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or go to hamstation .com evening, everyone. This
is ham talk live episode number 23. The National
Tribal Amateur Radio Association with Nathan
Nixon in seven NNN recorded live on Thursday,
July 21 2016. I'm your host Neil Rapp WB nine
VPG and thanks once again for tuning in for this
episode of ham talk live. This evening Nathan
Nixon N7NAN is here to talk about promoting ham
radio as an InCom option for the American Indian
tribes throughout the country. We will take your
calls live in just a few minutes. Last week on
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.com and check out our Facebook page and Twitter
feed. Just search for HamTalk Live. Nathan Nixon,
N7NAN lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a retired
police officer of 14 years and a single father
of two boys. Currently Nathan works in the emergency
management for the inter -tribal council of Arizona
and the Indian country. intelligence network
where he assists the Native American tribes in
Arizona with their emergency preparedness activities
and public safety programs. Nathan has a bachelor's
and master's in emergency management and disaster
preparedness. He's into emergency communications
and operates several different modes from APRS
to portable VHF, UHF, HF, and PSK -31. He's a
member of the local Aries and Skywarn groups
and enjoys working with Aries groups and often
does the incident command system training. Nathan
is the national president for the National Tribal
Amateur Radio Association, NTARA, and please
visit the NTARA Facebook page at National Tribal
Amateur Radio Association. So Nathan, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Thank you, Neil. Thank you for
having me. Yeah, it's great to to finally have
you on the show here we've been talking for quite
a while online and So why don't you start off
a little bit first? By just telling us what Ntara
is and what its role is in assisting the American
Indian tribes well as you said in your opening
I was a Police officer here in Arizona for 14
years and the last four of those I worked for
a Native American tribe up in the northwest part
of Arizona called the the wallop I tribe they're
the ones on the Grand Canyon skywalk and While
I was there Working for them. I lived in a community
about 40 miles 40 to 45 miles west of the community
that I patrolled in and So while I was there
I was heavily involved with local clubs there,
always carried my HT and my mag mount with me
on top of my patrol vehicle while I was at work.
And it was interesting because I found that working
in that community, my portable radio would work
better than our government radios would, both
our portables and our mobile radios and our vehicles.
From 45 miles away, I couldn't talk to my dispatch
on my radio sitting in my driveway at my house.
But if I had the frequency programmed in my HT,
with my mag mount, I could sit in my driveway
and talk to them clear as day. And same way in
the community, there were parts within the community
where I patrolled where my portable radio didn't
work, I would pull out my HT and it would work.
So after I retired from there and went to work
for the Inter -Tribal Council of Arizona, I met
the executive director for a group called the
National Tribal Emergency Management Council.
They're an organization that does... emergency
management preparedness and planning and training
for about 300 plus tribal nations across the
US. And so I had the fortunate opportunity to
meet her, sat down with her, started talking,
found out that she was also a licensed amateur
and that their organization had trained a lot
of folks in CERT. And as part of their CERT training,
they were having many of those individuals obtain
their ham radio licenses. And so she found out
that that I was into it. We talked back and forth
several times. And the idea was developed that,
hey, amateur radio could be really useful in
tribal communities, not only because of the distances
that are covered, but also just as a secondary
form of communications. And so out of that came
the National Tribal Amateur Radio Association.
And as I've said on previous shows, that I've
been on. One of the big things that we had to
decide when we put this organization together
was did we do it as a freestanding organization
and then apply for 501C3 or do we go under the
National Tribal Emergency Management Council.
So we decided to do the latter and put National
Tribal Amateur Radio Association under the National
Tribal Emergency Management Council. That way
we're 501C3, all that sort of stuff. So after
we started it, We made the Facebook page. We
made the Twitter feed. We applied for a club
call sign. We got that. So we have our club page
on QRZ. And just slowly but surely, every chance
I get, I've been putting information out. And
slowly but surely, we've been getting more members.
And as of Tuesday, when I was on another show,
we were up to about 330 that are on the roster
right now for National Tribal Amateur Radio Association.
Out of the 567 federally recognized tribal nations,
we have about 15 tribes that have become associate
members, the actual tribe. And then with actual
membership and the tribal nations that are represented
through our membership, we've got about 30 different
tribal nations that are represented out of those
567. OK, so what's the role of ham radio taking
taking place there. Is it just to fill in the
missing communications link then with the public
safety radios, the lack of coverage there, or
is that for them to take some ownership of it?
