Members of the Red Rose Repeater Association will participate in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise on Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27, at 773 County Line Road, Gap. This event is open to the public, and the club particularly recommends stopping by on Saturday between 2 and 6 p.m. The event will close by 2 p.m. on Sunday.

For more than 100 years, amateur radio - also called ham radio - has allowed persons from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster or emergency, all without needing a cellphone or the internet. Through amateur radio, people can explore electronics, physics, meteorology, and numerous other areas of science.

Field Day demonstrates ham radio's ability to create reliable communications independent of commercial networks, under adverse conditions from almost anywhere. Since 1933, amateur radio operators across North America have established temporary radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of amateur radio. In 2019, more than 35,000 people from thousands of locations participated in Field Day; last year, participants numbered almost 19,000.

Anyone may become a licensed amateur radio operator. There are more than 725,000 licensed ham radio operations in the United States ranging in age from 9 to 102.

For more information about Field Day or amateur radio, visit http://www.w3rrr.org or visit http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio.