The City of Copperas Cove Division of Emergency Management, in cooperation with members of the Copperas Cove Repeater Association — an amateur radio club — will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day exercise Saturday and Sunday at the Ogletree Gap Pavilion, 1878 Post Office Road in Copperas Cove.
The Field Day program is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday and run continuously for the next 24 hours until 1 p.m. on Sunday. The 24-hour event is open to the public, and people of all ages are invited to attend.
Since 1933, ham radio operators across North America have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of amateur radio.
For over 100 years, Amateur Radio — sometimes called ham radio — has allowed people from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques and provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster, all without needing a cell phone or the Internet. Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent communications network.
Anyone may become a licensed amateur radio operator. There are over 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, as young as 5 and as old as 100. And with clubs such as the Copperas Cove Repeater Association, it’s easy for anybody to get involved.
