Press-6-16.2014

Maple Valley Amateur Radio Club participating in Field Day on June 28 – 29, 2014 ­ VOICE of the Valley Online News

http://www.voiceofthevalley.com/community_news/news/article_3692cc5c­f5d3­11e3­95ba­001a4bcf6878.html?mode=print 1/1

Maple Valley Amateur Radio Club participating in Field Day on June 28 – 29, 2014

Maple Valley, Washington, June 12, 2014 ­­ The Maple Valley Amateur Radio Club (MVARC) is

holding a local ARRL Field Day event at Lake Wilderness in Maple Valley Saturday thru Sunday on

June 28-­29, 2014. Field Day is a picnic, a camp-out, practice for emergencies, an informal contest

and, most of all, FUN!

MVARC (http://www.kc7key.org) encourages anyone interested to come by and join in on hands-­on

use of radios ­ licensed radio operators or not ­ or just observe and learn more about amateur radio

starting Saturday at 11:00 am thru Sunday at 2:00 pm. The contest portion of Field Day is simply to

contact as many other stations as possible and to learn to operate our radio gear in abnormal

situations and less than optimal conditions. Come see the behind the ­scenes action of how emergency

communications are handled!

Besides providing emergency communications, ham radio operators use their skills to help with

events such as marathons, triathlons and fundraisers (Maple Valley Bear Run/Lake Meridian

Triathlon/Maple Valley Bra Run), celebrations such as parades (Maple Valley Days Parade) as well

as exhibits at fairs, museums, and conventions — these are all large, pre-planned, non-­emergency

activities.

ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on­ the ­air event held annually in the US and Canada. On

the fourth weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs,

groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.

This annual event 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 backyards around the

country. Their slogan, "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” 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 a crisis.

For decades, Amateur Radio operators have been there during emergencies. Today, there are over

750,000 Amateur Radio operators in the United States and more than 2.5 million worldwide.

Information on how to become involved in Amateur Radio is available from the ARRL, the national

association for Amateur Radio, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 or by calling 1­800­32­NEW

HAM. The URL for ARRL's home page is www.arrl.org.