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Plano Amateur Radio Klub Field Day June 23 and 24

Published: Monday, June 18, 2012 1:06 PM CDT

Ted Gurley

Who YA GONNA CALL? … PLANO’S AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS!

June 12, 2012

Despite the Internet, Cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, fires, storms, ice and even the occasional cutting of cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio. Member of the Plano Amateur Radio Klub (PARK) are radio operators also called “hams” who provide backup communications for everything from the American Red Cross to The National Weather Service and the Medical Reserve Corps in the Collin County area. Members of PARK will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capabilities this weekend (June 23-24 from 1pm on Saturday until 1pm on Sunday).

On the weekend of June 23-24, 2012, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Plano and Collin County ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about as hams across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communication abilities.

This annual event, called “Field Day: is the climax of the week long “Amatuer Radio Week” sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in Russell Creek Park in Plano (3500 McDermott. Plano TX, 75025). Their slogan, “When All Else Fails” is more than just word 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 35,000 amateurs across the country participated in last year’s event and over 50 will be out at Russell Creek Park this weekend.

“The quickest way to turn a crisis into a disaster is to lose communications,” said Ted Gurley of PARK. “From the Tornados and weather events in the county to hurricanes across the Gulf Coast, ham operators have provided the communications necessary in the first critical hours of the events. Ham radios are not dependent on AC power, cell towers or the internet, they work when nothing else does.”

The Plano Amateur Radio Klub will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at Russell Creek Park from 1pm on June 23 until 1pm on Sunday June 24, 2012. The public is invited to see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

Amateur Radio is growing in the U.S. There are now over 700,00 Amateur Radio licenses in the US and more than 2.5 million around the world.

For more information contact Ted Gurley at 214.616.8661 or kd5vfb@arrl.net.

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