What's the role of getting ham radio into their
Mcom plan? Well, I guess the biggest part of
it is And I'll use Arizona as an example. In
Arizona, we have about six or seven tribal nations
that are co -located next to several of the big
metropolitan areas, Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff.
But most of our other tribal nations are very,
very remote. Any form of communications are limited.
I've been on some of the tribal nations here
in Arizona where You can go from one village
and have Wi -Fi and cell phone coverage, and
you can drive 50 miles in any direction to another
village, and you may not have any sort of cell
phone reception, no Wi -Fi, whatever it may be.
So even within those tribal nations or individual
villages or communities, it varies as to what
sort of communications they have. And as you
and your listeners know, with ham radio, basically
as long as you have electricity, and you have
the space to put up an antenna and put a radio
in, you can have that. In the western half of
the United States, I've met many people from
tribal nations who are licensed amateurs, and
then I haven't met anybody from some of the other
ones. So the way we envisioned it was, and part
of our strategic goals, is to assist those tribal
nations or members of those tribal nations who
may be licensed now who want to get more individuals
from those tribal nations licensed is we've got,
at least in the Pacific Northwest and here in
Arizona and over in California, I've got groups
that have become associate members of National
Tribal Amateur Radio Association who said, hey,
we'll go out and we'll provide licensing classes
and testing sessions for them. Because we're
the 501C3, we're always asking for donations
of equipment. When we get that equipment, if
it's in If it's in good working order, we turn
around and ship it right back out to one of the
tribal nations. If it's not, we have people that
volunteer to fix it. Once it's fixed and ready
to go and in working order, again, we send it
out, make sure that they have the operators in
place. Once all that's in place, then we go back
about 90 to 180 days later and follow up with
them, make sure that they have some sort of income
training, whether it's Augustcom. MCOM, ICS,
whatever it may be. And if not, then we try and
make the arrangements to get that training for
them so that they do have that as a secondary
means of communication for public safety. But
also too, like I said at the beginning of this,
is many of the villages and communities are so
far spread out that it may be one of their only
forms of communication. And that's huge to me.
Oh yeah, that's going to give you some communications
in those remote areas that normally wouldn't
be served. So what challenges have you found
then with these tribes in setting this up and
getting the training done that might be a little
different from some other populations? You know
because the the tribal nations are sovereign
nations so when you look at the big picture of
things You know the United States itself is a
sovereign nation and each one of the states within
the United States is a sovereign nation and Then
each one of the 567 recognized tribal nations
is a sovereign nation as well so I think one
of the big hurdles is especially if it's a community
where They've never heard it of ham radio. They
don't know what it is to go in and explain to
them, here's what it is, and here's how it can
be beneficial to you. However, in many Native
communities, at least here in Arizona, when you
go in and start talking about emergency preparedness
and the bad things that can happen, some of the
elders have told me that by having that discussion,
they feel that it can bring that... situation
onto them or onto their people. And so trying
to explain it in a way where how it can be useful
to them has probably been one of the biggest
challenges that we faced. Now how can people
help out with NTARA? Are you looking for radios,
manpower? What are you looking for on that? Pretty
much everything you mentioned Neil. I mean when
we started NTA RE we didn't limit the membership
You know you do have some clubs groups associations
whatever it may be that have You know limited
their membership. We didn't do that. We opened
it up to you know individuals who are Native
American Native American tribes individuals who
work within Native American communities and anybody
who just wants to learn about history and culture
and what You know what Native American communities
are all about. So we've opened it up to everybody
So anybody who's listening tonight if they want
to join You know, we're always looking for membership
and that's my big push is is we're always looking
for membership You know, I'll provide my my email
address and some of our social media outlets
Here in a little bit and you know, they can get
a hold of us through any of those As you said,
yeah, you know, we're also looking for donations
of equipment. You know, anybody who's willing
to go out to a tribal nation that may be near
them and provide a licensing class or testing
session for individuals from within the community
or the surrounding community. And also, too,
once we go in and do some sort of emergency communications
training with them, like I mentioned earlier,
whether it's the MCOM or AUGSCOM or... ICS training,
you know, to have those individuals on a call
list so if something does happen and they need
those operators to get there, you know, they
have the contact information for them and they
can get them there. So, you know, there's several
areas where people can help out and get involved,
but I think the biggest one right now is membership.
