MJARS ready to make contact

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By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Bryan Hooper and Brian Blanchette want to get people excited about communicating – and they know just how to do it.

Hooper is the president of the Mansfield-Johnson Amateur Radio Service (MJARS) and Blanchette is the chair of membership and outreach for the group of ham radio operators based in Mansfield.

“We try to educate people about what ham radio is,” Blanchette said. “When we do stuff like a bike ride, it’s practice for us so when there’s an emergency, we have already gone through the process.”

Amateur or ham radios are two-way communication devices that operate within specific Federal Communications Commission (FCC) frequencies.

“You have to have a license to operate and you have to pass a test and you have to study to pass the test,” Hooper said. “The equipment we have now is very high-tech. It’s not a CB radio.”

Amateur radio operators have proven invaluable during natural disasters, like when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. The Red Cross deployed the radio operators to help set up communications on the island because all power and communication systems had been destroyed.

“We train so we can be ready when cell phone towers go down,” Blanchette said. “We have radios and antennas so we can talk to people all over the world. Usually the first information that comes from a disaster is from ham radio operators.”

MJARS are ready to help on local, state, national and world levels.

“One of our main responsibilities is within the city of Mansfield during storms when they activate the emergency operation system,” Hooper said. “One of our operators will man the radio at the city. Volunteers with receive weather reports. Many of our guys are also trained by the National Weather Service.”

MJARS, which was incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2016, has 34 members, who train at large events like bike rides and parades to be ready to communicate during emergencies. They also communicate information across the state and the world about important events like the World Cup.

“We are broadcasting information all over the world,” Blanchette said. “Some smaller rural communities have radio operations to keep people informed. You have communities that don’t have running water that will be sitting around listening to ham radios.”

MJARS wants to share information about what the radio operators do and even how to become one. The group will hold a field day from 1-6 p.m. Saturday, June 27, in the pavilion near the pond at Katherine Rose Memorial Park, 303 N. Walnut Creek Drive.

“We will have half a dozen stations set up for kids to adults to get you excited about ham radios, maybe even get licensed,” Blanchette said. “We will be talking to people all over the country, setting up emergency equipment and showing what we can do.

And there will be activities for kids too.

“We will have a fox hunt,” Hooper said. “We will hide a transmitter and have walkie talkies with directional signals (so kids can find the transmitter).”

MJARS’ field day is free and open to the public.