Brandon Bailey uses a ham radio during a field day held by Cherokee County Amateur Radio Club members. Ham radio operators are the first line of communication during an emergency when conventional communications are disabled, such as during the days following Hurricane Katrina. Local amateur radio operators will be busy "hamming it up" Saturday, June 27, across the airwaves in a 24-hour field day event.

Using only emergency power supplies, ham radio operators will camp out Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Cherokee County History and Arts Museum. The volunteer hams will spend the next 24 hours attempting to make contact with radio operators all over the country.

The emergency communications exercise is being done in Gaffney by the Carolina Amateur Radio Emergency Services Group. Local radio ham operators made contact by amateur radio in previous years with residents in California, Washington, Florida, Colorado and Maine.

"The field day provides a way for us to test our emergency communications before there is an emergency situation," said Dustin Martin, vice president of the Carolina Amateur Radio Emergency Services Group. "We invite the public to come, meet and talk with the hams to see what modern amateur radio is all about. They can even help you get on the air."

Ham radio is the first line of communication for groups like the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). During Hurricane Katrina, ham radio was the only way people could communicate.

The slogan "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works" is more than just words to the amateur radio operators. They can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, the Internet, or other communications which can be compromised in a crisis.

There are 135 ham radio operators in Cherokee County.

To become a recognized ham radio operator, people must pass a test and receive a license through the Federal Communications Commission. There are three levels of ham radio operators - Technician, General and Extra.

"The communications that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives when other systems failed or were overloaded. And besides that - it's fun," said Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the national Amateur Radio Association.