Field Day 2015


By Jake, KD5JHW on Jun 28, 2015

Come join us at Kiwanis Park for Field Day 2015!

This is to invite you to visit with the members of the WARS this 27-28 June 2015 as we conduct our 2015 Field Day. Field Day is our opportunity to practice and share with the public the operational qualities of ham/amateur radio capabilities in a simulated scenario in which normal communication modes and media are unavailable.

WARS, specifically, and Ham/Amateur radio have a long history of providing for and supporting non-conventional communications needs to the community and local government during natural and manmade disasters. In fact our oldest activity organization, the America Radio Relay League, was founded in 1914 in direct response to challenges presented by WWI and the need for an effective means to relay messages across the nation. Modern ham capabilities would astound the ARRL founders as well as today's casual observers.

Field day will consist of alternatively powered radio operations in a variety of modes. Today, amateur digital operations sit side by side with the CW or Morse code operations which have their beginning in the telegraph. Amateur digital operations can also include data, video and facsimile as well. As suggested, data file transfer and image transfer is also possible. Clearly these are capabilities which we take for granted as our cellular smart phones do these readily. Ham operators though do these without need for the internet or localized (read vulnerable) cellular networks. This is not to say that Amateur radio experimenters eschew modern capabilities. On the contrary, Internet Radio Linking Protocol (IRLP), for example merges the best of hand-held ham radios with the far flung net which is the WWW resulting in the ability to contact locations around the globe on a regular basis from a radio the size of a Wildcats hockey puck. As you can see, this hobby is one with deep roots and serious capabilities to address future events/concerns.

Hopefully, you can make time on your busy schedule to drop by. While operations are ongoing and open to the public, if you can let us know when you might be by we can insure that someone is available to give you a "guided tour" of the activities.

Brent Boydston, KF5THB
2015 Field Day Chair

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 Field Day 2016
Radio in the Park, Archer City Edition