Published Sunday, June 24, 2001

For hams on radio, it's a small world
BY LILA ARZUA
larzua@herald.com

As the radio operators twirled the knobs, beeps and burbling broke through
the static buzz. Suddenly, a snippet of clear voice rang out.

`Whiskey, four, Nancy, Victor, uniform,'' Dan Zuckerman quickly responded,
spelling out the group's call sign W4NVU as he tried to make contact with a
distant counterpart.

It was the annual field day for amateur radio operators, and about 50 hams
were gathered at the Miami-Dade County Emergency Operations Center, 9300 NW
41st St., to participate in the annual contest and practice their emergency
skills.

The worldwide competition awards the group that is able to establish the
most contacts around the globe within a 24-hour period. But Zuckerman and
the other federally licensed volunteers were less interested in earning
points by logging brief exchanges than in connecting with fellow hams.

`Best part of ham radio is the community. There are all kind of people who
are hams. You meet another ham, and they treat you like family,'' said
Zuckerman, who in the last few days had chatted with people in France,
Greece and Pakistan. In fact, a ham he met on the air in the 1980s became a
close friend and college roommate.

Saturday, Zuckerman exchanged greetings with an operator on a boat off St.
John's in Newfoundland, Canada. And while socializing, the group, consisting
of members of several amateur radio clubs, was providing a public service.

`Emergency equipment is only used when there's an emergency. If you don't
test it periodically, it doesn't work when you need it,'' said Lee
Ciereszko, the chair of this year's event in Miami-Dade. `That your
equipment works, that's all that matters. In an emergency, there's no such
thing as points; there's no high score.''

Another amateur radio operator, Joe Chwick, puts out newsletters to instruct
hams old and new what to do in the event of an emergency. He also runs what
he calls Main Net, a weekly program fashioned after talk radio, in which he
goes on the air and proclaims controversial opinions in the hope someone
will joust with him.

On Saturday, however, nobody was arguing with Chwick as he sanded down
copper wire as part of a demonstration on how to make an antenna, ostensibly
to replace one blown down in a hurricane. `In the event of an emergency,
we're the ones who are going to be there,'' Chwick said, recalling the role
of amateur radio operators in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

That's why Ivan Flores, 13, volunteers with the Red Cross, to learn about
using a radio to aid with disaster relief. The rising eighth-grader also
enjoys other radio features, such as taking pictures with `slow-scan
television'' and using a program similar to an Internet chat room. `I
actually get to communicate with my friends,'' Ivan said.

And one never knows when new friends will be made. `New ham'' Ernesto Diaz
was in his car last month during an atmospheric condition known as a band
opening, which enables VHF radio waves to go further than their usual
50-mile range. That's when he met Jesús, who lives five miles off the coast
-- in Havana. They talked for about 15 minutes about typical ham topics: the
sort of equipment they were using, a comparison of their antennas and how
much they enjoyed the hobby.

`Just one of those things when you're sitting there and shooting the
breeze,'' Diaz said.