The Paris News from Paris, Texas • Page 23

48 The Paris News, March 18, 1981 SMITTY KIKER Paris native Smith (Smitty) Kiker, a photography professor at North Texas State University in Denton, says his ham radios are his second love outranked only by photography The QSL cards in Kiker's radio room indicate he has contacted other amateur radio operators in all the United States and many in foreign countries (Photo by Karen Clark) Rep. Robert Bush introduces bill on contested elections IhirU'-IUinks Austin Bureau AUSTIN Rep. Robert Bush of Sherman is lired of the legislautre acting as judge and jury in contested elections involving state senators and representatives. Al'ler the House ordered a sjx'cial election to decide the recent Al Brown-Alan Schook-raft voting dispute in Antonio, Bush vowed to find a better way to handle I lie problem. Me was not happy about a special Hou.se committee recommending Sehoolcraft, a Hepublican, be seated and I hen I he Democratic- dominated House reversing (hat and seating Brown.

In a special election later, San Antonio voters overwhelmingly returned Scrtoolcrafl to the seat. "The question is whether, (he legislature should take Ihis historic place it in the courts," Bush told the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments this week. As currently interpreted, the Texas Constitution calls for House members to resolve disputes in state representative races and Senate members to handle election contests lor senatorial candidates. But Bush is sponsoring a bill calling for changes in the constitution that would allow election disputes among House candidates to go directly to the courts to be resolved, as is now done for all but legislative contests. Another bill by Rep.

Debra Danburg of Houston would add Senate disputes to Bush's bill. She told the committee. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." Later, she added: "The logical conclusion is that both houses should be subject to this "proposed" constitutional change. She acknowledged, however, that the Senate can be quite protective of, its rights and that practical politics don't always work according to logic. Before the bills were sent to a subcommittee for further study, Bush introduced a number of witnesses speaking in favor of the two pieces of legislation.

Austin attorney Randall "Buck" Wood, o'ne of the attorneys involved in the Brown-Schoolcraft dispute, said he believes such matters must go to the courts or the legislature is going to find itself bogged down in more and more election contests. With a stronger Republican party in the state, he said, "I can see where you'd have two or three different election contests" to resolve each session. He said he was hired to fight two legislative election disputes this year alone, but only the Brown-Schoolcraft matter materialized. The problem, he said, obviously is going to grow and it will put even more of a burden on a legislature trying to complete its work in a biennial session limited to 140 days, he added. Another Austin attorney, Cynthia Taylor, who represented Alan Schoolcraft in the recent dispute, complained that the current system does not work.

"Evidence was considered which would not have been admitted in court," she "Thousands of voters' rights were sacrificed while the focus was on the rights of the two candidates involved. Sections of the Texas Election Code were amended in ad-hoc fashion. Orders of the chief election officer of this state were ignored. Burdens of proof and presumptions of law were lost in their application." She said it would be hard to write a constitutional amendment to handle the problem. "Yet, as tough a task as that may be, it is a job to which you, as legislators, have "been elected rather than the unfamiliar roles of judge and juror which are required under the present system." As for a suggestion by committee Chairman Rep.

Bob McFarland of Arlington that the changes could be made without a constitutional amendment, both attorneys said the amendment would be much belter. A simple change in state law, without a change in the constitution, Wood said, "would not be all together clean and would probably have to be litigated. It's something I would not like to litigate." City Market Food Center 0. £. JUMPEH-OWNER "LARGE ENOUGH TO SERVE YOU SMALL ENOUGH TO KNOW YOU" U.S.

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This is King Baker Five United Mexico." Mam radio operators may recognize KB5UM as the call sign for Smith (Smitty) Kiker, a former Paris resident now living in Denton. Kiker works as photography professor for the North Texas State University Journalism Department. He is the son of Mrs. Virginia Kiker Bills of 320 Shady Oaks Lane. Although he spends most of the day supervising the university's photojournalism program, Kiker spends most of his free time with his second love ham radios.

