During the Public Safety Power Shutoff in late October, many commonly used communication systems were greatly affected. The licensed amateur radio or “ham” radio community saw a sharp rise in participation at this time. When an event or local disaster such as wildfire takes place, the ham radio network becomes a vital method of communicating locally and countywide to deliver and receive information about what is going on.
Rick Azarnoff is a retired computer technician and has been a licensed ham radio participant for the last five years. Azarnoff remembers being exposed to ham radio a little bit as a child growing up. Five years ago, he started to listen to ham radio after finding out about inexpensive radios that you could plug into your computer. After that, he searched online to find out more about ham radio and found a test to become licensed.