Meet Jen DeSalvo

NEW HAM MAKES HER MARK

The Ham Radio community is a highly diverse, talented community. Among our ranks are doctors, lawyers, teachers, research scientists, musicians and there are quite a few who work in the broadcast industry so the name Jen DeSlavo, W9TXJ, is a ham you should know. Jen was the on-air traffic reporter for NBC5 for a couple of years. She told us that flying in helicopters is where the ham radio bug started. She used two-way radio communication for her job. But it was her neighbor KE9CLV, Scot Wahlstrom, who really convinced her to get into the hobby. Just a year ago, Scot wanted to work with the ham teams for the Chicago Marathon and asked Jen if she wanted to work together to their licenses. A goal they both achieved in January of this year. Meanwhile, turns out Jen has been around Marathons. In fact, she had run 8 of them! She is an ultramarathoner as Jen explained: “So, I do distances of 30 plus miles. I've done more than 70 of those, including two 100 mile ultra marathon finishes. Why does somebody do this to themselves? Well, you know, for the vast majority of people on the Bank of America, Chicago marathon, it's running for someone else. It's for a cause greater than themselves. You know, some people have a bucket list item, but, what I've seen a lot of is that folks who go through something, they see somebody else struggling that they love. And the only thing that they can do is try to find a solution, a different way, like you're helpless in the moment. So, people sign up to push their body in order to raise funds for a cause that's greater than yourself. And that's why I started serious running.” Jen is correct, running for a cause is a huge driver. The Bank of America Chicago Marathon raised $36 million for charity in 2024. So, as a newly minted ham she jumped right into the ham radio Chicago team and asked for one of the toughest assignments: the triage team (lots of running around). She requested to work near the finish line. She spent most of the morning with one team, checking the conditions of distressed runners who came charging across the finish line. Her assigned team left for a break, so she decided to just walk around the finish area. Soon she connected with another medical team that did not have a ham radio communicator. She just had a sense that is where she should be. “and that's when I saw the red triage team at the finish line with a man probably in his late sixties. Straight up convulsing. And it was scary.” This is where Jen’s training as a reporter kicked in. She remained calm and did exactly what she needed to do. “I served as the communication manager, telling the (medical team) what's going on, who's coming, what I'm hearing back, uh, the AED is on its way.” Jen confided, “When it comes to any type of emergency situation, I know what I'm doing. That's when I thrive. But when it comes to, you know, remembering to brush my teeth, that's another story! We don’t know much about the condition patient. His case was escalated and he received proper care at the race’s temporary hospital. Jen did a great job in the face of such an urgent medical event. Not everyone has such a challenging assignment, but with her running background and broadcast training, she face adversity calmly and professionally. In her short tenure as a ham radio operator, she has found it to be a hobby filled “all these scientists and physicists and technicians and engineers who taught me so many great things and I stayed. There's some really brilliant people in the hobby. “ We are grateful to have Jen on our team