Published: June 29, 2008 10:15 am      

Ready to help

Chisholm Trail Amateur Radio Club spend day at Fuqua Park

DUNCAN — If disaster strikes and knocks out power supplies, these are the guys and gals you want around.

Ron Grossman works Morse code, while other members of the Chisholm Trail Amateur Radio Club, like Wade Norrif and Mike Hutchinson, scan the frequencies, looking to make contact.

And Saturday afternoon at Fuqua Park, they did. With several antennas and a bunch of equipment, the group participated in a state-wide exercise to test their communication abilities.

More than just a hobby, members of the club find practical use for their skills.

They aided in the emergency exercise held in town June 19, where entities from across the state worked together to respond to a “chemical disaster.”

They help organizers navigate services during the Dehydrator, an annual bicycle race in Duncan. And, when bad weather happens, they storm chase.

For Linda Mittleman and her husband Mike Hutchinson, getting involved required little more than some heat.

Caught in the middle of the fires that ravaged Stephens County two years ago, Mittleman noticed that communications between agencies could have been improved.

“Our house was in danger,” Mittleman said. “And we realized if you had hand radios, everybody would do a lot better job communicating.”

That epiphany brought the couple to an activity they both enjoy, and changed how they react to situations.

“We get involved with a lot of bad stuff because we want people to be safe,” she said.

And at the heart of the club, is safety.

Robert Conway, who helps with the technical side of radio, noted that while advances in communication are good, they’re not always reliable. Radio solves that problem. Able to run on back up power supply, be it a battery or a generator, the source allows the needed messages to get out.

The club can trace it origins back to June 1956. A non-commercial operation, the group boasts 27 active members and more than 100 radio operators in Stephens County.

Communications don’t just stay in Stephens County, though. At times, they’ve talked to people in various states across the nation, and Canada, too.

“We basically exchange just some brief information,” Conway said. “You can talk around the world, around the country.”