COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Village Seven neighborhood park turned into a communication hub for amateur radio operators on Saturday and Sunday.

Members of the Village Seven Amateur Radio Club participated in a field day exercise for 24 hours, running from noon Saturday to noon Sunday.

Amateur radio operators are important in the event of a large-scale disaster, where mainstream communications could go down. Many operate on minimal setups and are often mobile. Some are even solar-operated.

Through these radio waves, operators are able to communicate to the public in case they need to find shelter, food, or water.

“We depend so much on cell phones and Internet and stuff that’s very fragile,” amateur radio operator Lorin Schroeder said. “Something goes wrong, it goes wrong big. And there’s a lot of folks that just are not prepared for that extra communication. We’re losing regular landlines in houses. Everyone has a cell phone now. So all the backups that we’ve had for hard-wire landlines are vanishing. And we have to have an alternate communication source, and ham radio is filling that gap.”

The event allowed operators to practice in case of an emergency, as well as letting the community know they are there.