Amateur radio field day Saturday

Amateur radio operators will be in Valleyford this week conducting a field day.

The Spokane County Amateur Radio Emergency Service and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service will hold a field day at Valleyford County Park off the Palouse Highway between Sands Road and Madison Road. They will be operating for a 24-hour period starting Saturday at 11 a.m., according to a press release from Thomas F. Rose of the American Radio Relay League.

The field day was designed to test operators’ abilities to run a portable station during emergency conditions, such as a loss of electricity, Rose said. During the weekend, the radio operators try to contact other Field Day stations around the county. Rose said that more than 36,000 amateur radio operators across the United States participated in last year’s event.

The public is invited to attend.