HAM operators played vital role during telecommunications outage (New Mexico)

When high winds took out phone lines and the internet for many residents of Socorro County in May, there was a little-known lifeline to state officials in Santa Fe that carried the news of the need for help with communications infrastructure.

Thanks to Socorro’s Al Braun, the Statewide Emergency Coordinator of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Wynn Brannin got the news via HAM radio.

“When I called Santa Fe (via an emergency landline), Wynn Brannin told me he had been already made aware of the situation we had through HAM radio,” Socorro County Emergency Manager Gail Tripp said.

Tripp could have made a radio transmission about Socorro County’s plight after receiving her Federal Communications Commission license in April.