{"id":6140,"date":"2013-06-20T08:30:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T12:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6140"},"modified":"2013-06-19T17:52:29","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T21:52:29","slug":"for-public-inside-look-at-emergency-backup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6140","title":{"rendered":"For public, inside look at emergency backup"},"content":{"rendered":"

County\u2019s Amateur Radio Field Day exercises, equipment on view this weekend<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>

Members of the Chester County Amateur Radio Emergency Service\/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (ARES\/RACES) will participate in the 80th Annual Radio Field Service Day, a 24-hour exercise that begins Saturday at 2 p.m. and is open to the public.<\/p><\/div>\n

Waves of amateur radio operators throughout Pennsylvania will conduct an annual exercise this weekend to determine the limits of their emergency communications capability, the county\u2019s Department of Emergency Services said.<\/p>\n

Thousands are expected to participate in the 80th<\/sup>\u00a0annual Amateur Radio Field Day, a national 24-hour event that begins at 2 p.m. Saturday and ends at 2 p.m. on Sunday, a county news release said. Locally, the participants will be members of the Chester County Amateur Radio Emergency Service\/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (ARES\/RACES), a group that supports the county\u2019s emergency services to back up and supplement communications in an emergency, the release said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a very important backup for us,\u201d said Patty Mains, a spokesman for the county\u2019s Department of Emergency Services. \u201cIf our radio system goes down, they are able to fill in.\u201d Mains said she could remember two instances in the past couple of years during which the amateurs provided vital communication during a phone outage.<\/p>\n

\"Chester<\/a>

Chester County\u2019s COMM-1 vehicle will be on display at the Government Services Center this weekend for the 80th Annual Amateur Radio Field Day exercise.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTheir radio system seems to work all the time,\u201d she said, adding that the purpose of Saturday\u2019s exercise is to ensure that the equipment is functioning properly. She said the amateurs will be set up in the parking lot of the government services building, and the public is welcome to stop in and observe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they will see first is a gaggle of antennas extending across the parking lot,\u201d said Lloyd Roach, the public information officer for ARES\/RACES.\u00a0 He said the group would do demonstrations of some of its emergency equipment for visitors. A portable \u201cvisitor-friendly\u201d Get On the Air (GOTA)_will be installed for public inspection and participation. In addition, the county\u2019s sophisticated communications vehicle, COMM-1, will be on display, wheels that cost \u201cabout 10 times more than my house,\u201d Roach suggested.<\/p>\n

Roach said the exercise began in 1933 by the American Radio Relay League to practice preparedness and is now conducted annually throughout the U.S. and Canada. One requirement of the 24-hour drill is that the radio hams have to rely on emergency power, Roach said.<\/p>\n

He said over 25 volunteers will operate in voice, single side band, FM, digital data modes and Morse Code, communicating with as many other Field Day stations as possible. Several high-frequency HF, VHG, and UHF bands will be used to maximize radio propagation throughout the exercise, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County\u2019s Amateur Radio Field Day exercises, equipment on view this weekend By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times Waves of amateur radio operators throughout Pennsylvania will conduct an annual exercise this weekend to determine the limits of their emergency communications capability, the county\u2019s Department of Emergency Services said. Thousands are expected to participate in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2380,2381,2382,2383,2384,738],"class_list":["post-6140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-80th-annual-amateur-radio-field-day","tag-chester-county-amateur-radio-emergency-serviceradio-amateur-civil-emergency-service-aresraces","tag-department-of-emergency-services","tag-get-on-the-air-gota","tag-lloyd-roach","tag-patty-mains"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}