Tom and Mary Moore.

This is a HAM radio biography of Tom and Mary. It leaves out much of their lives surrounding the raising of and good times with their two kids, their love and enjoyment of their two grand daughters, participation and enjoyment in other hobbies.  

Tom, originally from Memphis, TN., was in his third year in the USAF, stationed at Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, AK., when on his birthday in January 1965 at a Sunday morning church service, he met his bride to be Mary Ann Hockersmith. Mary, born in Watertown NY, had arrived in Anchorage with her parents the previous October. Her dad was in the Army stationed at FT Richardson near Anchorage and she was a senior in high school. There must have been that magical instant true love between the two because they were married at FT Richardson on June 10th 1965 and are still married and best friends today, 41 years later.  In the interim, they raised two kids, traveled the world and finally retired here in Alabama. Well, almost. Tom is fully retired doing volunteer work with the Lee County EMA while Mary is the IT (Information Technology) Manager for the West Central Georgia Health District in Columbus, GA. (about a 27 mile commute). She'll be retiring in a year or so.

Tom had always been interested in HAM Radio but had never found anyone to be an elmer to show him how to get started.  Finally, while stationed at Bergstrom AFB in Austin, TX., he and Mary got involved with a group of CB'ers who also wanted to be HAMs. One of the group found a young man, an EXTRA class, working at the University of Texas, who was willing to take them  under his wing. They had once-a-week classes at various group member homes in the Spring of 1976 and in May, Tom and Mary received their NOVICE class licenses with calls WN5TEI and WN5TEK. The TECHNICAN class license was achieved in July and their calls became WB5TEI and WB5TEK. Tom and Mary quickly became active in the Austin Amateur Radio Club and the US Army Military Affiliated Radio Systgem (MARS) where they learned strict on-air discipline and accuracy requirements of sending and receiving message traffic. In October, they received their GENERAL class license and immediately got active on the HAM HF bands particularly on National Traffic System (NTS) nets with the sending, receiving and relaying of written message traffic. They were also heavily involved in providing phone patch traffic for missionaries abroad to family and friends in the U.S. In the summer of 1977, they received orders for their third tour to Elmendorf AFB and, in August, went HF mobile with their new 4-wheel drive truck and eleven foot cab-over camper on a fantastic trip up the ALCAN highway.  While enroute, they received, via phone patch to Anchorage, word of arrival of their KL7 calls. Tom getting KL7JDH and Mary KL7JDI. 

For the next four years Tom and Mary lived and breathed Amateur Radio with the Anchorage Amateur Radio Club (AARC). Both became deputy Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) Officers with the Alaska Division of Emergency Services (ADES), the State Civil Defense organization, and Mary assumed primary Net Control of the ADES sponsored, Monday thru Friday, 14292 Alaska Pacific Net. She was also heavily involved with the Polar Amateur Radio Klub of Alaska (PARKA), a ladies only organization. Tom was active with the Anchorage club Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) organization, State RACES, and the Anchorage Mountain Rescue Group.

During the American Radio Relay League's (ARRL) Ten Meter Contest in December 1977, Tom and Mary worked all the contacts they needed, in just four hours, to earn their Worked All States (WAS) award.  In the Fall of 1978, they earned their ADVANCED class license and in the Spring of 1979 their EXTRA class license with Mary receiving new call KL7P and Tom KL7Q.  In the Spring of 1980, they received the coveted DX Century Club (DXCC) award for confirming having worked 100 countries. 

This was a time in Alaska history before the widespread availability of satellite phones and long before the internet.  Communications relied on a 'not very widely dispersed' state wide microwave telephone system that seemed to be down more than up.  HAM radio routinely played a major role in public service communications. 

Active on all the local nets, Mary became the focal point for almost all events requiring amateur radio communications including such things as finding and passing important traffic from the Governor's office to the Govennor when he was out of communication range in the Alaska bush; relaying of emergency communications for the FAA when their satellite whobbled; relaying critical data to and from search and rescue groups including some on Mt. McKinley; and coordinating emergency medical evacuations of sick and injured during extreme winter conditions. Tom often deployed with the Anchorage Mountain Rescue Group in charge of communications; was one of only four men qualified to operate the ADES Mobile Communications Command System vehicle and deployed with it on several ocassions.  Tom and Mary were invited by the Alaska State Troopers (AST) to go with, and provide communications for, a special AST team who ran from the Yukon River northwest of Fairbanks southeast to Valdez Alaska (about 300 Miles) in what became an annual event called "Run For SOME" (Special Olympic Mileage Event) in support of the Special Olympics.

