JUPITER, Fla. — A group of old-school radio enthusiasts turned the Civic Center at Carlin Park in Jupiter into what looked like the set of a science-fiction movie for the 41st time Sunday.
It’s all for a good cause: practicing their connections and skills in case they need to communicate via radio if emergencies, like hurricanes, hit our area.
It’s part of the nationwide 2023 Radio Field Day for Radio Operators and Fans. The point of the event is to make as many contacts as possible through their radios, using a faux emergency frequency.
The Jupiter-Tequesta Repeater Group gathered for 24 hours with their gear and made at least 600 connections. They reached the majority of states in the U.S. and made it as far as Australia using their antennas.
The field day is happening all across the county, and consists of amateur radio operators using their technology for 24 hours straight and fine-tuning their gear ahead of any potential disasters.
Amateur radio operators are able to use batteries, generators, solar and other power means to power up the radios and antennas needed for communications during emergencies and disasters.
There are 700,000 ham radio operators in the U.S. and 3 million around the world.