Amateur Radio Operators Demonstrate Emergency Field Communications

Emergency Communications Simulation Exercises This Weekend

The Milwaukee Radio Amateurs’ Club to demonstrate reliable communications during the worst of disasters

Event dates: Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25, 2023

When landlines and cell phone services fail, amateur radio becomes the most reliable means of communications following a disaster. Since 1933, the ARRL, the national association for amateur radio, has held a nationwide event each June called “Field Day” where local amateur radio clubs each set up portable radio equipment in the field to contact other participating clubs in passing along required information thereby demonstrating their capability to provide reliable communications.

The Milwaukee Radio Amateurs’ Club, the ARRL’s oldest affiliated club, participates annually in this event staging multiple operator stations - comprised of radios, antennas, and logging software - powered by emergency sources including generators and solar panels. “We will be demonstrating our capability and flexibility of various communications modes from the old school reliability of Morse code to the newer modes of digital voice and data. We’ll also demonstrate space communications through low-earth orbiting satellites to other hams around the globe with similar equipment,” said Dick Strassburger, N9EEE, President of the club. “And all this will be running off a generator, batteries, or solar panels.”

This year’s event will be staged at the Mukwonago Park in Mukwonago. The MRAC invites the public to view this emergency communications simulation at their Field Day site, on Saturday afternoon between 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm, and Sunday between 8:00 am - 1:00 pm.

About Milwaukee Radio Amateur’s Club: the MRAC was incorporated in 1917 and is one of the oldest amateur radio clubs in the world. The MRAC became an affiliate of the ARRL in 1919 and remains the oldest affiliated club. For more information about the club, please visit W9RH.org.