The City of Copperas Cove Division of Emergency Management teamed up with members of the Cove Repeater Association (Amateur Radio Club) to participate in this year's national Amateur Radio Winter Field Day exercise.
The activities will be held over two days, January 28-29, at the Copperas Cove Fire Station located at 415 S. Main St.
The event begins at 1 PM on January 28 and concludes not later than 1 PM on January 29.
This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend. Anyone may become a radio operator.
"Individuals, any person in the United States, or for that matter throughout the world, can earn a license and be able to operate on the radio waves that are designated in the amateur radio frequencies," Deputy Chief/Emergency Management Coordinator Gary Young said.
There are over 725,000 licensed operators in the United States who range in age from five to 100-years-old.
The purpose of the Winter Field Day event is to give amateur radio operators an opportunity to practice deploying a ham radio station in a simulated emergency situation and to sustain radio communications for 24 hours and attempt to contact as many other ham radio operators anywhere in the world during that time frame.
For over 100 years, Amateur Radio — sometimes called ham radio — has allowed people from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster, all without needing a cell phone or the Internet.
The next field exercise will take place in June.
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