Across a grassy field at South Seattle College, people in orange and yellow neon safety vests set up 60-foot antennas, linked together by wires strung up like a clothesline. Solar panels powering radios and receivers stretched across the field and parking lot.
It was Seattle Radio Field Day, a 24-hour event where radio hobbyists connected with others on air across the world, learned about rugged 2 way radios and practiced radio emergency preparedness.
Some people, however, know exactly what they would do. For instance, locals involved with the Seattle Emergency Hubs organization, a volunteer-based group that teaches Seattleites about emergency situation preparedness, would report to their nearest hub, a designated meeting place for community members in the event of a natural disaster.
Others, like those in Seattle-area amateur radio clubs and the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service, would get on air to connect with other parts of the city and the Seattle Office of Emergency Management to relay information.
At South Seattle College in late June, RVs and campers filled a parking lot, where members of local radio groups had set up camp for outdoor two way radio training exercise.
Volunteers and members from Cascadia Radio, Puget Sound Repeater Group, West Seattle Amateur Radio Club and Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service spread across sidewalks and the field. Some used Morse code to send messages, while others used computers to watch radio frequencies coming from across the world.
Bill Thomassen, a member of the West Seattle Amateur Radio Club, set up his computer and a radio to teach members of the community about a system called Winlink, a program that doesn’t require the internet but can relay and receive messages by radio.
Using this system, Thomassen connects his computer to a radio, which can transmit via email any messages to a device with internet that’s outside the disaster zone.