AROOSTOOK COUNTY, Maine — The members of the Aroostook Amateur Radio Association are taking their annual Field Day exercise to the virtual platform.
The first virtually based field day exercise in the club’s history will take place on Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28, via Zoom and radio communication rather than an in-person gathering.
The annual event involves local amateur (HAM) radio operators and tens of thousands of other operators across North America, who participate in exercises to help maintain and build proficiency for operators, who are often called in to support various emergency communication and community events.
Typically, members gather together in a large group and run radio sessions working contacts (CQ) to as many other stations around the world as possible, logging critical contact information and coordinating these logs with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) as a club under callsign K1FS.
This year, due to COVID-19 restrictions and related health concerns, the event will take place individually under special rules, aggregating to K1FS, with a virtual Zoom room in the background for coordination, camaraderie and background communication.
This annual event began in 1933 and has been held every year since, outside a pause for WWII from 1942-1946, making this the 82nd annual field day, said club organizers.
There are currently over 750,000 licensed HAM operators in North America who donate the equivalent of millions of dollars per year providing emergency and public service communications for various states of emergency and community events such as the annual Can-Am International Dog Sled Race here in Northern Maine.
The AARA invites anyone that might be interested in learning more about amateur radio in the digital age to contact them or join in a meeting. Find more information at K1FS.org or on Facebook by searching K1FS.