We're working on fixing some bugs. We were trying
to get an HF net going as well as an EchoLink
net going. ran into some hurdles internally but
we've got those sorted out so now we're just
working on frequencies and times and we hope
to have an HF net and an echo link net going
here soon you know and once that happens we'll
put them out on our on our social media outlets
let everybody know and we'd love to have them
check in and and become members and go from there
very good well it's time for us to pay some of
the bills but we'll be back here In just a little
bit to take your calls with Nathan right after
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sites. We're here with Nathan Nixon N7NAN from
the National Tribal Amateur Radio Association
and Nathan why don't you go ahead and give us
the social media outlets and the email that people
can contact you and then we'll start taking some
calls. The phone number is 812 -NET -HAM -1 812
-NET -HAM -1 or you can Skype us at HamTalk Live,
either one works. So get your questions out there,
give us a call and Nathan go ahead and give us
your contact information for NTARA. Okay, Neil.
Well, I'll start with my email address first.
So anybody that would like to contact me through
email the easiest way to do that is It's Nathan
so it's nathan .nixonnixon at itcaonline .com
our Facebook page is ntara -national tribal amateur
radio association on Facebook, on Twitter, our
Twitter handle, excuse me, is at National Natl
Ham, or I'm sorry, at National Tribal Ham, so
it's Natl Tribal Ham on Twitter, and then on
QRZ, you can look us up at the call sign, W7N.
TV and QRZ gives you direct email addresses for
myself as well as the national vice president
who lives out in Virginia, Eric Evans K4 NDN.
So those are the easiest ways to get a hold of
us. Email goes right to my phone though so anybody
that wants to email me that's the best way to
do it. All right, very good. Hopefully you've
got those and if not check that out on their
qrz .com page and You can get a hold of Nathan
if you have any questions. We did have a couple
of questions come in through the week. This week
we'll get to hear momentarily, but just want
to remind everybody that it is now time for your
call. So if you have a question for Nathan or
a comment, give us a call on Skype at HamTalk
Live or you can just use your telephone 812 -NET
-HAM -1 812 -638 4261 is the phone number and
give us a call for that. So we'll go ahead and
start taking calls here as soon as they come
in and we'll go ahead and while we're waiting
and talk a little bit about a couple of these
questions that came in through the week. The
first one is from KF7CG and KF7CG asked especially
about the Navajo tribe. why they kind of frown
upon operations at the Rainbow Bridge National
Monument. So the Navajos I guess have a history
of being some code talkers and it's part of their
heritage but they have frowned on the NPOTA setups
there and operating from the Rainbow Bridge.
So can you fill us in a little bit about why
that's a touchy subject, I guess. Yeah, so the
Rainbow Bridge is a very historical site for
the Navajo Nation. Not only that, it's very,
very remote to try and get to. The last time
I was there, I can remember we needed a four
-wheel drive just to traverse out to get to it.
And very, very sacred. I know in the last few
months, I think they've put in some restrictions
on even photography. if I remember correctly,
while people are up there, just because that's
how much of a sacred site it is. You know, I
think if you were to reach out to their tribal
council or some of the community member who's
part of the tribal council there for that area
where Rainbow Bridge is, start with them and
just explain what it is you want to do. Even
if you can get close to it, you know, I would
include that information that, hey, we'd like
to get close to it. We'd like to set up a station,
you know, just say that we're operating near
Rainbow Bridge and go that route. But again,
they're a sovereign nation and that's a very,
very historical and very cultural site for them.
So it's kind of a sensitive area too. And so
that could be one of the big reasons why they
don't want to participate. Okay, very good. Again,
the phone number 812 -NET -HAM -1. 812 -NET -HAM
-1, if you have a question for Nathan Nixon.
