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By Kris Harrell

The Jim Bell Wireless Association is organizing its Winter Amateur Radio Field Day for Jan. 25, an event planned as part of a nationwide competition and aimed to educate others on the organization’s work. 

The association will host multiple stations during the event, working to connect with others around the world by radio using voice, text and morse code. Those interested can learn more about the methods used during the event. 

“If [guests] have no experience in radio equipment at all, we offer an opportunity for anyone in the public to come to our event and give them a chance to operate amateur radio and talk to other people around the world,” said Jerry McCullough, the association’s treasurer.

“It gives us a chance to explain to the local public here, not only what we do, but why we do it,”  McCullough said. “We do this for all humanity, whenever there’s a need.”
The association members take part in field day events to prepare and practice for emergency situations to provide humanitarian traffic. 

“Whenever there’s a need, there’s a call out for volunteers to go,” McCullough said. “That’s just what we do. We do this to help our fellow man.”

For example, amateur radio operators with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) can provide emergency communications (EmComm) upon request from Emergency Management Agency (EMA) directors or non-government organizations in emergency situations like Hurricane Helene. 

“If you don’t practice something, then you’re not going to be very good at it,” said George Milligan, the director and past president of the Jim Bell Wireless Association.  “If you don’t go out occasionally and set up in a situation that you’re not familiar with, then when it comes to that situation, you’re going to be inefficient at doing it.
“It’s kind of the same reason that firefighters practice, so that you know when it comes to that situation, you can be efficient at it, and you can be on the air in a reasonable amount of time.”

The event is also part of a nationwide competition sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association. The Jim Bell Wireless Association members will be working with the public and other amateur radio clubs to earn points. 

During the competition, participants will earn points and multipliers based on how many people they are able to contact and how they are able to contact them. 

“You log all your contacts and then you send that list of contacts in, and we get additional points for operating on emergency power,” Milligan said. “Emergency power can be batteries, a generator, solar, wind, those kinds of things. There’s a number of categories that actually give you extra points, and these are situations that you would likely run into in an emergency.”

The Jim Bell Wireless Association’s Winter Field Day is slated for Jan 25, with set-up beginning at 8:30 a.m. and radio operations starting at 10 a.m. 

For more information, visit https://www.k4tns.com/winter-field-day-2025/.