Amateur radio operators 'hamming it up'
By Rachel R. Basinger
FOR THE TRIBUNE REVIEW
Sunday, August 4, 2002
Nobody knows exactly where ham radio got its name, but one local
amateur radio operator has his thoughts on the matter.
"The closest thing I can come up with is that when you have a ham
actor, that's someone who's not a very good actor," said Alex Tinker
Jr. "Well, we're not professional radio operators; we're just amateurs,
so we're hamming it up."
Whether that's true or not, it is safe to say the members of the Coke
Center Radio Club in Connellsville enjoy their hobby of operating ham
radios. In fact, all of them have radios in their houses and in their
cars.
Members are not sure exactly when the club was started, but they do
believe it dates back to the 1950s.
"I believe it's been going off and on since the 1950s," said Glenn
Bell, president of the club, who has been a part of the organization
for about 20 years. Besides Bell, Art Krumanacker and Bill Warmuth
also have been in the club for about 20 years.
The club meets the second Tuesday of the month and although radio
operating is mostly a hobby for its participants, it plays a vital
role in emergency situations.
All the members of the club also belong to the Amateur Radio Emergency
Service group, which has more than 25,000 amateurs nationwide who have
volunteered to provide communication links for governmental agencies or
nonprofit organizations when needed.
According to Warmuth, the last big emergency that members of the Coke
Center Radio Club volunteered their services was for flooding on the
West Side in Connellsville. Before that it was the Johnstown flood in
1977, and in between those times they have participated in many weather
exercises as recent as this past month.
If communications go down among emergency crews, ham radio operators, who
are all licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, offer their
services.
"There's city radio, police radio, ambulance radio (and other emergency
management frequencies), and if they break down, we're here," said Warmuth.
"We're not just the backup for local communications, but also countywide,
nationwide and global."
Warmuth admitted that the club's role in emergency management backups has
been limited lately because the county and state have good systems.
Now the organization's main role is helping with communication between
shelters if a disaster occurs where shelters need to be set up. Amateur
radio operators could be working alongside the American Red Cross or the
Salvation Army in those situations.
Ham radio operators also get messages out to family members from a loved
one who might be hurt or in that shelter.
"The police or firemen are not going to use their radios to relay messages
to individuals, but we would," said Bell, who added that every evening
there's a traffic net where messages are relayed.
For example, if a person is in a shelter in Connellsville and is trying
to reach a loved one in London, that person would fill out a form with
the message to be sent.
In return, the ham radio operator would get on the radio during the traffic
net and post it on the state net, which would then post it on the international
net where a ham operator in London could pick it up. That ham operator
would then take the message and phone or mail it to the loved one.
The club meets in the second-floor offices at the Connellsville Street
Department garage on West South Street.
"We're so happy with our local government officials on the city level,"
said Warmuth. "They voted to let us meet there and they also approved
CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds so that we could purchase
our equipment."
The only thing that's a little disheartening to the members is the decline
in young people interested in being an amateur radio operator. "The young
kids that are interested in science today are drawn to computers," said
Bell, who told of going to the five-and-dime store back in the 1950s and
purchasing a device with a crystal in it for just 25 cents. "All you had
to do was hook up an antenna, headphones and a pair of grounds and you
could hear the local radio station," he said.
Krumanacker said that his son-in-law asked him why he would want to go
through the trouble of hooking up an antenna and learning Morse code when
he could talk to anyone around the world on the computer.
"It was just a hobby of mine to build my own radios to communicate across
the country and see how far I could communicate," said Krumanacker.
Warmuth also pointed out that in an emergency situation when the power
is out and the computer won't work, a ham radio will.
"We can operate on emergency power," said Warmuth, who cited a generator
as their source.
Bell said he has storage batteries and solar cells on his roof at home
that will allow him to operate his radio when there are no other power
sources available.
Ham radio operators have their own chat room of sorts.
They can get on the radio and send out a general inquiry and any other
ham radio operators who might be listening can get on and converse with
that person.
Bell has been a licensed operator since 1951 and Krumanacker and Warmuth
have been licensed since 1962.
Bob Rose, another club member, got into radio operating when he went into
the armed services in 1944. He operated a radio on a B-17 bomber in the
Army Air Force. Rose said he got his license for operating a ham radio
when he came home.
Tinker Jr. got his license just because "it's fun."
According to Bell, anyone interested in getting an amateur radio operating
license can obtain a book at Radio Shack that gives sample test questions.
The Uniontown Amateur Radio Club is the closest place where the FCC
test is administered, according to Bell.
Rachel R. Basinger can be reached at
[email protected].
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