In May 1979 and 1980, as an exercise to stress the Amateur Radio National Traffic System (NTS) simulating a major disaster, Tom and Mary organized a special Mother's Day event at the Anchorage Mall where Mother's Day greeting messages were originated and sent to mothers in the lower 48. Over 1000 messages were delivered via Radio Teletype (RTTY) in 1979 and 1500 in 1980 which severely stressed the capabilities of the NTS network. But returning messages from tens of Moms, some who had not heard from their siblings in years, thanking HAMs for their efforts in sending the Mother's Day greetings, was just overwhelming. It's hard to describe the pride that all the HAMs felt for the work they did in getting those messages through.  

The AARC elected Mary HAM OF THE YEAR in 1978 and Tom in 1979. 

These are just some of the highlights of four of the greatest years in amateur radio that anyone could ever be so lucky to experience.  In addition to all this, they had a great time camping, hiking, a little mountain climbing, some fishing and lots and lots of sight seeing of gorgeous Alaska. What a great time they had.

Returning to 'the states' in 1980, Tom and Mary were active with amateur radio clubs in the San Antonio area. In 1983, Tom retired from the Air Force and the family moved to Cedar Rapids, IA., where Tom worked for Rockwell International, home of Collins Defense Communications - the original home of Art Collins and Collins Radio. What an education in HAM radio that was. There's a great museum there with a fantastic collection of Collins radios.

In the summer of 1989, Tom retired again. This time the family moved to the East AL., Columbus, GA., area where they joined the Columbus Amateur Radio Club (CARC). They became members of the club's ARRL Volunteer Examiner (VE) team and active supporters in the National Weather Service SKYWARN storm spotter program.

In 1991, Tom and Mary joined the East Alabama ARC (EAARC) where they assumed responsibility for the club's VE testing program and Tom served as President in 1996-1997. 

In 1993, Tom and Mary's son, Thomas, earned his TECHNICIAN class license, getting callsign KD4WNA. 

In 1995, Tom organized and led the Columbus ARC week long HAM radio communications support for the National Red Cross during Tropical Storm ALBERTO.  He had gradually become more active in the ARRL Alabama Section organization by authoring and printing a monthly news letter and serving in other Field Organization positions. He was appointed  Section Manager (SM)  in 1995 when the elected SM had to resign; and was elected SM for the period 1996-1997. During this time, Tom organized the Salem Hill SKYWARN Net which was dedicated to providing amateur radio support to the EMAs in three counties of west central Georgia and four Counties in East Central Alabama; and to National Weather Service Offices in Atlanta and Birmingham which included the fielding of special VHF/UHF links to both locations and arranged for regular Storm Spotter classes taught by NWS employees in Alabama and Georgia. He later organized the Lee County SKYWARN net. Tom also led the development, installation and fielding of packet radio nodes and BBS' in East Alabama; linking them with a state wide data system.

Tom became a volunteer and was assigned Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) Coordinator for the Lee County EMA. In 2003, he was named Volunteer of the Year by the Alabama Association of Emergency Managers.

Upon first moving to Alabama, Tom renewed his interest in RTTY. In 2002, he earned the RTTY WAS award number 383 and in 2004 he earned the prestigious RTTY DXCC award number 1,363.  In 2003, he won 1st place awards in CQ's magazine's RTTY Prefix and World Wide contests and was rated as the world's 3rd ranked RTTY operator. 

Mary continued leading the Volunteer Examiner team and became a more active supporter of the Young Ladies Radio League (YLRL) an organization she'd joined while in Alaska. She accepted several postions in the YLRL national organization; served as its Vice President in 2004-5 and was elected President for the 2006-2007 term. She led the organization, funding, procurement and installation of commercial and amateur radio equipment at the Columbus Health Department Emergency Operation Center to support its ever expanding role of community support during natural and man made disasters. Her knowledge and expertise of computers, electronics and communications led to her appointment to leadership positions on several multi organization committees including the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) and the Strategic National Stockpile system (SNS).  After the New Orleans disaster, Mary was instrumental in obtaining government grants for the purchase of HAM radio equipment for area Hospitals and EMAs. She is an active mentor for the ARRL on-line Emergency Communication Courses.

Realizing the years were slipping by and their old dream of final retirement to Alaska was not likely to happen, Tom and Mary gave up their Alaskan KL7 calls signs in the summer of 2001, having had them for 24 years. Tom's call is now WX4TM and Mary's is WX4MM

We'd be happy to hear from you. Email us at:

Tom  wx4tm@wx4tm.com 

Mary  wx4mm@wx4tm.com