by KAREN LAGRANGE COX
The Acadiana Amateur Radio Association (AARA), whose call sign is W5DDL, held a celebration in honor of the seventy years of the The National Association for Amateur Radio®. The celebration was held at St. Julien Park in Broussard today. AARA dedicates itself to serving the Acadiana Region of Southwest Louisiana.
Ham is short for Amateur. Amateur radio operators are also referred to as Ham Operators. it is a hobby for these operators, a hobby which requires being licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
AARA provides a service to the community by providing communication support for special events, most recently for the Tour de Tech. Demonstrations are provided to schools and to Scouting of America which help the scouts to earn their merit badge.
In emergencies such as loss of communication services during bad weather and outages, AARA is a valuable emergency communications resource and public resource.
Some Ham operators can connect their computers to their radio through software to able able to digitally transfer files for emergency purposes.
The group meets on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at Candyland Cottage in Scott. Testing for licensing is held before the meeting at 6 p.m.
AARA has more than one hundred members. Some of the members on hand at the celebration today were:
- David Redfearn – N4ELM
- Larry Kebodeaux – K5KEB
- Randy Herandez – KI5OQD
- Gregory Guilbeau – KI5VMP
- Walter Comeaux – KI5OQE
Photos by Larry Cox
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