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Berwick’s participation in the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend on Aug. 19 offers the chance to learn about the upcoming solar eclipse as well as amateur radio.

Andrew Tingler of the National Weather Service in Lake Charles will talk about the Aug. 21 eclipse, the first such event to be visible from all 48 contiguous states in nearly a century. He’ll speak at 11 a.m. Saturday at Berwick’s Lighthouse Park.

Tingler is a Cameron Parish native who graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe with a degree in atmospheric science. He has worked for the National Weather Service in Duluth, Minnesota, and Miami.

Tingler is also president of the Cameron Preservation Alliance, which is trying to save the 161-year-old Sabine Pass Lighthouse.

People will have the chance to see radio amateurs in action as they try to contact fellow hams at lighthouses around the country and around the world, sending out the “CQ” call that invites response and conversation.

“We’ll CQ who we are and where we are, looking for anybody,” said Jackie Price of the local Bayouland Emergency Amateur Radio Service.

Amateur radio began early in the last century as a hobby and as a way to train operators in what was then known as wireless. In exchange for the portions of the radio spectrum set aside for their use, amateurs often volunteer to provide communications to authorities in time of emergency.

Members of organizations like BEARS take part in the annual Field Day each June, honing their ability to operate their radios on the road without the aid of electric utilities. They also pitch in to help at events like the Tour du Teche boat races, where BEARS members with portable radios call in information on the racers’ progress.

Modern amateurs, who must pass a Federal Communications Commission license exam, are no longer required to know Morse code, although many continue to transmit in code because they enjoy it.

They can also communicate by computer, using what are called digital modes. They can use voice communication, most often single-sideband, a mode related to the familiar AM radio broadcasts. They can use handheld radios to communicate across town in the 2-meter and 70-centimeter bands, or try to talk to amateurs on the other side of the world using the usually reliable 40- and 20-meter bands.

Those are the bands BEARS members will rely on most when they set up a couple of antennas and transmitters about 9 a.m. on the Saturday of the Lighthouse Weekend, Price said. Last year, the local Lighthouse Weekend operators contacted lighthouse participants as far away as Cuba and New Jersey.

The Lighthouse Weekend will also include arts and crafts and a farmers market, refreshments and a shoebox contest.

Entrants are encouraged to decorate a shoebox, no bigger than a box for a pair of cowboy boots, to look like a radio from any era. Entries must be taken to Lighthouse Park between 10 a.m. and noon Aug. 19. The winners will be announced at 2 p.m.

Louise Robert Singleton, 82, a native of Houma and resident of Siracusa, died Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017, at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.

Visitation will be Saturday at Church of God of Prophecy in Patterson from 11 a.m. until services at 1 p.m. Burial will follow in the Morgan City Cemetery.

She is survived by a son, Herbert Singleton of Patterson; four daughters, Faye Johnson of New Iberia, Yvonne Morris and Gail Singleton, both of Morgan City, and Elaine Skinner of Patterson; two brothers, August Roberts of Houma and Warren Cocke of North Carolina; three sisters,

Margaret Roberts and Earline Trosclair, both of Houma, and Linda St. Romain of Patterson; 11 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews and other relatives.

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, four brothers and one sister.

Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Leatrice Carbin Abram, 93, a native and resident of Morgan City, died Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, at her residence.

Visitation will be Friday at Lee Chapel AME Church in Morgan City from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in the Morgan City Cemetery.

She is survived by three daughters, Edna Clark, Iona Ruffin and Mary Ennis, all of Morgan City; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews and other relatives.

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents and 10 siblings.

Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.