The West Georgia Amateur Radio Society is holding its annual field day June 23-24 at the Carrollton Wal-Mart. Members of the organization are hoping that this year’s location will help attract more people to the hobby of ham radios.

At the 24-hour event, WGARS will join other nationwide amateur radio clubs associated with the American Radio Relay League and begin transmitting simultaneously. After local club members set up several ham radios and demonstrate the devices, the public is given a chance to communicate with other enthusiasts from across the county, or if they are lucky, across the world, said William Parrish, WGARS member and field day chairman.

“It’s more or less like a contest where you see how many contacts you can make in a 24-hour period,” he said. “Some of the older hams don’t consider it a contest; they consider it more like a celebration event. But we’ve talked to people in Australia before - just by setting up outside with an antenna and (one hundred) watts of power.”

The theme of this year’s field day is honoring the club’s joint operation with certain Carroll County agencies, and two of those agencies that WGARS works with will be featured guests. The Emergency Management Agency will bring the West Georgia Regional Mobile Command Vehicle, and the West Georgia Ambulance will bring out its Critical Care Unit.

“These are two of the agencies that we mainly volunteer with, train with and serve locally,” WGARS President Tim Tyson said. “We just thought that it would be a good thing to have them as our guests this year.”

However, the primary objective of the event, which will begin at 2 p.m., is to expose amateur radios to the public, including what amateur radios do in times of emergencies and specifically what the club does. Hopefully, the field day will then spark the public’s interest, said Tyson.

“We just want to show people what amateur radio is,” he said. “Also, they’ll be able to see that we do training and interface with our two served agencies. Those are the two main things that we are trying to achieve.”

While officials are not sure how many club members will attend, they think that the public attendance for this year’s field day will be larger that last year’s - due mainly to the event’s Carrollton location.

“I’m sure we’ll have a pretty good turn out with the event being held at the Wal-Mart,” Parrish said. “Last year, we didn’t have many (from the public) show up because the weekend coincided with work schedules and because we had it in a small restaurant in Bremen. This year, we’ll definitely draw in a bigger crowd.”

There is a need to continue the tradition and science of the amateur radio, according to Parrish. In times of emergencies when cell phones and other communication devices fail, amateur radio will always be there.

“We can throw up a piece of wire and talk around the world,” Parrish said. “It’s a very good way of communicating. It’s almost bulletproof.”

Started in 1981, the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society is a general interest radio club with about 50 members in West Georgia and East Alabama. Besides the annual field day, the club’s service activities include public safety communications for the annual SIDS bike ride and cooperation with the Carroll County’s Emergency Management Agency office.

On the second Tuesday of odd-numbered months, meetings take place at the Carrollton Community Center, and on even months, they are held at Ryan’s Steakhouse on Bankhead Highway in Carrollton. All meetings begin at 7 p.m.

For more information about the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society, contact William Parrish at (678) 602-6139 or visit www.wgars.com.