MEET THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

D.W. Thorne, K6SOJ - President and Editor-Publisher EMCOMM QUARTERLY

Originally from Orange County, California, Dave "escaped" the urban environment in 1988, and now lives in the wilderness outback of northern California with his wife Nannette, KE6MZT, along with their three dogs, two cats, and other critters. He has been involved in emergency, disaster and humanitarian work, both professionally and as a volunteer, his entire life working for both private and government agencies. 

A former Red Cross First Aid Instructor and graduate of the second EMT class ever offered in California, he holds an AA and ADN from Rancho Santiago College, with additional studies U.C. Irvine and U.C. San Francisco Medical Centers. The majority of his professional background is in hospital and community health as a Registered Nurse. His first disaster experience was the Paseo-Grande Fire (1967) in Riverside and Orange Counties. Dave has been an American Red Cross volunteer since 1967 and staff professional as Director of Nursing and Health Programs and Disaster Services 1975-1980. He served on Operation Baby Lift and later at Camp Talega (Camp Pendleton) after the evacuation of Saigon in 1975. Over 51,000 SE Asia refugees were processed. Dave has also been a Search and Rescue volunteer since 1977. 

First licensed as KC6HOY in 1989 as a novice, he soon upgraded to general, advanced, and finally to extra class in 2000. Dave served as an ARES® EC from 1994 until 2000 and as the ARRL Sacramento Valley SEC from 2000 to the end of 2006. He also served as a California OES ACS Officer for several years. He was the founder and president of SOJOURNERS amateur radio club 2000-2005. "D.W." likes to say that he a "low-tech" ham. He enjoys straight key CW, collecting vintage broadcast and communications receivers, SWL-ing and MW AM "DX-ing". His favorite amateur band is 160 meters. Hobbies include, exploring the backcountry by 4WD, fishing, photography, writing, and going on "walkabout" with the dogs.  He is a life member of the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

Jerry Boyd, N7WR - 1st Vice President and Director of ARCT Response Program
Continuously licensed since 1958, and an extra class licensee, Jerry has held the following calls: WV6CUP, WA6CUP, KG6LF, K6BZ, KW7J and now N7WR. Jerry has held the following appointed or elected positions within the ARRL Field Organization: PIO, OES, EC, DEC, SEC and Section Manager. He was also a member of the ECAC Advisory Committee and the first Chairman of the ARRL National Emergency Response Committee (ANERCOM). He is the author of five books, three on amateur radio emergency communications issues, a quarterly columnist for WorldRadio magazine and authors a monthly column in EMCOMM MONTHLY. He is a mentor/instructor in all three ARRL Emcomm courses, an instructor of many American Red Cross courses, and an ICS/NIMS instructor.

Jerry holds a BA Degree (cum laude) in Sociology from Loyola University of Los Angeles and a MS (summa cum laude) in public safety administration from California State University, Long Beach. His career consists of 40 years as a public safety professional. Twenty-eight in law enforcement with fifteen as a Chief of Police. He was also Chief of a Volunteer Fire/EMS agency, a Search and Rescue volunteer, and for the past four years has served as Director of a Consolidated 9-1-1 Dispatch Center. Concurrently, he serves as Deputy Chief of the Baker County Fire Authority and Deputy Director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management/Homeland Security. Amateur radio awards include: 5 Band WAC, 5 Band WAZ, 5 Band DXCC, and DXCC Honor Roll. Jerry now resides in Baker City, Oregon with is wife Jay (N7WRJ) and daughter Ruthie (N7AQH).

William F. (Bill) Frazier, W7ARC (2nd Vice President and Webmaster)
Bill graduated Rogue Community College (cum laude) 1997 with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Electronics Technology and an Electronics Technician Certificate in 1996. He was first licensed in 1971 as a Novice call of WN7RWU and currently holds an Extra Class license. He is currently an Official Emergency Station, Official Relay Station, Section Traffic Manager, Volunteer Examiner, and  appointed as District 1 EC for ARES® Western Washington Section  and Regional RACES Radio Officer, Region 1 State of Washington . He is a member of the Brass Pounders League (BPL) and was awarded the BPL Medallion for traffic handling. He is a Member of the A-1 Operator Club and a member of US Army MARS (AARØCZ) with over 5 years of service.

