Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Mission Accomplished: Del Harbold was coaxed by the residents in his Willow Glen mobile park community to become the contact person in case an emergency cut off communication, because of his ham radio skills.

He's a Ham

Emergency communications depend on amateur radio operators

By Lisa Neves Woldt

With the portable ham radio he built, 80-year-old Del Harbold--call sign K6JPX--is ready for any disaster that might befall Willow Glen.

A member of an all-volunteer emergency communications corps known as the San Jose Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, or RACES, Harbold obtained his amateur radio license four years ago.

Now if a crisis arose, he would be able to connect the outside world with the more than 500 people who live in his Millpond Mobile Park community, thanks to the ham radio located in the clubhouse. He is the designated "contact person," and his communication system provides a vital link to the city's Office of Emergency Services.

It would be the only communication link if radio contact with the mobile park were lost in the event of a major earthquake.

Housed in a standard-sized plastic toolbox, the unit consists of a small transmitter and receiver and a handheld phone unit. It sits on a metal shelf, which pivots upward for convenience. Harbold has even included a cardboard drawer under the unit to hold flashlights, batteries, manuals and extra cables, with room left over for the portable antenna that he can screw together in a flash.

Disaster such as Sept. 11 and the more recent Hurricane Katrina have earned ham radio operators--often seen as engineering geeks--genuine respect and appreciation. These radio operators picked up where traditional forms of communication leave off.

Amateur or volunteer, hams must pass a test to receive an FCC-issued amateur radio license. On the air, hams abide by professional standards and behavior, clearly identifying themselves, their equipment and location with call signs provided by the FCC. Call signs normally consist of a one- or two-number prefix, followed by a number that identifies their geographic location--California is 6--then up to a three-character suffix. These call signs are a big part of membership identification, as important on the radio network as email addresses are on the Internet. Hams introduce themselves by their call signs, on the air or not.

Harbold's wife, Betty, calls herself a "radio widow." She heartily supports her husband's almost daily involvement in the amateur radio world, but knows the serious side, too.

"It's a hobby until a real emergency comes along," she says.

Staying in touch

Harbold decided to become a ham operator to fill a need in his Millpond community, but his devotion to public service started as a Boy Scout in Alexandria, Ind.

"When I turned 12," he says, "I became a Boy Scout and I learned, 'Be Prepared.' "

He also followed the basic tenet, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He says these life lessons were a "good balance" for him.

He joined the Navy out of high school and then took advantage of the GI Bill, studying aeronautical engineering at CalAero Technical Institute in Glendale. He worked for Century Engineers and Rocketdyne, a rocket engine design and production company. But the majority of his career was spent working for the Lockheed Corporation, first in Van Nuys and then in Sunnyvale, as an engineering-drawing checker.

"The crowning glory to me was the opportunity to work on the Hubble space telescope," he says.

For this project he underwent special interdisciplinary training, eventually writing software and tracking software discrepancies. He retired in 1990.

"I was not a ham operator and never intended to be one until I moved into Millpond in April 2001," he says.

Shortly thereafter the community had a safety drill based on training sponsored by San Jose PREPARED, a program offering emergency-preparedness classes to neighborhood communities throughout San Jose.

With one look at his engineering background and Morse code experience in the Navy, Harbold says he was "coaxed" into getting a ham license by Millpond's emergency preparedness committee. He began working toward the general license shortly before Sept.11, receiving it the following February.

The Harbolds have since taken all five classes offered by San Jose PREPARED to help their community respond to emergencies. These classes include home preparedness and neighborhood organization, fire suppression and hazardous materials, disaster medicine and psychology, light search and rescue and terrorism awareness.

They were issued official San Jose PREPARED hard hats, vests and waist packs easily recognized by emergency crews. Betty Harbold has been designated block captain for her street. Her role during an emergency includes going house to house, checking off a list of potential concerns ranging from structural damage to life-threatening issues. This data is then relayed to Harbold at the clubhouse's radio via handheld service radios.

