Bringing together amateur “ham” radio operators from St. Johns, Flagler and Volusia counties for a 24-hour Field Day activity in conjunction with the American Radio Relay League, teams took over the Hammock Community Center, running through drills simulating an emergency situation where commercial communications systems were disabled.
June 17-24 was declared Florida Amateur Radio Week by Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and the Flagler County Board of Commissioners issued a proclamation of their own on June 18 in support of the activity that for some wireless operators is more than a hobby, it’s a passion.
Bonding for a father-son weekend, Anthony Cinelli, a member of the Flagler Palm Coast Amateur Radio Club and REACT, Flagler County’s volunteer emergency responders, watched as his son, Mac Cinelli, took part in the ham radio field day activities.
“The whole point of field day is it’s a simulated emergency,” said Anthony Cinelli, who helped coordinate the activities. “The really awesome thing is we have six different clubs represented today. Emergency communications – when all else fails you have ham radio. When all the infrastructure is gone, as long as we have a twelve-volt battery and a wire up in a tree, you can talk to people.”
Ham radio has been the go-to during emergencies since the days of the Titanic and as recently as the devastation in Puerto Rico, when hurricanes destroyed the island’s communications systems.
However, the ARRL’s historical information notes that the original meaning behind the name is unknown.
Jim Santore, vice president of the Flagler Palm Coast Amateur Radio Club and vice president of the newly formed American Legion Radio Club for the Fifthth District, saw the added benefit of this year’s collaborative event.
“Normally when we do these events, we do them as a competition against each other, but this year we decided to do this event collectively together because watching the events unfold in Puerto Rico when they had their hurricane, in a real world event, the storm might be in St. Johns, Volusia or Flagler. If we operate together, we all know what our resources are and we can all put our pieces that are surviving together and perform emergency communications,” said Santore. “Field day is done every year by the American Radio Relay community to show what radio can do.”