The other question that came in this week was
from Rich, N1CW, and he wants to get a tribe
involved in ham radio. that isn't currently active
and so he was asking for some pointers on how
he might be able to initiate that momentum to
get a tribe actively involved in ham radio. Well,
I guess with that question, Neil, I would have
some follow up questions and the first one would
be, you know, obviously, if is he a member of
that tribal nation? Is he aware of other individuals
who are federally recognized members of that
tribal nation? And if so, have they talked amongst
themselves about all together going and talking
to that tribal council about what it is they
want to do, what it is they want to set up? Normally,
what I've found when we've talked to some of
the tribal nations here in Arizona is when one
person goes in and talks to the tribal council,
they haven't had any luck. When they get, you
know, four, five, six, seven, even ten. individuals
together who are all licensed operators and they
go in there together and present and say, hey,
you know, we want to represent such and such
tribe as your tribal amateur radio group. We're
all tribal members, you know, here's what it
involves. I've seen tribal councils approve it
right away with no questions even being asked.
So, you know, I would ask that individual to
email me, let me know, you know, some of the,
you know, if he knows if other members of that
tribe are licensed, you know, if they are. then
I would start talking amongst themselves. But
he can email me directly, and I'll get the follow
-up information I need, and then go from there.
OK, very good. 812 -NATAM -1 is the phone number
if you would like to join the conversation here
with Nathan, N7NAN, with the National Tribal
Amateur Radio Association. 812 -NATAM -1, 812
-638. 4261, we will take your call. We do have
some time here for some calls and we've got a
couple of other things that we could talk about
here. What are some of the responses that you've
been involved with that have needed Ham Radio
to be the main communications choice? Well, that's
a really good question, Neil. When I was working
for the Wallopi Tribe, Back in 2012 we had a
major wildfire that happened in between the community
of Peach Springs which is the tribal seat and
Grand Canyon West where the skywalk is and it's
a very desolate road. There's very few houses
out there, very mountainous terrain and there
was very limited communications. I just happened
to be working that day when the fire kicked off
so my chief asked me to drive up there along
with the fire department. We got about, and that
road between Peach Springs and Grand Canyon West
is about 52 miles. And so we got about halfway
up there and everybody had lost communications.
Well, fortunately for me, I had my mag mount
sitting in inside my police vehicle. So I stopped,
put the mag mount up on top, connected the HT
and had my dispatch frequencies already programmed
in there. Because I had the programming cables
with me, I was able to, program the fire frequencies
into my radio right away and was able to talk
to their dispatch as well and was able to pass
messages along from the fire chief who was the
incident commander back to their dispatch when
their radios didn't work. So there's all kinds
of opportunities and other stories like that
where ham radio can play a big role and so hopefully
If you're involved in a tribe or you want to
help out with that, you'll check out the Facebook
page and Twitter feed and email Nathan and give
some help there. So also Nathan, what's your
plan for the future of NTA -RA? Where do you
see this going? What do you hope to accomplish
with this organization in the future? That's
another really good question, Neil. When we put
the organization together, we developed three
areas that we wanted to touch on. And we've already
addressed two of those. That was to be able to
provide equipment to tribal nations, also provide
licensing and testing classes to. members of
tribal nations or tribal nations themselves that
are interested. The third one that we wanted
to do was the STEM stuff, so the science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics, and we really wanted
to bring amateur radio into the tribal schools.
One of the examples I use is John Harrington,
who's an astronaut, is a member of a tribal nation,
although he's not a licensed ham radio operator.
When I go out into some of these communities
and talk to their schools, I use John Harrington
as an example and I say, look, you know what,
by bringing ham radio into your schools and getting
your students involved, you know, it can lead
to that sort of career. I've given examples of
Barry Goldwater. I've given examples from here
in Phoenix, Lou Grubb, who was a well -known
auto dealership owner here in the Phoenix metropolitan
area. He was a licensed amateur radio operator.
I've brought up a lot of those famous people
and said, through the STEM, program and and through
amateur radio in your school that can be some
of these kids and So those those are our three
big areas that we focus on Moving forward what
we would like to do is have at least one if not
more licensed operators within all 567 tribal
nations or a member, you know licensed member
or members from all 567 tribal nations, so they're
all represented within NTA RA and to have the
membership up over a thousand within the next
five years. Just so that, you know, as we move
forward we can say, yeah, we are, you know, this
group and we do have membership from all 567
tribal nations here and, you know, take it from
that and start, you know, nets for different
areas, you know, like the west, western half
of the US, midwest, east coast, that sort of
stuff. each different group can have their own
net and then we'll have, you know, a fourth net
where everybody can come in and it's a national
one and that's what we like to do moving forward.
