Members of the Paso Robles Amateur Radio Club gathered at the Estrella Warbirds Museum on Saturday to take part in a nationwide 24-hour exercise.
"Our society has become more and more reliant on high technology means of communication, and oftentimes they're the first things that go in a large-scale disaster," said Paso Robles Amateur Radio Public Information Officer John Spooner. "So amateur radio provides sound, reliable communications."
The event is a chance for amateur radio operators to practice setting up and operating a radio station from scratch in a remote location, to be prepared in case of an emergency.
"Your fire department, your police department, their communications could go down," said Amateur Radio Club Member Jeremy Carnevali. "So they may call upon us to just kind of help out with the communications a little bit. We can do email over the airwaves as well. We can send reports out, all the way up to the state, national, [and] federal level."
The radio operators will make as many connections as they can over the weekend, and the public is welcome to come and learn how to properly make radio contact.
Randy Milnes joined the amateur radio club only a year ago after he had been diagnosed with cancer. He told KSBY News it helped change his life.
"My wife says I actually leave the house, and before that, I hadn't left the house in almost three years," he said. "It's all in case of an emergency, but at the same time, we have fun!"
Organizers say that they hope to hold the event again next year.
