The Town of Three Rivers is inviting residents of Georgetown, Prince Edward Island, to a free public demonstration of emergency radio communications at the Georgetown Civic Centre, 36 Kent Street, on June 27 and 28, 2026. The Amateur Radio Field Day event, organised by the Island Radio Club, will show how operators can contact people across North America without cell service or the internet, which is critical during natural disasters.
The Amateur Radio Field Day is a 24-hour emergency communications exercise. Local amateur radio operators will join thousands across Canada and the United States to practise making contacts during simulated natural disasters and major outages using voice, Morse code and satellites.
Visitors can meet local operators, see antennas and radios in action, and try making radio contacts themselves. Amateur radio stations can run on generators, batteries and solar energy, so they can keep working when phone and internet networks are down. The town says the exercise highlights the backup communications role amateur radio plays for organisations such as the Canadian Red Cross and local emergency measures groups.
Post-tropical storm Fiona knocked out power to more than 82,000 Maritime Electric customers on PEI in September 2022, and cellular networks became unreliable during the emergency. At that time PEI amateur radio operators checked into the CANWARN Network and ran local nets to share weather and safety updates and check on members when other communications failed. The Island now has about 300 licensed amateur radio operators, with eight new licences issued in fall 2022.
The Radio Amateurs of Canada Auxiliary Communications Service (RAC ACS) provides certified communications operators to supplement local emergency management groups and non-government organisations including the Canadian Red Cross. Three Rivers also maintains volunteer fire departments in Cardigan, Georgetown and Montague and a committee developing an Emergency Plan, which helps coordinate local emergency response and reception centres.
