Ham radio field day coming up near La Pine

Central Oregon ham radio operators will participate in Ham Radio Field Day on Saturday and Sunday, June 22-23, at Prairie Campground near La Pine.

This is a great opportunity for the public and public officials to see how ham radio has changed to meet the challenges of providing emergency communications during major emergencies or large scale public events when other means of communication are not available or have failed.

This year, the High Desert Amateur Radio Group and the Central Oregon Amateur Radio EmComm Team in La Pine are holding their event together at a single site.

Several ham radio stations will be “built from scratch” at a location where there is no commercial power and no existing antenna structures. The stations will be operating at all times.

The public is invited to visit the site on Saturday, June 22 from 11:30 AM until 5 PM at Prairie Campground east of La Pine. A Public Information Officer will be on scene to greet visitors and explain the operations.

Directions from Bend:
Go south on Hwy 97 approximately 23 miles.
Turn left onto Paulina Lakes Road (Hwy 21) and go 6.6 miles.
Turn right onto East Paulina Lakes Road and go 0.3 miles to campground entrance.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations. Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN! It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities.