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Volunteers with the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service man the mobile command unit, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’ at the Teanaway Country 100 race.

The ‘OG’ of social media

Dedicated group maintains ham radio system

KARL HOLAPPA staff writer

It is a hobby that spans generations, and it is still alive and well in Kittitas County. The Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service has approximately 35 active members who span both Upper and Lower Counties, and in recent years they have taken the hobby to a level that serves the community in ways that other technologies don’t have the ability to do. This summer, members of the club set up relay stations along the courses of two mountain races that cross through the county in order to create a communications network in terrain that isn’t otherwise accessible by cellular networks. On a Saturday morning, a group of volunteers sat inside a modified ambulance near Salmon La Sac. The vehicle, nicknamed the ‘hambulance’, has been set up as a mobile command unit with all the necessary communication components. The vehicle is the brainchild of club member Randy Thomas, who sunk his own funds into its creation. The volunteers were monitoring communications from the relay stations set up along the annual Teanaway Country 100 race, which takes competitors across some of the most remote terrain in the county. Thomas said the group has been handling the communications for the TC100 since it started and took over communications for the Cascade Crest 100 race this year for the first time, although he said they have participated in various aspects of race organization over the past few years. “Each of these races have aid

Members of the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service pose at their monthly meeting in Ellensburg.

stations that the race people man with their crews,” he said. “Because these are such remote races over rough terrain, radio communications is about the only way to get communications in and out of these aid stations. Most places, the cell phones don’t work, so at each of the aid stations we set up a mobile radio communications center. The ham operators man those stations during the race.” A mobile repeater is set up on a mountaintop for each race that relays the radio messages to the command center established for the event. “That enhances the communications between all our aid stations,” Thomas said.

DEEP PASSIONS

Thomas has been operating amateur radio since he was living in the Philippines as a child. As he became an adult and got into his career, he put his passion on hold until retirement. He revived his passion upon retiring and moving to Kittitas County. “When I retired, I told myself I wanted to get back in ham radio,” he said. “I started getting more and more involved in emergency communications. When I moved over here, I saw that the operations over here were pretty much dead. There was a Sunday night check in, but there wasn’t really any preparation. I picked it up and started to get things reactivated.” Although the process took time, Thomas said the efforts to create relationships with law enforcement agencies have been successful over the past few years. The group now has a close relationship with Kittcom to provide backup communications in an event where cellular communications go down within the county. “We have our repeater up at Sky Meadows at the Kittcom emergency radio site,” Thomas said. “We are able to have our equipment in the Kittcom facility, which gives us a really good background for our club and for the repeater.” Even though he is technically retired, Thomas has taken his passion to the point where he is employed by Kittcom to maintain its communication systems in the county. He said his major motivator to being so involved in the discipline is that it keeps his mind and body active while in retirement while giving back to the community he is a part of. “I’m almost 70 years old, and with everything that I do, I’m able to do a lot of exercise work that’s related to towers and everything,” he said. “Just the constant learning about different avenues of communications keeps my mind active, and I that’s important for anybody.”

FAMILY ROOTS

Many members within the club are not the first generation in their family to take up the hobby. Longtime club member

Steve Szombathy got started in the hobby as a teenager in 1976. Back then, the requirements were different in that people wanting to get licensed had to learn morse code.

“I stumbled a bit on that part,” he said. “I passed it, and I have been doing it for 45 years.”

Szombathy’s passion for electronics as a teenager helped shape his career ambitions, and he developed a career working in telecommunications for public utilities.

“Even my mom asked me today if I was still doing that radio thing,” he said with a laugh. “There’s a bit of a stigma about the hobby, and people are sometimes surprised that there’s still ham radios out there. I always remind people that ham radio is the OG of social media.”

The passion extends to Szombathy’s wife, who is also a licensed operator. Her parents were also operators, an element he said helped him out in the beginning.

“When I started dating her, I was immediately accepted by her parents because I was a ham operator,” he said with a laugh. “I have since inherited my father-in-law’s station.”

Club member Steve Douglas was also inspired to get involved in the hobby from family connections, as his father was an operator back in the 1940s.

“He passed away when I was young, and I always wanted to get his callsign back,” Douglas said, referring to the identification given to operators when they receive their license. “I couldn’t because I could never get the darn morse code right. The rules changed, and the

The mobile command unit for the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’.

continued from previous page code was eliminated from the licensing requirements, but his callsign had been reissued.” Douglas said reissuing callsigns was a common practice in the 1950s and 60s, and said he caught wind about four years ago that the person who had the callsign chose not to renew it. When it became available for reissue Douglas attained his license and applied for the callsign. “It felt great to get it,” he said. “It felt like I was able to complete a childhood desire.” For those interested in trying the hobby, Douglas said there are various levels of licensing that graduate in difficulty. On the equipment side, people can start with a device as simple as a modified walkie talkie for less than $100, ranging up to complex setups that cost thousands of dollars.

Volunteers with the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service man the mobile command unit, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’ at the Teanaway Country 100 race.

Douglas said another incredibly helpful aspect of getting into the hobby is becoming acquainted with others who share your passion in your community. In his case, he was able to find secondhand equipment through the local club, as well as find his niche in the passion.

“They become your deep well of information and guidance,” he said. “Oftentimes you come across a problem, and then you go to a club meeting, and someone has the answer.”

Although he is still relatively new at the craft, Douglas said one of his favorite parts of operating amateur radio is the ability to reach out and talk to people all over the world with the radio. Although the internet has removed some of the novelty of that concept, he said the romance of being able to use simple radio waves to connect to another human being on the planet is something that can never be replaced by a mobile phone.

“I’ve talked to people in Japan, people in Slovakia,” he said. “I’ve talked with people all across the country. I enjoy just having a nice conversation with somebody over radio waves. You hear their voice, you hear their inflections, and it’s not as stilted as having to type or text a cryptic response that is devoid of any real emotion.”

Club member Gary LaHaie said he remembers telling his grandchildren about his first international conversation over radio with an individual in Spain. In response, he said they asked him why he would do that when there’s access to cellular technology.

“I said who are you going to call in Spain,” he said. “You can get on the radio and look for people wanting to have a conversation. Your phone will work all over the world, but then who do you call? Where do you go where people are physically talking to each other?”

For more information, interested individuals can join the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Group Facebook page.