Members of the Fayette County Amateur Radio Club will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 23 – 24 at the Fayetteville First United Methodist Church Scout Hut located at 180 E. Lanier Ave, Fayetteville, GA. This event is free and open to the public.
Above, local ham radio operator Robert Burton (KD4YDC) operates the radio station at the Amateur Radio Field Day in Fayetteville. Photo/Submitted.
The schedule of events is:
Saturday, June 23, 2018
2:00PM Field Day Operation begins.
6:00PM Dinner at the Boy Scout Hut
7:00PM D-Star and Winlink Training and Demonstration!
8:00PM Radio operations through the evening and night
Sunday, June 24, 2018
2:00PM Field Day Operation ends.
Since 1933, amateur (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. For over 100 years, Amateur Radio – sometimes called ham radio – has allowed people from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster, all without needing a cell phone or the Internet. Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent communications network. Over 35,000 people from thousands of locations in the United States participated in Field Day in 2017.
Fayette County has an active Amateur Radio community that uses a series of VHF/UHF radio repeaters and FCC licensed volunteers to provide support communications to the National Weather Service Skywarn program, Fayette County 911 and Fire/EMS, and other local first responders when called upon through the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). The club also provides communications support for public events like Balloons Over Fayette, March of Dimes Walk-a-Thon, Cystic Fibrosis Ride for Life and Tri-PTC Triathlon.
Anyone may become a licensed Amateur Radio operator. There are over 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, as young as 5 and as old as 100. And with clubs such as the Fayette County Amateur Radio Club (http://kk4gq.org), it’s easy for anybody to get involved right here in Fayette County.
For more information about Field Day, contact club President, Steve Yothment at (770) 722-3171 or steveyoth@aol.com.
