O.S.C.A.R. to Participate in Amateur Radio Field Day

O.S.C.A.R. (Owatonna Steele County Amateur Radio Club) is participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercises, to be held on Saturday, June 22 starting at 8 am, and going until Sunday,  June 23 at 1 pm. This is all taking place at McKinley School in Owatonna, now on 22nd St NE. They will be setting up on the 22nd from 8-noon, and operating for 24 hours.

The public is invited to come down and see the amateur radios, also known as ham radios, in action. Ham radios operate independent of Internet and cell phone infrastructure. They will be setting up temporary stations in order to explain what they can do during planned events, as well as unplanned emergencies when communication may be difficult.

Amateur radio, or ham radio, have been around for a century, and it has become a worldwide community of licensed operators. The users are licensed, with their own call letters, and there are classes and 3 different licenses an operator can get. Information on how to obtain a license is available on the American Radio Relay League website.

Stop on by McKinley School to see the operators in action and find out more about how they help during emergencies and non-emergencies. They are happy to answer any questions and are a huge help with SkyWarn.