The Wellington Radio Club will participate in the national Field Day exercises on Saturday, June 27 beginning with a kickoff ceremony at 1 p.m. The emergency communications event officially begins at 2 p.m. Saturday and runs through 2 p.m. Sunday at Pavilion 3 in Village Park on Pierson Road.
Volunteers from the Wellington Radio Club will lead the event with support from the Emergency Disaster Services Division of the Salvation Army, Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue and the Village of Wellington. The public is invited.
Large-scale calamities cause widespread communications failures or overloads. Amateur radio operators throughout North America train for those times.
Former Wellington Mayor Tom Wenham and PBCFR Battalion Chief Mike Arena will kick off the 24-hour national emergency communications exercise. During the exercise, several million messages will be sent and received by ham stations across the nation, almost exclusively on emergency power supplies.
Even though this hurricane season forecast is for below-average storm activity, radio amateurs still train for improved emergency preparedness during the national Field Day. They prepare to help fill the communications void when infrastructure is destroyed or overloaded in the western communities or other areas. For more information, visit www.qsl.net/k4wrc or call (561) 385-2986.
