Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A statewide, mega-link amateur radio connection gained a new link last month, giving local amateur radio new access to the southern part of Roosevelt County.
According to the Greyhound Amateur Radio Club Vice President Billy Bagwell, the northern part of Roosevelt County has been covered by a link on the Eastern New Mexico University campus, but there has been no coverage for southern Roosevelt County.
Bagwell said this change offers a much larger span of help during emergencies. He said if power is lost or communications with dispatchers shut down, the local amateur radio operators will be able still to communicate through this new link.
This link, located on an 180-foot tower called Redlake on a mesa between Elida and Dora, is high enough up that its line of sight goes as far as Littlefield, Texas, on one side and the Ruidoso mountains in Lincoln County on the other.
“Short of a tornado hitting those towers directly, we have amateur frequency communications over the entire county, part of Curry (County), DeBaca, over to Chaves and all the way to Lincoln,” said Bagwell.
Bagwell said this link is similar to those that were used in states of crisis, such as during Hurricane Katrina. He said these can be a fail safe when all other means of communication are overloaded or out of service.
Keith Wattenbarger, Roosevelt County’s emergency management director, said the amateur radio is not the only advantage the county will receive from this new link.
He said he is working towards getting licenses for a public service emergency management channel.
“It would just be another way for folks to get together and relay information,” said Wattenbarger. “It’s been a process, but the help it’ll provide has been validating. It will improve things quite a bit.”
Wattenbarger said one of the big advantages of the amateur radio link is that it will allow the county to contact people within its “tremendous” radius when in crisis and may need more assistance.
“The mega-link goes to several parts of the state and allows us to communicate any manpower issues we may have and much more,” said Wattenbarger.
