AMATEUR RADIO CONTEST

EACH YEAR THE AMATEUR (HAM) RADIO OPERATORS RUN A FIELDDAY CONTEST

The last weekend of June each year the amateur radio operators of the United States and Canada take to the fields for our fieldday contest.

The Hidden Valleys Amateur Radio Club of South Western Wisconsin will be setting up operations in Morrow Field on the UW-Platteville Campus

All fieldday operations are conducted with emergency power, battery, solar or generator to simulate operations during emergencies. This contest enables us to hone our skills for emgergency operations should they ever be needed. Portable antennas will be set up along with various types of radios in our attempt to make as many radio contacts as possible over a twentyfour period.

Set up will begin at 9:00 AM Saturday June 27th 2009, with radio contests beginning at 12:00 Noon until Noon Sunday June 28th. The equipment will then be taken down and stored until next year or if an emergency requires their use before hand.

Records will be kept by each operating group to see who does the best job in making contacts.

The public is invited to visit, ask questions and make a radio contact if they so desire. See below for the complete ARRL Field Day 2009 press release.



“Radio Hams” from Platteville join in national deployment

Public Demo of Emergency Communications June 27 - 28

Platteville, WI June 27-28 Your Town’s “hams” will join with thousands of Amateur Radio operators who will be showing off their emergency capabilities this weekend. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio – often called “Ham radio” - was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 27 - 28, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Platteville's 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 historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

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, "Ham radio works when other systems don't! " 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 30,000 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 that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives when other systems failed or were overloaded. And besides that – it’s fun!”

In the Platteville area, the Hidden Valley Amateur Radio Club will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at Morrow Field on June 27-28. They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

There are over 650,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies, all for free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.emergency-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!