MB ham radio operator receives national award

If he hadn’t waited out 1989’s Hurricane Hugo at his grandmother’s house in Sumter, Gordon Mooneyhan might never have gotten involved with ham radios.

And he surely wouldn’t have gotten the Phil McGan Award for outstanding public relations.

That award is no small thing, said the Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club President David Reams.

Out of about 750,000 ham radio operators in the country, 512 were nominated for the award, and Mooneyhan was the only 2018 recipient.

Mooneyhan, whose call signal is W4EGM, is the public relations officer [PIO] for The Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club, where he’s been a member since 1993.

Reams, who nominated Mooneyhan, said in his 40 years in the ham radio world, he’s never known anyone else who’s gotten the national award.

The award is named for the late journalist Phillip J. McGan who was the first chairman of the American Radio Relay League, [AARL], the national association for amateur radio.

Mooneyhan’s Sumter experience piqued the childhood interest he had in short-wave radios, and he seriously expanded on that interest.

Described by Reams as “a real go-getter who tries to put our club and amateur radio into our society,” when he’s in his PIO role, Mooneyhan is a tad defensive about the “amateur” part of the description.

“We’re amateur in the sense that it’s a hobby, but professional in that we have the same kind of training as FEMA workers.”

The Myrtle Beach resident talks about the test people have to ace to get their FCC license, and about the work ham radio operators have done locally and recently in emergencies.

During his evacuation because of Hugo, he made a decision.

“I decided that instead of evacuating, I would see what I could do to be useful.”

During Hurricane Florence, Mooneyhan manned the WBTW-TV weather center, communicating with the National Weather Service in Miami, getting information faster, he said, than the Associated Press provided it.

Six area shelters had local ham radio operators on site during Florence.

“We help during any emergency, and we are the last line of communication,” Mooneyhan said. “When all else fails, we are there.”

Originally from Connecticut, Mooneyhan’s been a local since 1972, and graduated from Myrtle Beach High School.

He’s a semi-professional photographer whose work can be seen and purchased at https://gordon-mooneyhan.pixels.com.

His photography is displayed at the Withersea Lighthouse Museum in East Yorkshire, England and at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut.

He remembers buying a Minolta single-lens camera with the pay from his first summer job as a busboy at Yachtsman Resort in Myrtle Beach.

Mooneyhan is also a freelance writer of non-fiction, much of it about railroads and their history.

And he also works part time at Domino’s.

He explains that while people interested in the hobby will eventually want a radio, a laptop can also be used to communicate.

The hobby has progressed, he said, to where ham radio antennas are being replaced with 100-watt bulbs that increase the intensity of light.

Mooneyhan said his position as PIO in the local radio club allows him “to preach the gospel of ham radios” and he’s available to do so at local civic groups, schools, or any other gathering.

He’s been the club president in the past, but says being the PIO gives him the opportunity to do what he enjoys most, which is telling people about the hobby.

The Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club meets the first Monday of the month, except in January and July, at the fire station at 970 38th Ave. North in Myrtle Beach at 7 p.m. For more information about the club, visit www.w4gs.org.

With about 110 members, the average age of folks in the club is 60-65, but there have been people as young as 15 and as old as in their 80s at different times.

Mooneyhan, who has a ham radio at his home and in his vehicle, said, “I can travel the world without leaving my living room.”