Local Man Tapped as Section Manager of Radio Relay League

Keith Miller of Rockvale, Tenn., has been elected Tennessee section manager for the American Radio Relay League, or ARRL, the nationwide association of Federal Communications Commission-licensed amateur-radio operators.

Miller, who has been active in amateur radio groups in Rutherford County for several years, was recently elected to the post by Tennessee members of the organization over two other candidates, and will take over his new duties effective Jan. 1.

In the role of section manager, Miller (whose amateur-radio callsign is N9DGK) will oversee all Tennessee operations of the 97-year-old ARRL, which has more than 700,000 members and is the nation’s largest amateur-radio organization.

Among the ARRL’s major activities is its Amateur Radio Emergency Services network, also known as ARES, which provides on-the-spot emergency communications using volunteer amateur-radio operators during and after disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes.

For instance, amateur-radio operators, also known as hams, provided thousands of man-hours of communications services in the areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. They were, in many cases, the only links that some of the affected communities had to the outside world after the storm disabled normal communications systems, including wired and mobile telephone services, as well as police, fire and rescue radio systems.

ARES volunteers in Tennessee also provide thousands of hours of backup non-emergency communications for events such as fairs, festivals, parades and charity runs throughout the state each year. 

Miller most recently has been coordinator of the Heart of Tennessee Amateur Radio Emergency Services group, which operates in Middle Tennessee. He also has been an officer and member of the ARRL-affiliated Stones River Amateur Radio Club, based in LaVergne.

Among his duties will be to appoint staff members for the Amateur Radio Emergency Services operations within Tennessee.

In the ARRL section-manager’s position, Miller replaces Glen Clayton (W4BDB), who was elected vice director of the ARRL’s Delta Division, which includes Tennessee and nearby states.

Miller ran against two other candidates for the Tennessee section-manager’s position. They were R. Lowell Bennington (WD4DJW) of Harrison and Jack R. Green (AD4LP) of Sale Creek.