(Photos courtesy West Seattle Amateur Radio Club)
This weekend, West Seattleites of all ages are welcome to go look, learn, and listen during amateur-radio operators’ annual Field Day, a national event that will locally be running around the clock for more than 24 hours starting at 11 am Saturday on the south field at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor).

Read on for the details:

You can read the full announcement in our calendar listing. They’ll be on the air 11 am Saturday till noon Sunday. But while they are practicing to make sure they are ready to spring into action if disaster strikes, here’s what you need to know as a visitor:

Curt Black from the West Seattle Amateur Radio Club says, “We hope people will try out some radios; we are all set up for that, too. If they have a reluctance to do microphones, we have digital modes that just require a little typing skill (mostly function keys, really…). We’re hoping for Scout groups, church groups, school groups, but any kid that we might excite about science and technology and making things works for us.”

And if you feel inspired to take the next step and get involved, he adds, “Communication training along with joining with your neighbors to form a disaster-resistant community is the key to (disaster) preparation. West Seattle Amateur Radio Club is ready to help with the licensing classes necessary to enter the world of amateur radio. Ham radio is also the doorway to lifelong learning about science and technology. Right in the center of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) focus that we are feeling following the Seattle Science Festival two weeks ago… Yep, we were there, too. West Seattle is at the center and lead of community preparedness including our neighborhood hub system.

“You can find us at the South Seattle Community College campus. We are at the far south end of the campus in the big grassy field near Olympic hall. A map is available here. Just type in the call sign for the City of Seattle Auxiliary Communication Service, W7ACS in the upper left of the screen to jump to our site.”

Questions? You can reach Curt at wr5j@arrl.net. Better yet, stop by Field Day – and yes, you can even drop by in the middle of the night Saturday night – there’ll be somebody on the air at all times.