CHURCH HILL – &uot;CQ Field Day … W 5 Hotel Bravo … This is 2 Alpha Mississippi.&uot;

At five separate amateur radio, or &uot;ham&uot; radio, consoles in a tiny radio tower station off Mississippi 553 in Adams County, the same cryptic conversation repeats itself over and over.

At least, it’s cryptic to outsiders. For many members of the Bluff City Amateur Radio Club, such greetings have been an integral part of their days for years.

&uot;I’ve talked to people from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, the Antarctic and Japan,&uot; said club President Doug Ballard.

But starting at noon Saturday and ending at noon today, the club’s 40 members are all business. Each year at this time, they spend 24 hours seeing how many other &uot;hams&uot; – as ham radio operators call themselves – they can contact.

On Saturday afternoon, they contact other &uot;hams&uot; from as far away as California and Kansas.

The club made about 900 contacts during last year’s Field Day, as the annual event is called. Clubs that make the most contacts are listed in a national ham radio magazine. The club has never won first place but has placed in the contest.

But more important, said club members, is the chance to hone their emergency radio skills. Ham radio operators provide vital communications during natural disasters that knock out other forms of communication, such as telephone lines.

&uot;In 1953, the phone lines were out during an ice storm, and we provided communications for everyone 24 hours a day for four days,&uot; said George Adams, a ham radio operator since 1941.

During Field Day, they operate all their radios using only emergency power, such as generators and batteries.

The marathon also gives the federal government a chance to track where signals are sent and received, which lets them know how far signals could reach in an emergency situation.

Nationally, the field day is being sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. There are more than 650,000 amateur radio operators in the United States and more than 2.5 million worldwide.