"I've never gotten into anything, other than photography, that offered so much satisfaction," he said. It took about two years for Kiker to advance up the radio license ladder from a novice class operator to an amateur extra class operator. "1 didn't break any records, and I didn't try to," he said, "but the day 1 got my first license (in May 1978), I went out and bought my first transceiver." S1NCK THEN, Kiker has invested about $2,000 in his hobby, "adding a piece here and a piece there until I had what I wanted," he said. "What he wanted" includes a radio room in his house that contains one high frequency transceiver, three very high frequency transceivers, a citizens band radio and a portable two- meter band radio. A 45-foot antenna in his backyard transmits and receives radio waves virtually all over the world.

QS1. C'AKns (that confirm radio contact) from all 50 states and numerous foreign countries cover the walls of his radio room. Wyoming was (he last slate Kiker contacted in order (o earn a Worked All Slates certificate. Many western stales are hard to contact, he said, because there are so few radio operators there. Alaska was also a hard stale for him to contact for the same reason.

One of Kiker's favorite aspects of ham radios is communicating in Morse code with foreign operators. "There's something significant in knowing you have the capability of talking to someone clean across the world," he said. Kiker has contacted foreign countries including European and South American countries, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. A QSL card from Czechoslovakia is one of Kiker's favorites. The card came from an operator who was working to complete his license.

Before operators in Czechoslovakia can make on-the-air contact with other operators, they must first listen in on someone else. The Czechoslovakian listened to Kiker and sent him the card. INTERNATIONAL conflict is not as apparent on the radios, he said. "With all of the tension the United States has with Russia and its satellite countries, you can talk to those guys on the radios, and you don't the animosity." Topics of discussion usually include an exchange of location and transmission quality, followed by an exchange of weather conditions and age. The conversation could also include discussions of occupations, radio equipment and families, he said.

In the United States, Kiker talks with some regularity to Walt McBernie, an amateur extra operator in Lee Roy, N.Y., and Charles Ammons, a high school student in Manor, Ga. "It's pretty common in radio to develop friendships with people you know you will never see," he said. ALTHOUGH KIKEU has been a ham radio oeprator for just a few years, he has worked with radios in some form most of his life. In the National Guard he gained experience as a radio operator. When he was growing up in Paris, Kiker helped his father with his radio and television repair business.

"Most of my jobs consisted 'lift here he said. "I didn't learn a lot about electronics from him," Kiker said. "He didn't encourage me because he believed that some day radio and television would be disposable. Of course I was too busy playing with cars and chasing girls to learn much." "One of the main reasons I decided to get into ham radios was that Daddy had a ham license back before World War II. He was first licensed in the Jate 1920s.

His call sign was 5AAR. It was one of Die first. I wanted to do amateur radio, because he had done it," Kiker said. The equipment used by the early operators was much more basic than equipment used today. "Most of the equipment they used was homemade homebrew," he said.

"Dad used only code for transmissions, he didn't have a mike for voice transmissions." Kiker said amateur radio went through its infancy in his father's generation, and he wants to carry on the radio tradition. It may have been his experience helping his father install television antennaes and his memories of homebrew equipment that prompted Kiker to install his 45-foot radio tower in his backyard. He bought a tower and modified it to his own needs using metal odds and ends. The tower is anchored in the ground by four feet of concrete that also contains two broken CB radios, a smog pump from a truck, part of a lawn mower and live ammunition "just stuff we wanted to get rid of," he said. IN IJENTON.

Kiker is secretary for the North Texas High Frequency Association, an amateur radio club. One of the major activities of the club is taking mini-expeditions to spend 24 hours operating rigs "running The club has run phone twice from Telephone, Texas, opened the Moscow (Texas) Olympics, and transmitted from the decks of the Battleship Tex as. Some members of the club are a part of Sky Warn, -a group of amateur radio operators who alert citizens to incoming storms during tornado watches and thunderstorms. The club also provides classes for people attempting to learn Morse code and become licensed. "When you consider that no matter what you do for recreation, you'll have to pay for it, amateur radio is a lot safer for me than owning a boat or learning how to fly." Kiker said.

"There's something about it that you can't turn loose. It's just like photography, it grabs you and you can't let go. "There are always new worlds to conquer with it," he said. As a radio operator he contacted recently said, "Roger. Roger.

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