The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club, anchored in Madison, WV, with members in several surrounding counties, will be offering an Emergency Communications Preparedness Discussion during the annual, and currently inaugural, HamFest 2017 at the Madison Civic Center, 261 Washington Ave, Madison, WV, on September 23.
This discussion will be open to the public. The doors open at 7 a.m. and will continue through the afternoon with events scheduled throughout the day. Coordinators have planned several individual presentations, including world renowned audio engineer for the The Grateful Dead, The Who, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Richie Sambora (just to name a few) and Amateur Radio Enthusiast Bob Heil, will be making an appearance and answering questions. The HamFest opens the doors at 7 a.m., with door prizes to be given away throughout the day.
Other planned events include an Antenna Forum and VE Testing for anyone interested in obtaining their Amateur Radio License.
During the recent Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Coast and especially Texas, most commercially available communication methods became useless. Amateur Radio was called into service to provide emergency communications from these affected areas. Ham operators stepped up to the challenge, assisting local governments, along with First Responders and members of the community in communicating with the outside world. This is but a small aspect of what Amateur Radio does and will continue to provide to our neighbors, whenever disasters strike. By initiating yourself into the emergency communications world, you can better prepare yourself in the event of a disaster.
Ken Cregger, President of the Coal Country Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) had this to say, “In times of emergency, ham operators know how to make things happen. We can talk to the world on a simple radio and a wire. In this digital age, the backbone of everything that happens revolves around radio frequencies, and that’s what we do. We manipulate radio waves to do whatever it is that we want it to do and we do it well.”
The CCARC HamFest will have vendors, concessions, discussions, forums and presentations along with amateur radio license testing. The public is welcome to come out and explore part of the world that is amateur radio.
