Field Day: Public Demo of Emergency Communications — June 25 – 26

Conejo Valley residents are invited to see and participate in Ventura County’s largest public emergency communications exercise of the year on June 25th and 26th. Amateur radio operators from the Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club (CVARC) will be participating in a national amateur radio exercise know as Field Day from 11:00 AM Saturday, June 25 to 11:00 AM June 26, 2022.

The CVARC Field Day Event will be held at the Lake Sherwood Development Company field located at 378 W. Potrero Road in Westlake Village on the south side of W. Potrero Road, between Trentwood Drive and Stafford Road.

CVARC holds one of the largest and most comprehensive Field Day events in the country as members set up as many as 20 temporary amateur (ham) radio stations to demonstrate emergency communication skills and services to the public. Radio signals bring people together while providing essential emergency communication for communities in times of earthquakes and wildfires when cellphones and email, are often disrupted.

“Hams have a long history of serving our communities when disasters damage critical communication infrastructure, including cell towers,” said CVARC President Ed Zimmerman, N6XEW. “Ham radio functions completely independently of the internet and phone systems and a station can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. Hams can quickly raise a wire antenna in a tree or on a mast, connect it to a radio and power source, and communicate effectively with others,” Zimmermann added. Field Day highlights ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent, wireless communications network.

The public is invited to tour CVARC’s Field Day site and talk with the operators about emergency communication and preparedness. Visitors will have an opportunity to make a ham radio contact to experience this exciting form of communication. The stations will demonstrate variety of communication techniques from analog and digital communication to using satellites to bounce a low-powered signal across the globe.  Visitors will see demonstrations of alternate energy sources such as such as generators, solar panels, and batteries, all of which are valuable tools to be considered in home emergency planning. Youth visitors may participate in STEM related activities, such as learning Morse code, learning about electronics, and operating ham radios.

Field Day is an annual amateur radio activity organized since 1933 by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for amateur radio. There are more than 775,000 amateur radio operators in the United States and more than 103,000 in California.  For more information about ham radio or CVARC Field Day, please visit www.cvarc.org.

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