A group of residents spent their afternoon communicating with others throughout North America this weekend.

The Pella Amateur Radio Club took part in an annual field day exercise in simulated emergency situations. Mike Morgan says there are over 200,000 licensed amateur radio personnel in North America prepared to help assist law enforcement, medical professionals, and other emergency responders.

“During a pretty good emergency like a wide-area tornado or a big wildfire, the first thing that goes down is cell phones, and so there’s very little cell phone capability, and usually the emergency responders frequencies get overloaded,” he says. “So our goal is to work with the emergency responders and to provide auxiliary communications to help unload their frequencies and their traffic.”

Morgan has been working in the field for almost 40 years, and says he’s participated in a wide range of situations where his services have been put to use, including wildfires in Colorado and as a spotter for the National Weather Service.

Hear more about the Pella Amateur Radio Club on Let’s Talk Pella.