Here’s what 30,000 Americans are doing this weekend & how you can join in

A group of Wichitans will communicate with thousands of people across the U.S. this weekend, carrying on an annual tradition.

In the process, they hope to introduce others to the world of amateur, or ham, radio communication.

“We’ll be making contacts with other amateur radio operators across the country. And the idea is that in 24 hours, we see how many other stations we could make two-way radio contact with,” said Joe Pajor, who teaches people to use radio communication as part of the Wichita Amateur Radio Club.

The Amateur Radio Club will set up at the Wichita Fire Department Regional Training Center on Saturday and Sunday, while similar groups do the same nationwide as part of a Field Day organized by the American Radio Relay League. 31,000 amateur radio operators are expected to participate across the country.

This year’s event is especially geared toward newcomers, or anyone wanting to try out radio communication, Pajor said.

“We’ll have one station that is set up that is designated as the GOTA station and GOTA stands for ‘get on the air,’” Pajor said. “And the purpose of that station is to help visitors actually experience making voice radio contacts with people in other parts of the country. So there’ll be a licensed operator sitting there guiding the person through … but the person will actually get a chance to make contacts and see for themselves what’s involved in putting a station together and being able to pass information and data from point A to point B.”

The event has been happening since the 1930s. But, Pajor said, radio communication is no less valuable almost a century later.

“Technology has changed a lot, both in terms of radio and in terms of other communication technologies, in that time, but today, with our interconnected world, if we lose contact or communications, then some sort of a backup system seems to be a pretty important thing to have,” he said.

Pajor and other ham radio proponents say that in a natural disaster or other disruption to more popular communication methods like phones and internet, ham radio communication could become invaluable for communities.

“Radio communication allows for voice or data communication between two stations without any infrastructure in between them,” Pajor said. “So if there’s no telephone lines, there’s no data lines, there’s no cell towers, and none of that infrastructure that we use every day — should that become unavailable, we can still maintain some amount of communication in terms of passing information, making a request, getting information on the situation as it evolves, whatever it might be.”

It’s not just the possibility of losing more contemporary communication systems that makes amateur radio appeal to people.

“The appeal of it for most people today is that it’s a chance to kind of take a deeper dive into how wireless communication works,” Pajor said. “Everybody’s got a cell phone … and for some people, as a consumer, that is enough. It’s just a tool, and they use it. They surf the internet, they reach out and send texts or make calls. Some people like to have more of an understanding of, well, ‘How does that actually work, and what’s the science behind it, what’s the engineering behind it?’ And amateur radio can provide a kind of an area to experiment in, so that people can learn more about how the science behind the technologies work.”

Field Day will be at the Wichita Fire Department Regional Training Center, 4780 E 31st St., from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 28, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 29.