The Orange County Amateur Radio Club celebrated their 3rd Annual Field Day in Huntington Beach on the Ocean View School District property (17200 Pinehurst Lane) June 24-25.
The club (founded in 1933) made 4,500 radio contacts across all 50 states and Canada, according to Tim Goeppinger. “Even though our focus is on the USA and Canada, we made contact with Germany, Venezuela and New Zealand. Thank you to the 43 participants, who helped make this event a success! Also, to spectators that came.”
Huntington Beach City Historian Jerry Person said: “I’m so grateful for ham operators, who in an emergency are there to help people communicate. They not only assist city officials but families who need to communicate across the country and around the World. When I grew up in the 1950’s, some emergency communication required a large room full of equipment with tubes,” said the native Southern Californian, who gave a ham operator his 1950’s Allied Electronics Catalog.
Former Retired Huntington Beach Police Department volunteer Leslie Gilson said: “They are an important group in a disaster and at other times. When my brother was a priest in Peru, that’s how he would call my mother, using a short wave radio.”
You can learn more and join The Orange County Amateur Radio Club at: w6ze.org. Call 714-348-1636.
