Amateur Radio Officer in Kabul will be Missed

I heard about this attack in the news. And as sometimes happens, I later read in the ham radio news that one of the people involved was an Amateur Radio operator.



James McLaughlin, WA2EWE/T6AF, Killed By Afghan Pilot

04/27/2011
James McLaughlin, WA2EWE/T6AF, was one of several Americans killed in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, April 27. News sources say that eight American troops and a US contractor died Wednesday after an Afghan military pilot opened fire during a meeting in an operations room of the Afghan Air Corps at the Kabul airport -- the deadliest episode to date of an Afghan turning against his coalition partners, officials with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISF) in Afghanistan said. McLaughlin -- a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel -- was a contractor serving as a flight instructor for Afghan pilots.

Licensed since 1972, McLaughlin was a career US military officer. Bob Magnani, K6QXY, told the ARRL that McLaughlin was just in the US a week ago, visiting his family: "His son Adam, KD6POE, works for me. He told me that his dad had been in Afghanistan and Iraq many times over the past few years, most currently serving as a flight instructor.” McLaughlin posted on his qrz.com page that “almost every day, I operate at around 1230 - 1430 UTC. Sometimes I am QRV until around 1500 UTC.”

Voice of America Correspondent Steve Herman, W7VOA/T6AD/HL9OA -- currently in Seoul, South Korea -- remembers meeting McLaughlin for the first time. “I first met Jim in August 2009 when we were the only two hams operating in Kabul,” he wrote in an e-mail. “We exchanged tips on operating in our unusual environment. Jim had put together a fine radio shack in his quarters and was especially enthusiastic about his RTTY and PSK capabilities, as well as the ladder line-fed wire dipole he had managed to string up at a height of 50 feet through some trees.

“Less than 24 hours after our initial discussion, a suicide bomb went off in Kabul near the spot where we had arranged to meet. The blast killed seven people and injured nearly 100. The explosion site was also close to Jim’s QTH and it blew out windows in his residence adjacent to the US Embassy. It was obvious from spending time with Jim that ham radio was an important morale-boosting pastime and he usually spent a couple of hours per day QRV, logging thousands of QSOs” As of March 26, 2011, McLaughlin had logged 4359 QSOs, most of them on RTTY and PSK.

McLaughlin was also an active MARS operator. “He was one of our most dedicated MARS members in Army MARS Region 11,” Dan Wolff, KA7AGN/DL4VCW/AEM1WF/AEA1RD, told the ARRL. Wolff is the MARS Region 11 Director. “He relayed and delivered literally hundreds of MARSgrams every year for our region. I’ve known him for many years and he was always devoted to supporting our deployed service members. He will be deeply missed on MARS circuits and the ham bands as well.” -- Thanks to Russ Bentson, K6KLY, CNN and Fox News for the information

A brave man, and so much to admire about him. My condolences to his family.

The photo is from his page listing on QRZ.com. You can do a search there for his call sign, to see his page.
     

Oregon Emergency Amateur Radio in Action

When I bought my police scanner a while back, I made sure it had the capability to scan Ham Frequencies too, so I could find out what kind of Ham radio community we have here on the south coast.

At first, it seemed like there was nothing going on; my random attempts to scan ham frequencies didn't turn up much. But then I read that ham communities often hang out at certain frequencies, usually around a designated "net" that meets up on specific dates.

I discovered on-line that there is an ARES net (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) that meets up on Tuesday evenings. They do a role call check in, make Ham Club announcements, invite visitors to introduce themselves, then turn the frequency over for general amateur use. Chit chat often follows, and I've found that if I scan frequencies in that band range, there is often conversations going on. It's a pretty active community locally, and they talk to people all over the state and in surrounding states like Washington, Nevada, and California too.

I found out about our local ARES net here:

Oregon ARES District 5

Dedicated to providing volunteer emergency communications to public and private community service agencies within and around Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine Counties, Oregon.

When all Normal Means of Communications Fail!

There are LOTS of links and resources to explore on the site. It was there that I found my local ARES net, and began to learn about ARES and what they do. And I found out how, on a local level, just how important they can be.

In early December of last year, a severe winter storm hit Northern Oregon, bringing high winds and flooding which knocked out conventional communications in several parts of the state. Amateur Radio operators, as part of ARES, provided valuable assistance in keeping communication lines open:


Amateur Radio to the Rescue in Oregon

[...] “I’m going to tell you who the heroes were from the very beginning of this…the ham radio operators. These people just came in and actually provided a tremendous communication link to us,” said Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski after a visit Tuesday to Vernonia and a fly-over there and other affected areas.

In Oregon’s northern coast, callers were again able to make and receive long-distance phone calls after floods and mudslides breached a major fiber-optic line in several places around Westport.

A network of at least 60 volunteer amateur radio operators working along the coast and inland helped from keep crucial systems such as 911 calls, American Red Cross and hospital services connected. The ARRL provided emergency communications, relaying information about patient care and lists of supplies needed in areas cut off by water.

“You are amateur in name only,” said Steve Sanders, a spokesman for District One of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), which helped in several key counties hit by the storm.

The storm has now largly passed, but ARES is still providing communications to the coast, with more than 60 volunteers working at the coast and many more at points in between.

The District One Emergency Radio Network was activated at 8 AM Monday morning and is still in operation today; District One ARES serves Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Multnomah, Tillamook and Washington counties - the northwest corner of the state.

According to ARRL Oregon Section Public Information Coordinator Steve Sanders, KE7JSS, “We are working closely with the American Red Cross as well as the major hospitals, Heartnet radio network and district-wide emergency managers, including Oregon Emergency Management in Salem.” [...]

Read the whole thing, it's quite impressive what they were able to do. ARES sounds like sounds like something useful I would like learn more about, and perhaps even join in and help. It's yet another thing to motivate me to get my Amateur license in the coming year.

You can find out more general information about ARES, what it is and what it does, from this description on the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) website:

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)


Related Links:

http://www.ares.org/
This site has more info about ARES and other Emergency Amateur Radio groups as well.

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
Another emergency service group, whose memebers often overlap with ARES. But RACES has a different history and a more specific purpose. Follow the link to find out more.

MILITARY AFFILIATE RADIO SYSTEM (M.A.R.S.)
Anyone interested in providing Amateur assistance to the US military should visit this site. I'll be looking into it.