Want to be an amateur radio broadcaster? Here’s your chance

Pahrump Amateur Radio Repeater Association, (PARRA), an amateur radio event will be held at the Calvada Eye in Pahrump beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 25.

Organizers of the event welcome the public to attend and learn more about amateur radio and what it entails.

Amateur radio operators, or “hams,” furnish back-up communications where conventional methods are inadequate or completely failed due to an emergency. They relay information from a wide variety of sources, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the International Space Station, Search and Rescue and others.

This event will demonstrate to area residents what hams are able to do on short notice. PARRA said it’s operating until about 8 p.m. on Saturday. The event will run Sunday morning until 10 a.m.

The hams will join thousands of other amateur radio operators across the U.S. in what’s known as “Field Day.” This annual event is the climax of Amateur Radio Week, which began on Monday, June 20.

Field Day is sponsored by American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio.

More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year’s Field Day event, according to PARRA’s release.

“From earthquakes, tsunami and tornadoes in the Midwest, ham radio provided the most reliable communication networks in the first critical hours of the events,” Media Manager of the ARRL said. “Because ham radios are not dependent on the internet, cell towers, or other infrastructure, they work when nothing else is available. We need nothing between us but air.”

During the event in Pahrump, area residents and other attendees will have the chance to talk with the Pahrump ham radio operators and get on the air if desired.

They will experience what the amateur radio service is about.

The public is invited to come and see ham radio’s capabilities and learn how to get an FCC radio license. As the world grows, so does the amateur radio, which has over 4,700 Nevada licenses, 700,000 licensees across the U.S. and more than 2.5 million across the globe.

The ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program provides both emergency communications for states and local emergency response agencies as well as non-emergency community services for free.

For additional information on PARRA, you can contact Gary Bechtold at KI4VLH@gmail.com

To learn more about amateur radio, go to www.arrl.net