[TNham] Ham radios can be lifeline in emergency (SMARC)

[Greg Williams]

Ham radios can be lifeline in emergency
By Kelly Weaver-Hayes
Daily Times Correspondent
http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20071226/NEWS/670426659

What happens when cell phone operating facilities are damaged and do not 
work during an emergency?

What if there is no power going out to hundreds, even thousands, of 
houses and most roads are impassible?

That was the story when Hurricane Katrina hit our southern neighbors two 
years ago.
That was the story for the eastern third of North America during the 
super storm of 1993.

Some sources are betting on a blizzard this winter, citing the summer 
drought and high temperatures this year as a similar weather pattern to 
that preceding the blizzard of 1993.

The need for reliable communication is always at the heart of getting 
help during an emergency.

When all else fails, there’s amateur radio — that is the motto of the 
National Association of Amateur Radio. The club serving Maryville and 
Alcoa recently celebrated its 60th anniversary of providing such service 
to the community.

Long-time member and Trustee Carol Peabody, of the Smoky Mountain 
Amateur Radio Club (SMARC), said he went out in the 1993 blizzard with 
rescuers, using his radio equipment to communicate with people stranded 
by the storm.

“The local automobile dealers lent out their four-wheel drive vehicles 
to the Red Cross to rescue people who were stranded,” Peabody said. “The 
Red Cross set up its headquarters on Church Avenue, in what used to be 
the old library.

“I went out with a driver and got people and took them to a shelter at 
Montvale Station, Maryville Middle School, or the rescue station.”

Emergency workers also took supplies to people who were sick, or who had 
no food or heat. Land lines were still working, but cell phones were 
out, so the mobile radios were the only way to communicate once you were 
on the road.

And just like it was in 1993, there are groups of people all over this 
country and the world, putting thousands of their own dollars into a 
system of communication that the Red Cross and National Guard rely upon 
during emergencies like the aftermath of Katrina.

60th anniversary

The local club has 75 members, including one newer member, teacher Steve 
Carpenter who has started a radio club at William Blount High School 
where students can obtain honorary memberships.

Amateur radio operators have to obtain a license from the Federal 
Communications Commission — something that has become somewhat easier to 
do, according to Peabody, because the Morse code requirement has been 
dropped.

“It (the Morse requirement) is considered antiquated,” said Peabody, who 
has been continuously licensed for almost 53 years. He communicates by 
Morse code with just a handful of others still practicing the code for 
about an hour each day.

When one of his close friends moved from Sevierville to Arkansas to be 
close to his children, “we wanted to stay in touch. We both like Morse 
code. We thought we’d do it that way,” he said. “It’s like another 
language.”

When Peabody’s parents moved away, the two families kept a schedule of 
communicate by code on the radio at certain times during the day.

Peabody’s father got him and a friend into amateur radio when they were 
in high school. The two friends obtained their novice licenses first. 
They were good for only a year but gave them time to practice Morse 
code. They would have to be able to communicate 20 words per minute to 
be able to take the general licensing exam. When the time came, he 
travelled with his friend to Cleveland where the FCC gave the exam twice 
a year in the federal building, he explained. When they passed the test 
and got their licenses, they were good for five years.

Now, amateur radio operators can obtain their licenses locally. 
Operators must pass a technical section first, obtain their general 
class license and can then go on to the extra class license. Each class 
conveys more privileges with more radio frequencies available to operators.

Way to make friends

Along with being useful in emergencies, Peabody and current club 
President Ed Bayne say amateur radio is also a good way to meet new 
people and make new friends.

“I just enjoy talking to different people,” Bayne said. “They’re a fine, 
fine group of individuals. I’m proud to be one. I feel privileged to be 
an amateur radio operator.”
The local club held its December Special Event on Dec. 1. Operators took 
three-hour shifts on the radio, meeting 180 people from across the 
country, plus one in Cuba. They spoke with people from Indiana, 
Illinois, West Virginia, California, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, Bayne 
said.

Antique restorer and collector David Bower brought equipment from the 
1940s and 1950s, representing the era when the club was started, for 
viewing at the event.
According to Bayne and Peabody, many subgroups are associated with the 
hobby as well — networks for air traffic, recreational vehicles, weather 
and special hobbyists.
For the recent club event, Bayne had cards printed in honor of the 
club’s 60th anniversary which included the club’s web address, 
www.smokymountainarc.org, its call letters, W4OLB, the trustee’s name 
and address — which is also the address of their licensed repeater 
station — a power booster for their transmissions, and the date and time 
of the event. They sent the club’s QSL (which in radio code means, “Can 
you verify reception of this radio transmission?”) cards to other clubs 
announcing the event and the anniversary, and in return received many 
QSL cards from people who went on the air with them during the event.

“It’s a great way of keeping track of who you’ve talked to,” Peabody 
said, making mention of his friend Don Bluford, who collects the cards 
and displays them in front of his radio equipment area, known as the ham 
shack. “He has a pretty impressive antenna with two towers,” one of 
which is 85 feet tall, and can be rotated and pointed, Peabody said. 
Bluford is currently displaying more than 300 country cards in his ham 
shack.

Bluford is one of many who likes chasing DX, or distance stations, 
according to Peabody. Bluford contacted Peabody when there was an 
opportunity to go on the air with the DXpedition team, which set up 3YØX 
on Peter the First Island, off the coast of Antarctica.

DXpedition was a private group of hams who used their own money and 
obtained sponsorships from manufacturers interested in the expedition to 
set up a temporary station (a pile up) on the remote island, just to be 
the first to do it. DXpedition loaded a ship with equipment and used a 
helicopter to deliver food, heating equipment, generators, a shelter, 
and their equipment to the uninhabited island.

For participating in the on-air exchange, hams received a QSL card and a 
medallion from DXpedition. The medallion’s imprint says: “More people 
have flown in outer space than have set foot on Peter the First Island,” 
Peabody said.

SMARC meets every month on the fourth Monday except in June and 
December, when the group holds special events. The event for June is 
Field Day, when all the clubs in the United States spend 24 hours using 
their radio equipment with noncommercial power sources to simulate 
emergency conditions, Bayne said.

-- 

Gregory S. Williams
gregwilliams(at)knology.net
k4hsm(at)knology.net

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