The post's emergency communications center helped people escape the community during the wildfire. As the Palisades Fire made cellphone and other communication difficult, if not outright impossible, the emergency communications center at Post 283 came in handy. "When the fire happened, they were actually coaching and helping people get out of the community, until the repeater burned down a few blocks over," said Post 283 Commander Joe Ramirez. "It actually served a really, really important purpose, being one of the only ways to communicate." Hank Elder was Squadron 283 commander when the ham radio setup took place last year. "After they rehabbed the facility, they decided to go ahead and build the actual emergency communications center, which is manned by mostly Sons of The American Legion members," Elder said. "They meet once a month and they go through all the equipment to make sure it’s up and running. I’d say officially it's been up about six months." The ham radio system has a gas generator and a battery backup, "so it is designed for this exact catastrophe," Elder said.

PASO ROBLES -- The Paso Robles Amateur Radio Club is hosting the 2025 ARRL Winter Field Day on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., at the Estrella Warbirds Museum, 4251 Dry Creek Road in Paso Robles. The club invites the public to one of the most popular on-the-air events in the United States and Canada. Thousands of radio amateurs gather together with their clubs, groups, or just friends to operate from remote locations. It is an opportunity to test equipment in case there is a need to respond to an emergency or disaster. It is a chance for radio operators to familiarize themselves with procedures to set up, operate, and take down equipment in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions. It is an opportunity to show the general public and organizations they serve what ARRL's capabilities are. And finally, it is a fun contest to see who can contact the most other stations. Despite the development of very complex, modern communications systems, including cellphones and internet, amateur radio has been called into action to provide reliable communications in a crisis time after time. We have only to look at the Lahaina wildfire, Hurricanes Milton and Helene, and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. When large-scale disasters occur, cellphones and internet are often the first victims.

Winter Field Day, an annual opportunity to help amateur radio operators improve their preparedness for disasters and enhance their operational abilities, is set for the last full weekend in January. This 14th edition of WFD will be held Saturday, January 25th and Sunday, January 26th, 2025. The winter months present unique challenges for operating, including shorter days, the potential for freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and other hazards. The annual Winter Field Day Exercise is not a contest but a practical field exercise designed to push your emergency preparedness skills to the limit and test your capabilities in diverse and demanding conditions.

The Newnan Regional Amateur Radio Club (NRARC) is participating in a national emergency preparedness exercise designed specifically for winter weather. The exercise, Winter Field Day, hosted by the Winter Field Day Association, has fortuitous timing as Georgians battle snow and winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service twice so far in January 2025. The exercise runs continuously from 11 a.m. Saturday through 4:59 p.m. Sunday for a full 30 hours. The goal of the exercise is for amateur radio operators, or "hams", to make contact under less-than-ideal conditions, and continue to be able to operate the radio and pass messages back and forth. Depending on atmospheric conditions, hams may typically make contact with stations as far away as the other side of the country or on other continents with no infrastructure used between stations.