Members of the Middle Peninsula Amateur Radio Club will participate Saturday in person in the annual American Radio Relay Field Day Emergency Preparedness Event, along with thousands of other ham radio operators in North America. They will be operating for 24 hours at Abingdon Park on Powhatan Drive in Hayes, under simulated emergency conditions using non-commercial power sources as if this were a real weather or disaster-related event. At such times, ham radio operators are often the first on the scene to provide emergency communications and often work with EMS, the Red Cross and other public service organizations to assist in establishing critical communication links when conventional systems fail. Both the public and government officials are invited to stop by and learn about the role that hams are able to provide. Here, from left, in the 2019 event are club members Michael Ghant, Bobby Forrest and, in background, Mark Lowell.
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