Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Operators Demo Emergency Communications Local ‘hams’ to participate in national Field Day exercises from Camino Real Marketplace on Sat. & Sun.

Members of the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club pose for a photo at the 2011 Field Day last summer. A variety of technologies were showcased, including Amateur Television, a near space weather balloon which used Amateur Radio and wireless robots.

June 18, 2012 --- Santa Barbara, Calif.

Even though cell phones, email and text messaging seem to be everywhere, when a crisis strikes, millions of Americans can find themselves in the dark. Wildfires, earthquakes, storms, floods and overloaded systems all too often interrupt critical communications. In these cases, the one consistent communications service that never fails is Amateur Radio.

This Saturday and Sunday, June 23-24, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Santa Barbara’s ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about, as hams across the nation will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities as part of the 2012 Field Day.

“Field Day is a way for hams to get outdoors and have fun under difficult conditions,” said Tom Saunders, the Field Day committee chair for the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club (SBARC). “We welcome visitors, especially kids, to explore our fully-equipped mobile station’s capabilities and communicate long distances with voice, digital data and video, all without using the Internet!”

The event is the climax of the week long Amateur Radio Week sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators in all 50 states and Canada will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards. Their slogan, "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, the Internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. For hams, Field Day is the largest on-air event of the year. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators participated in last year's event. This year, Santa Barbara Amateur Radio operators will contact thousands of other hams throughout the US, Canada, and the world using a variety of wireless modes including making contacts using Amateur Radio satellites in orbit.

This is a rare opportunity to see Field Day in action and do some weekend shopping at Camino Real Marketplace. So please stop by at 7410 Hollister Avenue on Saturday June 23 from 11:00 AM through Sunday June 24 at 11:00 AM. For more information visit www.sbarc.org.

SBARC is a non-profit, public benefit corporation organized to promote education for persons interested in telecommunications, to disseminate information about scientific discoveries and progress in the field and to train communicators for public service and emergency communications. SBARC also encourages and sponsors experiments in electronics and promotes the highest standards of practice and ethics in the conduct of communications.

SBARC MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Saunders, Field Day Committee Chair 805-452-0840 • tsaund@cox.net www.sbarc.org