[SFDXA] From New Mexico - An old form of talk radio is all in the ‘hamily’

[Bill]

Radio hams

RIO RANCHO OBSERVER-GARY HERRON
Radio hams

   Meet the Warrens, hams at heart. From left are Suzanne, Megan, 
Matthew and Richard.

Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 4:09 pm, Tue Jun 
12, 2012.

BY GARY HERRON
Observer staff writer | 0 comments

If amateur radio were to paraphrase Mark Twain, it’d be, “The reports of 
my death are greatly exaggerated.”

No, the evolution of cell phones hasn’t killed off amateur radio.

In fact, “hams” (amateur radio operators) have an advantage to cell phones.

As teenager Matthew Warren (K5CLS) explained it, in places where cell 
phone reception is intermittent or almost non-existent (he wasn’t 
referring to Rio Rancho’s City Center area and Cleveland High School), 
amateur radio can be a godsend … and sometimes, key to “God send help.”

Matthew’s family consists of ardent ham radio operators — and it’s a 
four-generation deal, and probably destined to add a generation after he 
and his two sisters have grown up and have families of their own.

Their mother, Suzanne (KF5JMH), said her father, Fred Lete, known to ham 
radio operators as KC5IPK, has been into amateur radio for decades, even 
to the extent to building a “repeater” on the crest of Sandia.

“As long as you can see the (Sandia) crest, you’ve got a signal,” says 
her husband, Richard (KF5JME), another ham. And Suzanne’s stepmother 
(KD5VPR) is also a ham.

The Warrens live in Corrales Heights, which is where Suzanne grew up and 
attended Rio Rancho Elementary, about 200 yards away. She attended 
Cibola High and graduated from Eldorado High School; Richard is a Del 
Norte graduate. The kids are home-schooled, and Matthew is a member of 
the JROTC group at Rio Rancho High School.

“We didn’t want to do it at first,” Matthew says of the hobby they all 
enjoy. But now, as a Boy Scout and someone dependent on communication, 
it’s been a blessing in disguise.

“It’s a way of communicating in emergencies,” said his sister, hoping, 
of course, that event never happens.

The family has a hot-air balloon and they make sure their chase crew is 
outfitted — after being licensed — with handheld radios.

With the home base unit conveniently located on a counter near the 
kitchen, Suzanne keeps an ear tuned to it in case her father is on the 
airwaves. Or, she’ll know when Richard, who works at a Presbyterian 
church in downtown Albuquerque, is on his way home.

“I think it’s more fun (than a cell phone),” she said. “You don’t have 
to dial a number, you say your call-sign and, if someone (you want to 
talk to) is there, they’ll pick it up.”

It’s not as hard to get a license as it used to be. No longer do 
applicants have to know Morse Code, although you need to get 26 answers 
correct out of a 30-question test. Those studying for their test, 
though, often don’t feel comfortable until they know the answers to 300 
questions, of which only 10 percent will appear on their unique test — 
Richard and Suzanne were tested on the same day and in the same room and 
faced different tests.

And instead of forking out big bucks for unsightly antennae and radios, 
many hams today use small, hand-held units that cost between $75 and $450.

Amateurs have access to frequency allocations throughout the radio 
frequency spectrum to enable communication across a city, state, 
country, continent, the world — and even into space. Hams operate on 
what are known as amateur bands, radio frequencies reserved by the 
Federal Communications Commission for their use at intervals from just 
above the AM broadcast band all the way up into extremely high microwave 
frequencies.

Hams can play important roles in times of emergencies, when telephones 
and even cell phones can’t accomplish what one person on the mic can do 
on a large scale. Hams can take on the responsibility of being 
volunteers on a field leadership team and be prepared for a disaster.

For example, during Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee last year, 
the Amateur Radio Emergency Service provided open lines of communication 
for the American Red Cross, helping get important supplies to people in 
need.

As Irene neared landfall in late August, both the ARES and the New York 
City/Long Island American Radio Relay League supported the Red Cross by 
staffing the Emergency Operations Center and supporting shelters in 
Queens, Nassau County and Suffolk County, according to a story on the 
American Red Cross website. While not all shelters required onsite hams, 
volunteers were on standby to move their equipment at a moment’s notice.

Roughly a week later, when remnants of Tropical Storm Lee hit Central 
New York, HAM communications again played an important role as the Red 
Cross spread across the area, setting up 17 shelters in the first 24 
hours. One shelter that relied upon ham radio transmissions to 
communicate with the Binghamton disaster operations headquarters was 
filled with residents with special medical needs in Sidney, N.Y.

With operators having their own personal equipment ready to go, they are 
able to operate using non-commercial power. Hurricane Irene knocked out 
power — and cell phone service — for thousands of people in Nassau and 
Suffolk Counties, and Tropical Storm Lee caused similar outages 
throughout the South Central region.

Fire departments and the Red Cross may only have one or two frequencies 
on their radios; ham operators have access to thousands and thousands.

According to an estimate made in 2011, two million people throughout the 
world are regularly involved with amateur radio.

About 50 of them are in the High Desert club, Matthew said, noting that 
his sister used to be the youngest in the club. Now, there’s a 7-year-old.

Someday, though, the youngest Warren — Yesenia, only 3 — might be a 
member. At a recent club event, Yesenia wore a badge humorously 
designating her as “KF5KID.”

You’ll’ have a chance to meet this talkative group at Kids Day on 
Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Darling Tribes School, at the 
corner of Meadowlark Lane and Corrales Road.

It’s staged nationwide by the Amateur Radio Relay League and sponsored 
locally by the High Desert Amateur Radio Club of Rio Rancho, of which 
the Warrens are members.

There will be free hot dogs and snacks and a handful of activities; 
people can learn about amateur radio and youngsters can talk to other 
kids almost anywhere in the U.S.

Matthew, a member of Boy Scout Troop 356, is working on an amateur radio 
merit badge, and this is an opportunity for other scouts to do likewise. 
Adults — and, of course, children — can learn what it takes to obtain a 
ham radio license.

For more information, call Phil Darling at 239-5117 or visit the club’s 
website at nm5hd.com.