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Amateur Radio Week planned

NEW CUMBERLAND — Hancock County commissioners on June 10 passed a proclamation recognizing Monday through through Sunday as Amateur Radio Week.

The proclamation was submitted by the Hancock AuxComm Team and is designed to bring attention to Amateur Radio Field Day.

“We want to recognize those who provide emergency communication services,” said Roy Polmanteer, secretary of the radio grop. “And we want to bring awareness to the community of the services we can and do provide.”

From 2 p.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Sunday at Clarke Field in Newell, the Hancock AuxComm Team will participate in the national Amateur Radio Field Day. The event is open to the public. There will be demonstrations in using a ham radio, and a “Get on the Air” station letting unlicensed individuals make contact and get time on the air. During Amateur Radio Field Day, the Hancock team will use batteries and generators to operate equipment, demonstrating how the communication network would work in an emergency situation.

“It gives us the chance to hone the skills that we need so we can set up anywhere, at any time and provide auxiliary and or emergency communications,” said Polmanteer.

Since 1933, the Amateur Radio Relay League has sponsored the field day and has encouraged ham radio operators across North America to set up temporary radio stations in public locations. Field days are used to show the reliability of the amateur radio emergency services and the ability of amateur radio operators to create an independent communications network.

Residents of Hancock County have participated in field day for a number of years, but this is only the second year for the Hancock County AuxComm Team.

Last year, the Hancock AuxComm Team was one of the 2,902 groups and individuals that submitted scores for the 2018 Field Day, and overall they placed 405th. They had a total of five stations running at any one time during the 24-hour event, making them a Class 5A. The Hancock AuxComm Team finished 33rd out of the 77 Class 5A teams, and finished fifth out of the 24 teams located in West Virginia. The Hancock AuxComm Team plans to compete as a Class 5A team once again.

The team was founded in February 2018. It is a club of Hancock County residents who want to provide a sense of community for amateur radio operators and is funded through membership dues and donations. For information about the club or field day, contact Polmanteer at (520) 709-0713 or secretary.hancockAuxcomm@gmail.com.

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