ASCRA member Warren Moulton, VK3LX, New Waverly, Australia, on the radio

Carolyn Wells ran operational test.

Ham Radio Saints “In Service” along the Disciples’ Path

When the message absolutely must get through, amateur radio operators are ready, able, and eager to help.

Amateur radio is many things to three million-plus people worldwide. For many, it’s a way to satisfy a yearning to know what’s happening in the world and a way to reach out. They lend their knowledge to train and educate others, and they devote their hearts and minds to community service when the need arises, walking the disciples’ path.

Hams communicate with each other by transmitting voice, Morse code, digital modes, and video. They even use ham satellites and Internet links. Radio amateurs come from all walks of life, ages, sexes, income levels, and nationalities. They say hello to the world in many languages and share interests in learning about and experimenting with old and modern technologies.

In natural and man-made crises, radio amateurs throughout the world provide emergency communications—sometimes the only communications. For example, in February the Australian hams worked for weeks to support brigades fighting the terrible bush fires in Victoria. The Wireless Institute of Australia Civil Emergency Network operators established multiple communication links in the devastated areas. They also maintained communications for other emergency responders until wire-line and cellular-phone service could be restored. The Radio Amateurs of Australian Red Cross Communications played a vital role in gathering and transmitting evacuee registrations.

A year earlier, in Oklahoma, officials credited hams of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service SKYWARN® storm-spotter teams with sighting tornadoes and relaying the information to the National Weather Service. After the storms passed several hams reestablished a communication command post.

And in September 2005, members of the Association of Saints Church Radio Amateurs (ASCRA) supported relief efforts for hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ophelia. Doug Shaw operated a station from the Auditorium in Independence, Missouri, daily for two weeks. He relayed messages and served periodically as Net Control Station (NCS) for the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), Hurricane Watch, Maritime Mobile Service, and RV Service nets.

Terry Redding of West Palm Beach, Florida, also worked as NCS for the Hurricane Watch and SATERN nets. Bob Farnham passed messages from Lamoni, Iowa, to Port Arthur, Texas. Hundreds of hams used their own radios, portable antennas and generators in the stricken areas where they were the only means of communication.

Recently Shaw, chaplain, and Carolyn Wells, trauma program manager, ran the first operational test of the new Centerpoint Medical Center Amateur Radio Club station, KDØBUA. Carolyn also is chief nurse for the Missouri Disaster Medical Team, chairs the hospital committee for the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Council, and is representative to the Metro Emergency Communications Council for Kansas City, Missouri.

Following several years as an ad hoc group supporting overseas missionary communications, ASCRA formally organized in 1973 in Independence, Missouri. In 1978 it registered as a not-for-profit corporation. Today the association sends a quarterly newsletter, IN SERVICE, to about 240 radio amateurs in North and Central America, Australia, and Europe.

ASCRA nets meet Sundays at 3:30 p.m., central time, on 14.287 MHz and at 4:30 p.m., central time, on 7.233 MHz. Learn more about ASCRA at www.ascra.org and about Ham Radio at www.arrl.org, www.eham.com, and www.wic.org.au. Send inquiries to wa0emx@arrl.net  or to ASCRA, P.O. Box 73, Independence, MO 64051.

While most ASCRA operators are in North America, amateur radio is growing worldwide. The number of U.S. amateurs rose from 445,000 in the 1980s to 663,500 in 2008. In the United States, three license classes are issued (technician, general, extra), each granting greater operating privileges to the licensee after passing a written exam. Many radio clubs offer classes. Since elimination of the Morse code requirement in February 2007, becoming a radio amateur has never been easier.

—Douglas Shaw,
ASCRA secretary, reporting