Community Update

For Immediate Release

For additional information contact:

Jordan Kaplan
1947 Beechnut Road, Northbrook, IL 60062
847-509-1429      j-kap@att.net

“Who ya’ gonna call?        North Shore Radio Hams!”

The Grove Cultural Center in Lake Forest at Ridge and Old Mill Road in Lake Forest on June 28 and 29 will host a Demonstration of Emergency Communications by the North Shore Radio Club,  June 28-29 during the nationwide “Field Day”.

Northbrook,  Il  April 28, 2014 – Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole communities find themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, fires, storms, ice and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio. These radio operators, often called “hams” provide backup communications for everything from the American Red Cross to FEMA and even for the International Space Station. The North Shore Radio Club “hams” will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capabilities the last full weekend of June.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events worldwide. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 28-29, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with North Shore ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is all about as hams across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

This annual event, called "Field Day" is the climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

In the Northern Illinois area, the North Shore Radio Club will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at the Grove Cultural Center, Ridge and Old Mill Road in Lake Forest on June 28 and 29. They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

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