Thousands of so-called ham radio operators will be showing off their emergency capabilities in a public demonstration of emergency communications at the Pahrump Nugget parking lot later this month.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham operators providing critical communications in emergencies including the California wildfires, Oregon and Michigan storms, tornadoes and other events worldwide.

During hurricane Katrina, amateur radio was sometimes the only way people could communicate and hundreds of volunteer hams traveled south to save lives and property.

When trouble is brewing, ham radio people are often the first to provide critical information.

On the weekend of June 28-29, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with these ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is all about.

Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will hold public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

This annual event, called "field day" is the climax of a week-long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for amateur radio.

Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards.

More than 34.000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

"We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather's radio any more," said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. "The communications networks that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives in the past months when other systems failed or were overloaded."

In the Pahrump area, the Southern Nye County ARES/RACES group will demonstrate amateur radio in the parking lot of the Pahrump Nugget.

The public is invited to come and see ham radio's new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

To learn more about amateur radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org or www.arspn.org.