Amateur radio comes to the aid of two homeless men

Ham radio has come to the aid of two men who recently lost their home.

According to Chris Baldwin, KF6AJM of Southern California's Desert Communications Network, Robert Martin, KE6YDO and Richard Martin, KE6RJI are brothers that lived in the City of Maywood until just recently. That’s when their deceased mother's home was sold at probate and leaving them without a roof over their heads.

Baldwin says that both brothers are unemployed and have only one running vehicle between the two of them. They also had nowhere to go, with one of the few things in their lives being their friends on the Los Angeles area 435 repeater.

Hearing that the brothers were in dire straits, system owner Gary Elmer, K6GE, let the system users know that the Martin brothers were in need of help. Using PayPal, donations were submitted to the 435 Repeater Fund on
the repeaters web page. In a matter of three hours $1014 was raised. Not only did donations come from those in the repeaters coverage area but also from across the region and the nation from those listening via a live audio feed on the internet.

The monies collected were to be given to the brothers in the form of gift cards for food. A motel room for them will be paid for directly by the repeater group.

According to Chris Baldwin, KF6AJM: "The powers that be on the repeater supervising this are in regular communications with them. Things are being taken care of and we can definitely tell that they were grateful for the help, and like we say: 'they would do it for us." So we are glad to help
where we can."

Hopefully, KE6YDO and KE6RJI will soon have their share of the proceeds from the sale of the property in Maywood. Latest word is that it should be out of probate in about 5 weeks. In the meantime, hams who know them, and many who do not, are making certain that they have a roof over their head and food to eat.

And for those who are wondering: Yes this is the same 435 repeater that long ago gained world wide notoriety for its rather liberal form of operation. What many are not aware of is that since its earliest days the repeater and its user base have dedicated themselves to many charitable and
community activities. This includes the first time ham radio went into hospitals at Christmas time to bring kids stuck there for the holidays a bit of season cheer. That was the original Operation Santa Claus that dates back in the early 1970's.

Source: ARNewsline, KF6AJM