That’s one of our photos from last year’s “Field Day” with ham-radio operators set up in the field on the south side of the South Seattle Community College campus on West Seattle’s Puget Ridge. They’ve always been open to having you stop by and see what their exercise is all about each year – but this time around, they’re ENCOURAGING you to visit – Jeff Cacy explains why:

Ham Radio operators will be operating a radio station from the field just south of South Seattle Community College. The event runs from 11:00 am Saturday to 11:00 am Sunday. You can’t miss us – we are in the big tent in the field by the south parking lot.

We need your help to stop by and participate in our simulated emergency. This event is put on by the Auxiliary Communication Service of the City of Seattle and we will be operating our radios from solar panels, batteries and generators.

If you are in any way interested in emergency preparedness (and you should be here in earthquake and winter-storm country) or in radio communication, please stop by. We will be operating all night, so there is no reason to let your schedule or mistaken need for sleep stop you.

This special event is called Field Day. It happens each year in June and is in the form of a contest where we see how many stations we can talk to in 24 hours. Thousands of similar stations all around the country have moved radios and batteries out in the field and erected various forms of antennas for the event. We will have a digital station, voice and satellite communications, plus some others as more people bring out their radios. You might be talking through a satellite as we will have a mobile satellite station set up as well – it all depends on the passes of the low-earth orbiting satellites we use, but there are dozens to choose from.

One of the parts of the contest is have people like you come by and try out our radios – we will coach you through and all you need is to put on some headphones and squeeze a microphone to talk to another station anywhere in the US or Canada. We need at least 20 people to stop by and participate to get some bonus points in the contest. We also need some public officials to stop by, so if you know of any in West Seattle, we sure hope to see them (I can think of several…).

Any ham radio operators who might not have been active in a while are also encouraged to stop by anytime in the 24 hour period.

Call Curt Black – 206 755-4541 for more information or more encouragement. You are allowed to feed the operators, so feel free to bring some life support, but please no alcohol since we are on South Seattle Community College property.

Hope to see everyone there!