The members of the Lakes Area Amateur Radio Club here in Jasper participated this last weekend in the Annual Ham Radio Field Day Event.
The event which is sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, takes place each year on the last weekend in the June.
It all began in 1933, when the organization decided to hold the event with the goal of having amateur radio operators, commonly known as “hams” set up in simulated emergency conditions and provide communications as they would following a storm or other disaster.
The members of the local group here in Jasper set up equipment at the site of a former telephone company microwave relay facility in the Weeks Settlement Area of North Newton County and from there they made contacts around the world from Dalhart to Denmark with other hams who also participated in the event.
In a day of cell phones, satellites and the internet, the magic is still there as ham radio, primarily using high frequency radio, commonly known as “HF” is able to make connections all over the world without going through a cell tower, repeater, satellite or other device, making it dependable form of communications and independent of other systems.
The even began at 1:00 pm on Saturday and concluded at 1:00 pm on Sunday.
The Lakes Area Amateur Radio Club meets on the last Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Jasper County Airport on Highway 190. Anyone interested in ham radio is welcome to attend.
For those that are already licensed amateur radio operators the local chit chat frequency is 147.00 MHz.