Ham Fit For Kings

 

Kenneth M. Miller makes a hobby of talking with kings, senators, industrialists, major league ballplayers, gas station attendants, and farmers. Miller, president and chief executive officer of Penril Corp., a manufacturer of data communications equipment and test instruments, is a ham.

"I need to unwind after a tough series of operations reviews or following a two-week stint of road shows with presentations to financial analysts," says Miller. "I do it by talking on the short-wave radio."

In the K61R radio shack in Miller's house in Rockville, Md., the walls are lined with hundreds of books on radio technology and amateur engineering. On the walls are certificates of achievement from amateur radio organizations. Miller holds the highest rank of amateur license, the Extra Class, and has confirmed radio contacts with more than 35,000 hams in over 320 countries.

He has chatted with King Juan Carlos of Spain, the Japanese explorer Naomi Uemura en route to the North Pole by dogsled, transcontinental balloonists, and residents of such lonely islands as the Falklands and South Georgia, in the South Atlantic.

"Socializing is the fun of ham radio, but emergency communications are at the heart of the hobby," explains Miller. "During natural disasters anywhere in the world we sit up all night if necessary, handling requests for aid and making phone patches."

When earthquakes shook Italy in 1976, when fires burned across California in 1977, and when floods ravaged Jackson, Miss., in 1979, amateur radio was the sole source of emergency communication.

"Combine that kind of emergency assistance with the fun of having an informal conversation with King Juan Carlos or a German businessman driving home at the end of the day, operating a mobile unit from his car, and you can begin to see the lure," says Miller.

For information on becoming a ham radio operator, write the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111. The ARRL is the largest fraternity of ham radio operators in the world and can connect you with local clubs and instructors. The cost for used equipment to get you on the air starts at around $150.