The community will have an opportunity on Saturday and Sunday to meet and talk with Culver City’s ham radio operators to see what the Amateur Radio Service is about.
Using the newest digital communications, voice communications and even historical Morse code, ham radio operators will be holding a public demonstration of emergency communications with hams from across the U.S. and Canada during the weekend at Fire Station 1, Downtown.
CCARES, the Culver City Amateur Radio Emergency Service, again will demonstrate Amateur Radio at our Emergency Operations Center behind Fire Station 1, 9600 Culver Blvd., beginning Saturday at 11 a.m. and staying continuously on the air until Sunday at 11a.m.
The public is invited to see ham radio’s capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.
Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations at fire stations, parks, shopping malls, schools, and back yards around the country. Our slogan, “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” is more than just words. Hams 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 36,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.
Over the past several years, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America. These emergencies included California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio frequently was the only way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer hams traveled south to save lives and property.
Last year during Field Day, CCARES made 555 radio contacts across the U.S. and Canada. In scoring, we scored at the 76th percentile in 2011 among all stations nationwide. We finished first in our category in the Southwest Division, which includes Arizona, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego County and Santa Barbara County. Nationwide, we finished seventh in our category
There are 700,000 FCC-licensed Amateur Radio operators in this country, 2.5 million worldwide. These volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies, all for free.
For information, contact Marty Hente at mhente@sbcglobal.net.