A past member of the Washington State EOC RACES team (W7EMD) and a member of the Snohomish County ARES®/RACES Team. Bill is a former ARES® AEC for Jackson County, Oregon and liaison to the Rogue Valley Chapter American Red Cross. Bill has completed all three levels of the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course (ARECC) and FEMA courses on ICS and the National Response Plan including the National Incident Management System (NIMS). He is currently mentoring students in all levels of the ARECC program. Bill is currently active on Region 7 nets, the Noon Time Net, WARTS, WSEN and other nets. He is Webmaster for WRRL.ORG, EMCOMM.ORG, WASTATEARES.ORG and others. He is a former Washington State EMT, an Ex-US Navy Sonar Technician and Viet Nam Veteran. Bill is also a Red Cross volunteer with over 20 years of service and a member of the Disaster Service Human Resources (DSHR) from 1994-2004 resigning for family medical reasons. His Red Cross assignments have taken him across the United States including to New York City for the World Trade Center Disaster of Sept. 11, 2001.

Edward C. (Ed) Ewell, K7DXV - Director WRRL Laboratories
Ed's first amateur license (1957) was KN7DXV, and is now K7DXV. He also holds a commercial and First Class Radiotelephone license (now issued as the General Radiotelephone License). After High School he joined the U.S. Navy, attended radio school in Norfolk, Virginia and graduated second in his class, qualified as a high-speed cw operator, and qualified in radioteletype communications systems. He spent four years active service and three years in the active reserve as a Radioman Second Class Petty Officer. His service included duty in North Africa at the shore station of NHY for eighteen months. He served duty at sea aboard a Destroyer.

After leaving the Navy Ed worked in commercial broadcasting and advanced to Chief Engineer of a local television station, then Chief Engineer for two AM/FM broadcast stations. He has also worked for the Motorola and General Electric land-mobile service companies. He then went back to sea aboard NOAA survey ships and sailed to Alaska and out of Hawaii as the Radio Officer and Electronics Technician for ship systems. Ed has extensive experience in microwave, radar, marine SSB, radio-teletype systems, and navigation systems. Before retiring, his last career assignments were with the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Department Of Forestry as a Communications Systems Specialist where he completed training at the Boise Interagency Fire Center (BIFC) at Boise, Idaho and is a qualified Communications Unit Leader under the ICS and NIMS organization. He has completed all three ARRL ARECC courses, is an ARRL certified EC, is presently an AEC for Siskiyou and Modoc Counties in California, an ARRL Official Observer (OO), ARRL Official Emergency Station, and currently serves as net control for the West Coast Net (WCN) CW traffic training net. He owns and maintains six amateur repeaters in his general area and keeps them available for emergency and public service communications. Ed resides in Klamath Falls, Oregon with his wife Evelyn.

L. E. "Ed" Trump, AL7N - Director Traffic Handler Qualifying Program
Born Ft. F.E. Warren (Cheyenne), Wyoming 1942, Ed was first licensed as a Novice in 1957 as KNØJSP in Fort Collins Colorado. He upgraded to General class as KØJSP in 1958. Other amateur calls he has held are W7EMS W7JXK KL7IJZ from 1967-1978.

Ed graduated from Fort Collins High School 1960 and graduated from Colorado State University in 1964 with a BSEE. He worked for Denver & Rio Grande Western RR as Telephone/Telegraph Communications Engineer 1965-1973. He has experience as landline telegrapher, Wire Chief. Ed upgraded to Amateur Extra Class in 1968 and was active in ARRL NTS Colorado Section/Twelfth Region/Pacific Area/TCC 1968-1973. He acquired his FCC Commercial Radiotelegraph 2nd Class Operator Certificate in Denver in 1968. 

Ed moved to Alaska 1975. He worked as Commercial CW radiotelegraph operator RCA Coastal Station WKR (now closed) in Nome, Alaska from 1975-1984. He Qualified for FCC Commercial Radiotelegraph First Class Certificate 1976 at FCC District 23 Office Anchorage, Alaska. He acquired his FCC First Class Radiotelephone Certificate, in Nome, Alaska in 1978. The RCA/Pacific Telecomm employed him as a MF/HF/VHF radio and Earth Station technician, in Nome, Alaska until 1987. He acquired the original issue Class "A" Amateur call sign AL7N in Nome in 1978. He bid internal job opening at Alascom in Fairbanks, AK as Telecommunications Technician in 1987. After over 33 years with the same company, Ed retired in February 2009 from AT&T Alascom in Fairbanks as a Telecomm Technician, Circuit Provisioning and Station Tech-In-Charge. Ed is Net Manager for the Alaska CW Net (NTS) and STM for the ARRL Alaska Section.