Locals Ham It Up While Preparing Seal Beach for Major Disasters

By Jessica Burger

Hamateur radio volunteers and enthusiasts came out to the Seal Beach Pier Saturday to try to reach as many people across the globe as part of the American Radio Relay League’s nationwide field day. 

The annual event serves as an emergency protocol check and as a contest that consists of FCC-lisenced, “Ham” radio officers and operators tuning in for 24-hours to contact as many other individual stations on different bands or  frequencies as possible. Radio operators find one another locally, nationally and internationally. In the event of a massive catastrophe, ham radio operators could be vital in dealing with the crisis, authorities say.

“For Seal Beach, what we do at RACES is we provide backup communication tools for the police department and supplemental communities in times of disaster,” said the event’s organizer Mike Maronta, chief radio officer for Seal Beach RACES.

For Races team member Don Fovell, it’s all about having a good time.

“It’s really just a party line,” he said. 

“It definitely serves as a social function,” confirmed Seal Beach resident and former practicing amateur radioist, Larry Weill.

Ham radio is a hobby, practiced usually between members of regionally organized groups such as Los Alamitos or Seal Beach’s Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service or RACES.

The contest brought out a variety of community members from police to CERT Search and Rescue volunteers, and curious passersby were welcome to learn more about ham radio. RACES members will be out by the pier again Sunday as the contest comes to an end at 11 a.m.