Oh there are a number of reasons why the word “ham” fits who I am. Yes, I enjoy amateur radio – reason number one. But my sense of humor would qualify me as well (for better or worse)! After all, an eye roll is better than no reaction at all :-).

I am Tom Obenchain, call sign KØRZR. I was originally licensed in 2007 as KDØBVA as a technician. I got my general ticket punched in 2008 and changed my call sign to something more personal. I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to amateur extra in 2019 and began actively working to help others get licensed. I have always loved helping others understand technical topics.

My primary interest in amateur or ham radio is emergency communications. I don’t consider myself a classic “prepper.” However, part of being prepared and resilient in tough times is the ability to communicate. It seems a natural fit. Since joining the hobby, as time has allowed, I find it easy to “geek-out” a bit on a number of other aspects of the hobby beyond emergency communications.

Speaking of geeks . . . by profession, I translate Geek to English. I’ve been actively working in the telecommunications industry for 25 years as a technical communicator. Since my first days of writing operations manuals for mainframe computer systems processing network traffic for a long distance company to my continuing work at an iconic telecom giant, I have always been fascinated by humankind’s ability to string together a global network of wires and fibers and actually communicate over them. (Whew, I need to take a breath now.) As I have read about the early days of my industry dating back to optical telegraphs in the 1700s, I realized I would have been as fascinated by this stuff in 1790, 1850, or 1925 as I am today.

Both the moniker “Hamurai” and my call sign KØRZR come from my fascination with two other pastimes: history and strategy games. Suffice it to say that reading about the history of the orient and playing a 4,000 year old game called Go, Baduk, or Weiqi (depending on the country where it is played) has caused me to choose the idea of cutting through some of the jargon that confuses newbies like a warrior cuts through battlefield obstacles. What better image to represent this idea than a classic samurai or for me the “hamurai.”

I believe that we should all indulge our wits in never-ending jargon as much as we please. After all, jargon exists to make communicating about technical subjects faster and more efficient. Every profession and hobby has its own set. But I draw the line and having this specialized language form a barrier to new folks getting involved.

This site is dedicated to helping the non-traditional ham candidate get licensed in amateur radio. If each person learns something about the hobby and the technology and finds just a small use for it in preparing for emergencies or just making new friends, then I will be well satisfied. If some newly licensed operators go on to embrace the hobby more fully, then hallelujah!

Oh yeah, I should mention that I call Colorado Springs, Colorado home. I own a Jeep (with a ham rig installed (duh!) and I need a new dog after losing my standard poodle friend of 15 years, Willy Wonka, a few years back. I am seriously considering a Golden Retriever or a Poodle/Retriever mix. I just need a canine buddy capable of helping haul a go-kit into the Colorado Rockies every once in a while. Family, a good dog, and friendly, lively conversation make life just a little bit sweeter, I think.