Okay, sounds great. 812 -NET -HAM -1 is the phone
number, 812 -NET -HAM -1. You can also tweet
your questions at HamTalk Live. So we have a
few minutes left here. We can check them and
wait for your questions. So send us a tweet or
give us a call 812 -NATAM -1 with your questions
about the National Tribal Amateur Radio Association.
Now you mentioned that you do have a vice president
out in Virginia, so you do cover the whole country.
We do, yes. So, Eric Evans, K4NDN, he's in, I
believe, Elkton, Virginia. Of course, I'm out
here in Phoenix. And then we have an individual
who monitors our social media for us. She's up
in New York. So, we're spread out all over the
place. Again, National Tribal Emergency Management
Council, who we fall under. A lot of their licensed
operators are up in the Pacific Northwest. So,
Oregon... Washington, Montana, Idaho area. A
good chunk of our membership is from up in that
part of the country. We've got several members
from Oklahoma, some of the tribes out there,
just all over the place right now. But as far
as the leadership goes, yeah, I'm here in Phoenix,
and then Eric is out in Virginia. And with that,
Neil, I know we're pressed for time. I just wanted
to mention to everybody that September 19th through
the 23rd, the National Tribal Emergency Management
Council is going to have their annual conference
out at the Tachi Nation, which is in Lemoore,
California, about 50 miles south of Fresno. And
this year is going to be the first year ever
that we will have a special event station up
and running the entire week. We haven't worked
out the frequencies yet. We're still discussing
that. But again, that'll go out on our social
media stuff. We do have a special one by one
call sign, which is NAV. Also during that week
on the 21st, we got contacted by our partners
at DHS Office of Emergency Communications, as
well as a FEMA exercise office. And they've partnered
with NTARA and the National Tribal Emergency
Management Council to do the first ever. tribal
emergency communications exercise. And so what
we're going to do is we're going to pass messages
from California, hopefully all the way to New
York, over about a three or four hour period.
And so we're looking for relay stations all throughout
the country. Anybody that wants to participate
in that, again, they can email me and get involved
that way. But during that week of the 19th through
the 23rd, we definitely like to work as many
people as we can from the special event station.
We ordered 500 QSL cards that look really, really
good. And so those are going to go out to the
first 500 contacts that we make. And I just,
I look forward to talking to as many people as
we can during that week. Okay. Give us those
dates again. It's September 19th through the
23rd. Okay. Very good. And it seems like that
was on amateur radio news line. And I think I
read that story as a matter of fact. So yes,
you did. Yeah. So so I got it twice here. So
okay, very good. Well, that's a great way for
people to Join in and help pass messages and
kind of show what ham radio can do so hopefully
our listeners out there can get involved with
that and Let's go over the contact information
one more time. We'll take one more standby here
for any comments or questions on Twitter. Or
again, the phone number 812 -NET -HAM -1. But
we're just about to wrap things up. So give us
that contact information one more time, Nathan.
So again, my email address is Nathan, N -A -T
-H -A -N, dot Nixon, N -I -X -O -N, at ITCAonline
.com. And the second half of that is I as in
Ida, T as in Tom, C as in Charles, A as in Adam,
online .com. And then, of course, we have our
Facebook page, which is NTARA -National Tribal
Amateur Radio Association on Facebook, and at
National Tribal Ham, and National is abbreviated
N -A -T -L on Twitter. And then on QRZ, they
can look us up at W7NTV. All right. All great
ways to get a hold of the National Tribal Amateur
Radio Association. And I want to thank you for
all of your work that you do in the emergency
management mode and your work in law enforcement
previously and all the work that you're doing
with NTA -RA. And I wish you a lot of luck. Hopefully,
this will get some more people involved with
the NTA -RA. Thank you. I appreciate that. All
right. Well, that's a wrap for this week's edition
of HamTalk Live. I'd like to thank my guest,
Nathan Nixon, N7NAN, and all the callers and
listeners out there in cyberspace, and invite
you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time, when Valerie Holtzfeld, NV9L, will be here
to share some of her ideas on DXing and analyzing
your contest logs. For a list of all of our upcoming
guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. So for now, this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and
may the good DX be yours. Thanks for watching!