OC Amateur Radio Club to hold Winter Field Day in HB
by: Jerry Person
Published: January 19, 2026
HUNTINGTON BEACH...The last Saturday and Sunday, January 24th and 25th. members of the Orange County Amateur Radio Club will be participating in a national amateur radio exercise called ARRL Field Day hosted by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) at Spring View Middle School, 16662 Trudy Lane, in Huntington Beach.
The event runs for 30 hours from 8am Saturday to 2pm Sunday. The event is open to anyone to come down and view this display of radio technology communication.
The American Radio Relay League is the national association for amateur radio in the United States with ham radio operators that range in age from youngsters to seniors.
This is a 24-Hour event where radio operators and clubs throughout the United States deploy in remote locations as a practice for Emergency Communications. Most are done using propane generators or alternative power sources such as solar or wind. The objective is to make as many contacts with other licensed ham operators in this 30-hour period in a variety of different radio telecommunication modes such as voice, morse code, packet radio, high frequency, low frequency, satellites and even moon bounce.
This is the third year at this new location on Trudy Lane and the sixth year in Huntington Beach that the club has set up the tall antennas, tents and equipment that will enable club members to contact other ham operators in other states and countries.
As you walk past the Voice Station tent you may hear the words Calling CQ, Calling CQ coming from the inside. For over a hundred years these words were sent out over the air by amateur radio "Ham" operators asking to talk to anyone who heard these words or their Morse code dots and dashes.
From the first messages sent out in the early 1900s, ham radio equipment has kept pace with the times, going from the very first ham transmitters that were little more then a spark fired between two contacts with a antenna connected to it. These spark-gap transmitters were connected to a telegraph key that sent Morse code messages to nearby receivers
Today ham operators continue to participate in what they call "Field Day" when hams operators go out into parks, fields, mountains and seashores with portable equipment to see how far their call sign will reach other ham operators.
Last year Station 1 had 900 contacts, Station 2 had 700 contacts and the Morse Code Station was able to contact 1500 station around the world.
Today with cell phones one might think that Amateur Radio Operators and their equipment is no longer needed, but they are very wrong.
These exercises helps prepare ham operators for a possible major emergency when normal communication, radio, telephone, internet, cell phones, or power stations were damaged and out of commission. A ham can set up mobile communication to the outside world in minutes, relaying messages to other hams thousands of mile away to let someone know that a relative or friend is ok. If an emergency disaster happens anywhere in the world, ham radio transmitter/receiver with their portable backup generator may be the only means of communicating with the outside world. There are still places in this world where no signal for a phone.
The Orange County Amateur Radio Club meets in Orange and has approximately 108 members. The first Field Day took place in 1933 and just in time for the major earthquake to hit Los Angeles and Orange counties.
For those who may be interested in Amateur "Ham" Radio in Orange County should check out the club's website at www.w6ze.org or email a question to them at ochamclub@w6ze.org
Photos:HBNewsfile2025