Meet Ralph Barzditis

Ralph Barzditis, KE9NT, has been working with the Ham radio team for the Chicago Marathon since 2008. He is those early pioneers who have been with us from the beginning! Professionally, Ralph is a retired trauma nurse, having worked at Cook County Hospital for 20 years. He remains active by both teaching nursing and supporting ham radio activities.

Ralph got into ham radio in a roundabout way. “It was 1976. And I was working as a photojournalist for the daily newspaper in the capital of Montana. My job took me to all kinds of different places. And to go over the next town would sometimes mean driving over the top of the mountain and down the other side of the mountain. Well, at that time, the only communications that anybody had would either be a commercial two-way radio, which we didn't have, or CB, which as soon as you go over the mountain, the signals would pretty much disappear. But the hams had repeaters. So, I took the test.”

Eventually, Ralph made his way to Chicago, began a career in healthcare, and continued pursuing his ham radio hobby. He became especially interested in using ham radio for public service and teaching. “I enjoy this public service. It's a way of getting back to the community. And, you know, I like working with other hams. I really like working with new hams when and they have never done this before (public service)” He enjoys teaching best practices to new hams. Many of our newer hams have never been involved with a special event or a large-scale community event like the Marathon. He chuckles about some of the new folks who bring new radios and set up large antennas! He enjoys showing them that often simple is better. And that includes how to speak over the radio: “You need to talk very concisely. You need to try and say in three words, which you wanted to say with 10 words so that you can release the microphone so that other people can talk. And that's counterintuitive that they need to be trained to do that. It is a discipline.”

Ralph has been one of our Course Medical tent leads for many years and has worked with hams of varying skills and expertise. Still, he is always ready with a backup plan. For the 13.1 event, he reports: “My car was packed, even though I wasn't supposed to bring any of the equipment, my car is packed with a complete station...tent, radios, everything. And the only, and I told the group I was bringing was paperwork and a copy of the handbook”

We are grateful to have experienced ham radio operators like Ralph working our events. It also helps that his profession was in trauma care. He knows how important it is to be calm in the face of urgent medical issues. One of the best lessons he has taught us is to remain calm and just keep communicating. That is our job after all.

Ralph is married with two adult children and a three year old granddaughter. He lives with his wife in Homer Glen and is Vice President of the Bolingbrook Amateur Repeater Society (BARS)