it really matters. Radio amateurs (also known as “hams”) are well known for their communication support in real disaster and post-disaster situations.

The Lincoln County Amateur Radio Club will be participating in Field Day at the Pemaquid Lighthouse in New Harbor.

The Lincoln County EMA office will have an ambulance that has been converted to an emergency communications vehicle that has been dubbed an “Hambulance” on site as one of the operating stations.

The public is invited to join us not only to see us in action, but they are also invited to broadcast as we have a special ‘Get On The Air’ or GOTA station for this purpose with a mentor on hand for guidance, children as well as adults are welcome to participate.

All stations operate on “backup power” consisting of solar/battery power as well as a generator.

We start settling in at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 25 and are on the air at 2 p.m. for 24 hours.

We will have refreshments and coffee available for our guests.

For more information, please visit our website, K1LX.org, email us at k1lxarc@gmail.com, or call Jose Douglas, Club President, at 207-677-0008.

I hope to see you there, it’s a rain or shine event, although we prefer the sun.