Local radio operators 'ham' it up
Amateur radio is more than just a hobby
Ellen Spitaleri / Clackamas Review
Michael Read and Louise Evans get ready to hit the airwaves in the radio room at Willamette View Manor.
Before there was e-mail, before there was text messaging, there was radio.
And for more than 100 people in Clackamas County, there is still radio — amateur radio, sometimes referred to as ham radio.
“Some people look at amateur radio as a hobby,” using the airwaves as a means to communicate with other users worldwide, said David Kidd.
But for Kidd, the district emergency coordinator for Amateur Radio Emergency Service, and Michael Read, the real purpose of amateur radio is to provide emergency communication services during a large-scale disaster.
Read, the public information officer for Clackamas County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, added, “CARES is a group of volunteers within Clackamas County that provide emergency communication with our own equipment, when all else fails.”
In the case of a big emergency, “the counties provide an area for us and we go to a county facility called an Emergency Operations Center,” which in Clackamas County is located on Kaen Road, Read said.
“A select group of people goES to the EOC,” during an emergency call-up, Read said, while others use their own equipment, or use facilities at fire stations, hospitals or other locations.
“All of amateur radio is designed to help in an emergency — it is designed to run off a 12-volt battery,” so that operators will always have power, Read added.
Snow storm of 2008
Most recently, CARES volunteers helped out during the snow storms that hit the county.
“During our ‘little frost’ over Christmas,” Kidd said, CARES volunteers received a radio message from an emergency coordinator that alerted them to the plight of an elderly couple snowed in, in an area of Milwaukie that was tricky to get to.
“Their phone was out, their electricity was out,” Read noted.
“We had a vehicle, chained up, and went to the grocery store and bought them $100 worth of groceries. Then we had to snake our way back onto a road that looked like an elevator shaft and walk in with the groceries through knee-deep snow,” Kidd said.
Vernonia flooding
“The CARES team was activated for eight-and-a-half days in December of 2007 for the Vernonia flooding — that was the longest period we’ve ever been activated in my 23 years in the system,” Kidd said. “The ‘island of Vernonia’ was not a joke, it was a reality.”
During that time, a publication from the national organization, The Amateur Radio Relay League, stated that Governor Ted Kulongoski visited Vernonia, and called the amateur radio operators “the heroes from the very beginning,” saying the ARES group had provided “a tremendous communication link,” setting up networks so emergency officials could communicate and relaying lists of supplies needed in stricken areas.
Previously the CARES group went on alert when it looked like a couple of hundred refugees from Hurricane Katrina were expected in Oregon, Kidd said.
Only a handful of people eventually arrived, but the CARES group did support the Red Cross at the district level during the crisis, he added.
Classes and training
When Kidd first began working with amateur radio, only two cities had ham gear.
“Now every city has amateur radio capability, along with every fire station and two of the three hospitals,” he said.
He and Read teach classes, all over the county, noting that there are three levels of licensing from the FCC — technical, general and amateur.
“The tech class is the entry level, to get folks a license and get them on the air,” Read said.
Recently the two men taught a class at Willamette View Manor, which has an impressive antenna and radio set-up for the amateur operators, Kidd noted.
“This is a beautiful spot with fine people who come and talk to people around the world. This is the highest building in Clackamas County and we can use it as a relay site to assist others” in an emergency, Kidd said.
Members of the class must first pass a 35-question multiple choice test and learn about radio etiquette and protocol.
They also learn to use Packet, which is a “digital mode of communication that equates to e-mail over the radio. The message goes into a computer, and is relayed radio to radio, and never touches the Internet,” Read explained.
“It is called Packet, because it sends packets of information,” Kidd added.
Willamette View Manor resident and class member David Shearer said he has only been an amateur radio operator for about a year-and-a-half.
“Every week we check in with the emergency network,” he said, adding that the site is on a generator, so it will have electricity even during a power outage.
Fellow class member Louise Evans, who said she will be 100 years old in March, has been a ham operator for many years. She most recently passed the test to renew her license when she was 97, in order to get involved “with the emergency part, to help them out in the county.” She also communicates for fun with a nationwide group called the YL’s, or Young Ladies.
Bob Hamilton, also a Willamette View resident, said what he likes best about amateur radio is “talking to people” around the world.
“When you talk to people, you send them a card,” he said, pointing out colorful postcards posted from all over the world in the Willamette View radio room.
Both Read and Kidd encourage interested people to get involved with amateur radio, noting that there are plenty of classes taught within the county.
Contact Michael Read, at w7hcu@arrl.net, and David Kidd at ka7ozo@pacifier.com
Visit the Web site at www.clackamasares.org