At age 8, Deltona girl is among youngest ham-radio operators

DELTONA — When many kids her age are learning texting abbreviations such as ROFL or IYKWIM ("if you know what I mean"), 8-year-old Mikaila Williams is focused on KK4BFK.

That's her call sign, the collection of numbers and letters that identifies her as a legitimate ham-radio operator.

"KK4BFK, CQ?" she spoke into the microphone at her Deltona home, a little timidly but with a big, hopeful smile.

Mikaila is thought to be the youngest ham-radio operator in Central Florida, and she ranks among the youngest in the country holding the general license for amateur radio.

Although ham radios may seem outdated in an era of smartphones and Twitter, hobbyists remain devoted to their frequencies, enjoying the chance for random chatter while standing by to use the airwaves in an emergency.

Mikaila wanted to join her stepfather, Ron Fetters, on the air. So she studied for and passed the Federal Communications Commission's general-license test last month.

Recent years have seen a huge revival in the interest in amateur radio, said Allen Pitts, spokesman for the American Radio Relay League, a national ham-radio group.

"We were the first social media, and ham radio has had a three-year growth spurt in the number of new licensees, now with almost 700,000 in the U.S.," Pitts said.

Much of the new interest followed Hurricane Katrina, when cellphones and other networks became useless, and emergency responders depended on ham radio. It also helped that new licensees are also no longer required to know Morse code.

Mikaila's venture into ham radio grew partly out of an interest in helping others through calamities. Her stepfather worked for years as a firefighter and responded to both the Oklahoma City bombing and to ground zero in New York City. Now suffering from chronic lung problems that ended his career, Fetters became a ham-radio operator as a way of continuing to assist others in need.

While working at an emergency shelter, he witnessed how a ham-radio operator was able to relay a message from a worried son to his elderly mother at the shelter.

Mikaila also was dazzled by the complex array of wires and radios in the family living room.

"It looks really cool when they're talking on the radio," she said.

Between her home-schooling lessons, she began studying for the first test level for amateur radios, known as the technician license.

After passing that test in March, she worked on getting her general license, which allows her to communicate on a wider array of frequencies, and potentially with ham-radio operators around the world.

"The general license is a harder test to pass, because it includes some questions on electronics and engineering," Pitts said. "For an 8-year-old to pass, that is unusual and rare."

Mikaila is active in local ham-radio clubs and enjoys her time on the air, though she once encountered an operator who thought she was just a kid goofing around.

That operator accused her of being "third-party traffic," or not authorized. Her confident response: "No, I'm not third-party traffic, and that is my call sign," which the operator then confirmed through an online database.

Others, though, have been more welcoming to the young voice on the air.

"Usually, they're amazed and praise her for having passed the general," Fetters said. "They talk with her, and they don't really worry about her age."

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