Kevin Duffy said he first got into “ham radio” when as a youngster he purchased a shortwave radio kit from Radio Shack.

“I made my own little shortwave AM radio so I could listen to the weather report and airplanes go by,” he said.

Today, Duffy is a member of the Turlock Amateur Radio Club and one of many ham radio enthusiasts who will be participating in the “Amateur Radio Week” Field Day.

Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards around the country this weekend.  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 national association for amateur radio.  "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.”

The Turlock Amateur Radio Club (TARC) will be demonstrating amateur radio at 3801 Sherrod Rd. in Mariposa on Saturday. The public is invited to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

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 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. 

During the field day, the newest digital and satellite capabilities will be showcased, along with voice communications and even historical Morse code, demonstrating ham radio’s emergency communications abilities.

While this weekend is a national field day, Duffy said that the Turlock club will often participate in POTA (Parks on the Air) event, where people go out to national parks and try to make contacts.

Duffy said that as part of a POTA event, you find out how many people you can talk to from that location and how far away the people are you’re contacting.

There are over 650,000 amateur radio licensees in the U.S., 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.  To learn more about the Turlock Amateur Radio Club go to https://w6bxn.org/.