Harbold says a report to the city's office of emergency services could be: "This is Millpond K6JPX-Del reporting that we have had a bad earthquake here. We have 10 percent of the houses off their foundations and two that are burning. Life emergency situations include people having difficulty breathing and shock."

Based on information from neighborhoods throughout San Jose, OES officials would be able to prioritize resources.

The yearly drill is not only a refresher exercise to make sure radio equipment is working properly but, as Betty Harbold puts it, "quite an important day for the safety of our valley."

Hams at work

An equally important day for hams is Amateur Radio Field Day, an annual event across the country on the fourth weekend in June. Over a 24-hour period, RACES members and ham radio clubs practice communications with each other under emergency conditions. In San Jose, the OES-sponsored event took place June 24-25 at Los Paseos Park off of Santa Teresa Boulevard.

Another ham organization participating in the field day was the Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association. Set up at Mt. Madonna in Gilroy, this radio club's goal was to make as many contacts as possible.

Club president Clark Murphy--call sign KE6KXO--says more than 700 contacts were made that day across the United States and Canada.

According to RACES public information officer Bill Moffitt, the field day's focus this year was to make contact with hams within a 400-mile radius using a special antenna known as a near-vertical incidence skywave, or NVIS. Its signal is reflected almost straight up, then bounces off the ionosphere directly back downward.

Moffitt--call sign AE6GS-- a ham for about five years, says Harbold is a great guy with a lot of knowledge to share.

"World War II veteran radio operators took their skills into the private sector, started companies and did this as a hobby," Moffit says.

But the next generation, he says, is getting into digital, TV and other modes of communication.

"If you come into this as a young guy, you get to hang out with someone like Del," he says. "You get to learn how they did it then, and at the same time experiment with different things like linking the Emergency Operations Center with long-range WiFi in the hills of Los Gatos."

Moffitt says this experiment was successful using off-the-shelf wireless gear in coordination with the Silicon Valley Wireless Users and Experimenters Club.

Everyone's a ham

No matter what age, Harbold tries to recruit others into amateur radio operations. When he heard the Quail Hollow Mobile Home Park on Bascom Avenue didn't have a ham, he volunteered to help out until a resident could be found to take over. Clara Clark of Quail Hollow recently stepped up and is now studying for the exam. "That'll be a blessing," Betty Harbold says, pointing out during a real emergency her husband can't be at two places at once.

Clark says her community appreciates Harbold's assistance.

"We think very highly of him over here," she says.

Closer to home, Harbold is helping another Millponder, Lowell Gresham, to get his ham license so he can start working backup. Harbold has loaned him equipment and provided expertise that Gresham says has been "pretty helpful."

Harbold had planned to devote his retirement to photography. As he got older he says, "I realized that all the expensive camera equipment in the world wouldn't do me any good if I couldn't carry it around."

The he discovered ham radios.

"I thought radio was something I could do to be useful," he says.

Harbold is proud of the ham radio community.

"As a group, they're friendly, congenial and helpful," says Harbold.

He talks about one family trapped on their rooftop during Hurricane Katrina. They were rescued with the help of ham operators relaying a series of messages across the country.

Larry Carr, the emergency coordinator for the county's Amateur Radio Emergency Service, says hams are critical in emergency situations.

"Hams are their own radio stations," he says.

During emergencies they are dispatched to fire stations, major hospitals, Red Cross vehicles and shelters.

Harbold says this is a hobby where older people can still be productive in society.

"To me, it's just a wonderful way to be an old Boy Scout," he says.

Ham radio websites

www.arrl.org (national association of amateur radio)

www.sanjoseca.gov/emergencyservices (links to RACES and San Jose PREPARED)

www.qsl.net/sccara (county's radio club/association)

www.svwux.org (wireless users and experimenters club)

www.scc-ares-races.org (emergency field communications and RACES)