In an emergency event if normal communications like phones and internet go down then amateur radio, also called ham radio, will be there to help. The Washington Area Amateur Radio Club will set up their equipment that allows ham radio operators the ability to communicate with other radio operators in any conditions and from nearly any location in an independent communications network. This weekend the club will host a field day outside of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Lynn Reasor with the club explains that twice a year the Amateur Radio Relay League has field days to set up and run the equipment so that if it’s needed in an emergency there has been practice in using it, “It’s a test, it’s an exercise for our parent organization Amateur Radio Relay League to test communications equipment to make sure they’re working properly and at 100-percent in case of emergency communications. If the phones went out, if there was no communication whatsoever, the cell phones were overloaded, amateur radio then would be called in to fill in where we weren’t able to communicate in other means.”

He says it’s a test disguised as a contest with the goal to get as many contacts as possible. He said they have reached around 1,000 in the past. Anyone can become a licensed Amateur Radio operator and those who visit the field day can get some hands on experience. The field day begins Saturday and wraps up Sunday.