Area “Ham Radio” operators to take part in national deployment

To demonstrate Emergency Communications June 26-27th


Logansport……..Members of the Cass County Amateur Radio Club will be showing their emergency communications capabilities June 26th and 27th ,2010. The event is called “Field Day”, an annual national event sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during emergencies, including the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, flooding in Tennessee, tornadoes in the Midwest, and wildfires and mudslides in California. When such disasters occur, amateur radio is often the only form of communication immediately available.

Local ham radio operators will be setting up their equipment at the Cass county emergency management agency located at 1227 N. State Road 17, a mile north of Logansport, according to Tom Murray, local field day chairman and secretary of the Cass County Amateur Radio Club. The local hams will be operating for 24 consecutive hours during the event. Murray says there will be an amateur radio available for the general public to get on the air with the assistance of a club member. There will also be an information table for those who may be interested in becoming a licensed amateur radio operator. The radio operators will be using a number of modes to make contacts across the country and around the world, including voice, morse code and digital communications.

Phil Snider, president of the Cass County Amateur Radio Club says the event will get underway at 2pm on Saturday the 26th. “This will be the second year the event has been held at the Cass county EMA“. Snider says the local club works closely with local emergency officials. Local amateur radio operators are active when severe weather threatens the area, reporting any damage to EMA officials and relaying valuable information to the National Weather Service.

The event at the Cass County EMA will begin at 2pm on Saturday, June 26th and continue until 2pm Sunday, June 27th.

Murray invites all local officials and the general public to come and see amateur radio in action. There are more than 650,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States, and more than 2.5 million hams around the world.

More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country took part in last year’s event.