Mississippi Amateur Radio Operators gather for annual Mississippi Stimulated Emergency Test

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – One day a year, FCC-licensed amateur Radio Operators take to the airwaves to run tests.

The shift runs for approximately twelve hours and begins at 4:30 in the morning.

“We want to make sure that we as operators are able to respond to situations when normal communication equipment fails. So, sometimes we come up here just to make sure we’re able to convert an email to a radio signal, to make sure that all of our equipment is functioning right”, said Jason Purvis, Amateur Radio Emergency Services Organization Emergency Coordinator.

Purvis says this is a multi-step process.

“We’ll have a script, and that script will lay out a series of imaginary events,” said Purvis. “We try to pick things like snow storms, accidents at refineries, or something that might shut a road down. What we always look at here are hurricanes.”

Once the operators define what the events will be, they then determine what information needs to be moved.

“Jason Purvis, Amateur Radio Emergency Services Organization Emergency Coordinator:” If evacuations are happening, letting folks know what areas are evacuated and which areas are mandatory versus voluntary. We’re trying to relay that process or communication back out from the coast to let folks know what we need and how they can help.” community.

All radio operators are licensed volunteers who train for what everyone hopes they don’t need to do.

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