PRESS RELEASE FOR FIELD DAY 2020
Amateur Radio Operators Adapt to COVID-19 Crisis
Prince Frederick, Maryland– June 12, 2020 – The last full weekend in June is a big one for tens of thousands of amateur radio operators all over North America. It is Field Day weekend, a combination emergency-preparedness exercise, public relations event, and club picnic. Clubs and individuals tune up their power generators and charge their batteries and get on the air to make radio contacts with other participants. It is normally a big deal for the Calvert Amateur Radio Association K3CAL, the amateur radio club in Prince Frederick. The club usually sets up four separate stations for their annual Field Day. They rotate location most years having a Field Day in the northern, middle, and southern parts of the county in rotation.
This year’s club event is yet another casualty of the COVID-19 crisis, but that’s not deterring CARA members from participating in this year’s Field Day on June 27 and 28. Several are planning to set up and operate emergency-power and alternate-power stations from their homes. And there will be a smaller onsite operation from one of the members’ homes with three stations. Visitation is usually an integral part of Field Day with invited government and elected officials being invited. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, visitation is not encouraged this year.
2020 marks the 82nd annual Field Day event. It was started in 1933 by the American Radio Relay League, the national association for radio amateurs, and has been held every year since then, except for the years 1942 – 1946, when amateur radio was suspended during WW II. There are currently 761,867 licensed radio amateurs in the U.S., who donate the equivalent of millions of dollars per year providing emergency and public service communications.
Calvert Amateur Radio Association, Inc. is the oldest amateur radio (ham) club operating in Calvert County. Besides having fun talking locally or around the world to hams everywhere, we provide emergency communications and public services by supporting Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) and Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES).
We support various public service events needing communications. Please contact us if you need communication support for your event. We are a long-standing Special Services Club of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL).
We normally meet on the FIRST Thursday every month (except December) at the Harriet Brown Community Center, 901 Dares Beach Road, Prince Frederick Maryland at 7:30 PM. We will start in-person meetings in April 2022 with ZOOM access available for those who cannot attend in person. The Association operates two Repeaters in the county.
For further information contact the club at president@k3cal.org or see our webpage at k3cal.org.
