COURTESY PHOTO Two members of the Nashua Area Radio Society make adjustments on a mast antenna while preparing for last year's annual Field Day. This year's Field Day is scheduled for this weekend, but due to the pandemic, each participant will be conducting operations from their homes.

NASHUA – Sixteen members of the Nashua Area Radio Society will be among some 35,000 amateur radio operators planning to participate in this weekend’s annual Field Day – with a slight twist in format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of gathering on the grounds of Hudson Memorial School, as the local participants did in previous years, each operator will practice social distancing by setting up their gear at their homes, from which they will communicate with other operators taking part in similar fashion from across the U.S. and Canada.

Field Day, held each year at the end of June, is sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). The event is considered the “single most popular on-the-air event” for amateur radio operators, known as “hams.”

This year’s event will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday and run through 2 p.m. Sunday.

The chief purpose of Field Day is for operators to practice their ability to operate from remote locations to practice their emergency response capabilities, organizers said.

“When disasters strike, amateur radio is there, providing the necessary communications, whenever, wherever, and for as long as needed, when other means of communication fail,” they said.

Participants, at some point during the 24 hours, will take part in an emergency messaging network on the air, to allow members to practice their emergency message passing skills.

A web conference is also planned, to allow members to share their operating setup with an elected government official and an emergency preparedness agency representative.

The Nashua club, meanwhile, won national honors last year, having been selected the 2019 Club of the Year at the ARRL’s annual convention called “Hamvention.”

The award recognized in particular the Nashua club’s youth outreach activities, and its mentoring program responsible for the development of many new ham operators.

For more information about Field Day, go to www.arrl.org/field-day. For more on the Nashua Area Radio Society, go to n1fd.org.

Nashua Area Radio Society members scheduled to participate in Field Day, and their call signs, follow.

* Jamey Finchum, AC1DC

* Abby Finchum, AB1BY

* Jon Turner, AC1EV

* Sterling Eanes, AK1K

* Randall Bashta, N1KRB

* Peter Dabos, N1CEO

* Jim Lajoie, K1BRM

* Matt Truland, W1YCZ

* John Keslo, W1MBG

* Joyce Keslo, KC1KJL

* Mark Sangillo, KC1IML

* Keith Sangillo, KC1IMK

* Brian Quick, W1XMM

* Patrick Morrison, W1YTT

* Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB

* Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.