This past weekend, members of the “PrepNet”, a local emergency preparedness group, temporarily deployed and operated three Amateur “Ham” Radio stations at the Northfield Center Township gazebo. They participated in the American Radio Relay League’s (ARRL) annual national Field Day event.
The purpose of Field Day is to contact as many other stations under simulated emergency conditions. This year, there was an estimated 40,000 stations participating throughout the United States and its territories and Canada.
The PrepNet’s federally licensed members from both Northfield Center and Sagamore Hills and ranging in age from 13 to 72 years old, spent 18 straight hours contacting 47 states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and 5 Canadian provinces.
The stations were deployed and operated so well that foreign stations in Europe, Africa, South America, The Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, called them during the event. The group even activated a radio repeater aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as they actually watched it pass overhead in the dark early morning sky.
Amateur Radio has always come through when all other communications failed during emergency conditions. This Field Day event was the fourth time that the PrepNet group honed their technical skills outside of their home stations. They stand ready, willing and able to use those skills to assist the Nordonia Hills communities and beyond, whenever the need arises.
