I am pleased to announce the appointment of Bill Mader K8TE to Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC).
Bill was first licensed in Feb 1960 as WV2RBF then upgraded to General in Oct to WA2RBF. He received KZ5WA at his first duty station in the (then) Panama Canal Zone. There he received a citation from the Governor for the assistance he provided during Hurricane Fifi recovery.
He transferred to Empire MI, upgraded to Extra and received the call K8TE. As vice-president and president of the Cherryland Amateur Radio Club in Traverse City, he brought their Field Day results from the bottom of 8th call district to near the top in 3A. Bill also was Emergency Coordinator for Leelanau County. While stationed at Canon AFB, he and others formed the New Mexicans Engaged in Radio Discussions (NERDs), an ARRL-affiliated club. They built the first repeater in Eastern NM with a range beyond 15 miles, installed at a TV station where Bill was an engineer. The repeater, long before wide cell phone access, provided coverage for emergency reporting. In 1979, the NERDs too first place in 1B Battery on Field Day. Bill also headed the Base Support Team for Air Force MARS. They provided communications for several plane crashes via VHF and HF.
An active contester and DX’r, he was the leadoff “professor” at DX University at the Duke City Hamfest/ARRL Rocky Mountain Division convention in Albuquerque for Aug 2014 and Contest Academy lead “professor” for 2015. He is the former newsletter (Que Pasa DX) editor (2nd time) for the Albuquerque DX Association (and former Activities Manager and President). He is a former member of Sandoval County ARES. He was a member of the W1AW/5 Team for the ARRL Centennial QSO Party and for the IARU contest in July 2015 and coordinated the 2015 W6H (New Mexico Route 66 On-the-Air) Team making over 4,000 of the 5,000 plus contacts.
He holds First Class Radiotelephone and 2nd Class Radio Telegraph licenses, both with radar endorsements.
As a 26-year Air Force veteran, Bill believes in giving back to ham radio and the community with a long record of public service. He looks forward to serving the citizens of New Mexico and all hams involved in emergency communications.
You can find out more about Bill on his QRZ page (https://www.qrz.com/lookup). Please join me in welcoming Bill to the New Mexico Section field organization.
73,
Ed James, KA8JMW
Section Manager, New Mexico
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio
