Newington, CT  June 10, 2008 -- Thousands of Ham Radio operators will be showing off their emergency capabilities this weekend.  Over the past months, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications in emergencies world-wide.  During the recent tornadoes and in Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio – often called “Ham radio” - was often the ONLY way remaining by which people could communicate.  When trouble is brewing, ham radio people are often the first to provide critical information and communications.  On the weekend of June 28-29, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with these ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about.  Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historic Morse code, hams from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of their emergency communications abilities.

To find out where the Amateur Radio operators will be set up in your area, go to http://tinyurl.com/5bkhzp 

This annual event, called "Field Day" is the climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio.  Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards around the country.  Their slogan, "When all else fails…” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.  More than 34,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

"We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather's radio anymore," said Allen Pitts of the ARRL.  "The communications networks that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives in the past months when other systems failed or were overloaded.”

There are 654,000 Amateur Radio operators in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world.  Through the ARRL, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for the DHS Citizens' Corps, Salvation Army, FEMA and hundreds of state and local agencies, all for free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.WeDoThat-Radio.org.   The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams.  See what modern Amateur Radio can do.  They can even help you get on the air!

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Allen Pitts, W1AGP
Media and Public Relations Manager
(860) 594-0328
apitts@arrl.org