The Tamaqua Wireless Association Inc. will hold its annual Field Day exercises this weekend at the Owl Creek Reservoir in Tamaqua.

The 24-hour event will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday from the pavilion at the lower reservoir.

Jim Munley, the nonprofit group’s spokesman, said it is an opportunity for the public to learn more about the organization and the equipment it uses.

“We will have four stations operating on different frequencies,” Munley explained.

Members will demonstrate Morse code, digital, voice and GOTA (Get on the Air). They are among the methods that amateur radio operators, called “hams,” use in emergency situations to establish communications when all else fails.

“With GOTA, anybody that comes can sit down at one of the radios and they can talk,” Munley said. Their voices can be heard by other operators around the world.

Munley said the group will set up long-wire and vertical antennas, much like it would do in an emergency situation.

He recalled a recent incident where members helped track a man who had been missing for some time.

“No one could find him, but we kept asking around on the radio to see if anyone knew his whereabouts,” Munley said.

The local group has 49 members, mostly from Schuylkill and Luzerne counties, Munley said.

Officers include Bill Dale, president; Dr. Frank Bobick, vice president, Tom Lesisko, secretary; Munley, treasurer, and Karen Putt, activities director.

The group started after major flooding occurred in August of 1955. “Allen Breiner Sr. and Karl Pfeil laid the ground work for organizing a group of local amateur radio operators whose main objective was to have a group trained and ready to provide emergency communications in the event of another devastating flood,” according to information from the organization.

“Tamaqua radio amateurs have always been active on the air and associated with local government as a part of their volunteer emergency radio system known at that time as Civil Defense, now known as EMA Emergency management Agency.”

The public is invited. For more information, visit www.W3TWA.org.