Al Sirois, N1MHC & NNA1AS will offer to send free National Traffic System messages to any USA, Canadian and some other countries on Saturday, Aug. 7 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., at the American Legion Post 36, 25 Industrial Park Road, Boothbay.

This will be a special event station and is a great opportunity to connect with community leaders, local businesses and visitors to the Boothbay Harbor area.

The keys to a successful public service is emergency management and EOC partnership. Many ham radio operators are connected to their local emergency management department centers and mobile command centers, like we have here in Lincoln County. This is done by understanding and embracing our true role --- to serve and support and often complicated mission of public safety during an emergency.

Sirois's responsibility covers the area from the Carlton Bridge, Woolwich, north to the Waldo County line. He is Incident Command System, ICS-400-A qualified, a past Military Affiliate Radio Station (Navy call sign nnn0wna) and now Homeland Security (DHS), SHARES, NNA1AS Certified. There are several shared responsibility stations in Maine and they are all connected thru the local emergency management director's offices in the state. Casey Stevens is the director of EMA, Wiscasset.

So mark your calendars to send birthday, vacation greetings or timely advanced appointment schedules through the National Traffic System (NTS) a American Radio Relay League (ARRL) system. Your message will be delivered free of charge within 1-2 days, for sure.