Dear Editor,

The Indian Peaks Radio Club (IPRC) is a group of amateur (ham) radio operators living in our community, who are committed to providing emergency communications in times of need and helping to grow the hobby of ham radio in the mountains and surrounding areas.

Ham radio operators from the IPRC will be participating in a national amateur radio exercise from noon on Saturday until noon on Sunday, June 26 – 27. The event is ARRL Field Day (www.arrl.org/FieldDay), an annual amateur radio activity organized since 1933 by ARRL, the national association for amateur radio in the U.S.

Hams from across North America ordinarily participate in Field Day by establishing temporary ham radio stations in public locations to demonstrate their skill and service. Their use of radio signals, which reach beyond borders, brings people together while providing essential communication in the service of communities. Field Day highlights ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent, wireless communications network.

During Field Day 2020, more than 18,000 hams participated from thousands of locations across North America. There are more than 750,000 amateur radio licensees in the U.S., and an estimated 3 million worldwide.

The 2021 IPRC Field Day weekend event will be held both in our club room at the Nederland Community Center, and also on four private acres up in the Bar K Ranch area above Jamestown, a truly beautiful place ideal for such an event. One of the primary functions of field day weekend is for clubs to allow and encourage members of the community to conduct “third party” contacts, meaning that you can get on the radio and speak to someone across the country or even in another part of the world, without having a ham license.

The IPRC would like to invite all of the members of our community to visit us at one of these locations during our Field Day event to learn a little bit about ham radio and the IPRC, and to meet some of your neighbors in a peaceful mountain setting.

The IPRC meets monthly on every fourth Monday evening at 7 p.m., usually at our club room in the Nederland Community Center on Highway 72 and/or by Zoom. The club is currently in the process of building its own radio repeater that will be a critical tool in helping our community prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Among the tenets of the Amateur Radio Service is developing and practicing skills in radio technology and radio communications, and even contributing to international goodwill. For more information about ARRL Field Day and ham radio, contact our club president, Charley Ray at charley@indianpeaksradioclub.org, or our club secretary, Diane Stanitski at secretary@indianpeaksradioclub.org if you would like to attend, and visit www.arrl.org/what-is- ham-radio and our club site, www.indianpeaksradioclub.org, for more information.

73 (ham speak for “best regards”),

Diane Stanitski
Peak to Peak