Come out and meet the Amateur Radio operators of your community and members of QAARC at White Marsh Park on June 22nd and 23rd. The park is located at the intersection of Rt. 213 and White Marsh Road (old Bloomfield Farm). Entrance to the farm is located on Rt. 213 just south of the intersection of White Marsh Road. The event will be open to the public from 2:00 p.m. to sundown Saturday and sunrise to 2:00 p.m. Sunday.
This is the National Field Day for Amateur Radio people. Throughout the country, ham radio operators will be setting up radio stations in unusual locations and making contact with others as a display of their emergency communications capabilities using only emergency power supplies.
Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires, severe thunderstorms, blizzards, and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio. These radio operators, often called “hams” provide backup communications for everything from the American Red Cross to FEMA and even for the International Space Station. Your Town’s “hams” will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capabilities this weekend.
Like most communities, Queen Anne’s County doesn’t expect a major emergency. But they happen, and losing communications quickly can turn an emergency into a real disaster. Our Queen Anne’s County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) members will also be demonstrating these emergency capabilities.