Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 6/30 Hamming it up!: McCarter enjoys communications

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 16:51:19 -0400

6/30 Hamming it up!: McCarter enjoys communications
By JOAN SHERROUSE/Daily Sun Staff

When a tornado ripped through Paris, Texas, years ago, Jim McCarter was
the town's only link to the outside world during the first critical
hours.
"It wiped out the town as far as communication for the police
department, the fire department, hospitals, the county -- everybody lost
their communications," he said. "The only means of communication out of
that town as soon as the tornado passed through was an amateur radio
operator sitting downtown in his car."
A seasoned ham, McCarter was on a freeway in Dallas when the CQ -- "can
anybody hear me?" -- call came through.
"I stayed in communication with him, and when I got to my house, I went
inside and called the Baptist Disaster Relief Unit," he said. "Then, I
stayed on frequency with (the Paris radio operator) at my home station
to make sure he was safe, and to find out if there were any other
emergency needs."
Within two hours, the Relief Unit was in Paris with hot meals, and ham
operators were on their way with spare mobile equipment to place in
emergency vehicles.
"They manned all the emergency units in town, and that was all done
within three hours," McCarter said.
The idea of communicating with people worldwide through Morse code
attracted him to the hobby in 1957, but his interest began to wane until
the mid-1970s when it came back to life, full force.
He said there are several licensing levels, each of which requires more
knowledge and permits a wider range of communication opportunities.
Currently, he holds an extra-class license, the highest level available.

A couple of years ago, he helped form the NFL -- a Navarro, Freestone,
Limestone and Leon County group of ham operators -- as a subsidiary of
the Navarro Amateur Radio Club to bring more people of similar interests
together. Now, the club boasts more than 50 enthusiasts with the goal of
increasing the number of repeaters to bolster emergency communication
capabilities.
Thanks to the efforts of these local groups, he said the repeaters --
which enable longer-distance communication -- will eventually enable a
hand-held operator in Corsicana to be heard in Houston.
"A three-watt walkie-talkie can talk to a repeater that's linked to
another repeater, and talk to someone 100 or 200 miles away," McCarter
said.
He admits talking to friends on the radio when a phone would serve as
well, but the pleasure of communicating with an out-of-state buddy
without concern for roaming charges, time limits and monthly fees is
just plain fun.
"All this communication is for fun, and it's for emergencies," he said.
"I passed traffic back to a hospital in the Los Angeles area for a
doctor on a sailboat down off Baja, Calif., one time -- he was talking
to the hospital about his patient who was on the boat with him."
McCarter said the youngest licensed operator he is aware of is
eight-years-old, but the hobby is suitable for enthusiasts of all ages,
interests and walks of life.
"There's a lot of fun," he said. "On a daily basis, you're talking to
friends and communicating about anything you want to."

Joan Sherrouse may be contacted via e-mail at
[email-masked].

http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/articles/2004/06/30/news/news01.txt

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