BILLINGS – Ham radio enthusiasts enjoyed their craft and tested and trained all across the country.
The National Ham Radio Field Day provides a chance to prepare for emergencies.
The Yellowstone Radio Club hosted the event on Saturday.
It’s a friendly competition for operators to communicate with as many different situations as possible.
Part of the training simulates the first 72 hours of a crisis while dealing with changing weather conditions.
This event is graded on things like using emergency or backup power while providing a redundancy source.
“For tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages, any kind of disaster you can think of; the first 72 hours is usually when the law enforcement, the fire, and the DES coordinators need to know what’s going on,” said Ron Glass, emergency coordinator for the club. “And that’s the time systems are usually offline.”
More than 3,500 operators across the country participated in National Ham Radio Field Day.
