Thousands of Ham Radio operators will be showing off
their emergency capabilities on June 23rd and 24th. Over the past
year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators
providing critical communications in emergencies world-wide. During
Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio often called Ham 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, ham radio people are often the first to provide critical information and communications. On the weekend of Jun 23rd and 24th, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with these ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

This annual event, called "Field Day" is the climax of the week
long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the National
Association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies,
ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping
malls, schools and back yards around the country. Their slogan, "When all else fails" 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 acrisis. 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 communications networks that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives in the past months when other systems failed or were overloaded.

In the Coffee County area, the Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio
Society will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at Old Stone Fort State
Archaeological Park, on June 23rd and 24th, 2007. They invite the
public to come and see ham radio's capabilities and learn how to get
their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

There are 660,000 Amateur Radio operators in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world.

Through the ARRL, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for the DHS Citizens' Corps, the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA and thousands of state and local agencies, all for free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org.
The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the
hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air!

Presenting Organization

Name - MTARS (Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society)
Contact Name - Gavin Groce KE4TVV
Phone - N/A

Venue

Old Stone Fort State Park
732 Stone Fort Drive
Manchester, TN 37355

Start Date - 6/23/07
End Date - 6/24/07
Times - Setup 11AM SAT, OPS 1PM Sat to 1PM Sun, (24hrs)