Provided by Ole Virginia Hams Amateur Radio Club
The Ole Virginia Hams Amateur Radio Club in Manassas is holding two events in June.
Our first event, Hamfest, is on Sunday, June 3 at the Prince William County Fairgrounds. We have commercial vendors as well as individuals selling ham radio related products. We also have the 4H Youth Lounge available for kids, where they can go through different stations making projects that have to do with electronics. There are also several seminars planned that deal with ham radio and related items.
Members of the Ole Virginia Hams Amateur Radio Club will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 23 – 24, at Nokesville Park. Since 1933, ham radio operators across North America have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.
For over 100 years, Amateur Radio – sometimes called ham radio – has allowed people from all over the world to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster, all without needing a cell phone or the internet. Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent communications network. Over 35,000 people from thousands of locations participated in Field Day in 2017.
Anyone may become a licensed Amateur Radio operator. There are over 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, as young as 5 and as old as 100. With clubs such as the Old Virginia Hams, it’s easy for anybody to get involved right here in Prince William County.
For more information about Field Day, contact our Field Day Chairman Byron at ak4xr@dillonelectric.com or visit our website at w4ovh.net.
