Ron Delpiere Smith    KD9IPO

KD9IPO@ARRL.net

Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator
The Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator (ASEC) is the assistant to the Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC). He or she is appointed by the Section Manager (SM), usually at the suggestion of the SEC. The ASEC assists the SEC in matters pertaining to emergency communications and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) on a Section-wide basis. There may be one or more ASECs appointed in each Section of the ARRL Field Organization
Born and raised in metro Detroit, Michigan, I have worked in the IT field since 1984 which has been interesting and exciting. I currently live in the Chicagoland area and have a cabin located in Northwest Lower Michigan in a small town called Reed City, about an hour north of Grand Rapids.

I have been interested in amateur radio for quite some time thanks to my best friend's dad, Walt Nalezyty (WB8GAO/sk), and Uncle, Bob Croaker (WB8YPG).  Upon his dad's passing, John (KB8KVO) got his license and I followed along a few years later.

My daytime job is both demanding, yet flexible at the same time; as a result I work remotely two days a week.  Because I travel around quite a bit between home in Chicago, the cabin in Northwest Lower Michigan, and a campground in Central Illinois, setting up of "The Hamshack" has been a bit of a challenge. The result has been to use the cabin as the main operating QTH, with plans to enable remote operations. As a result, I operate from the cabin mostly Thursday to Sunday. 

I am the president of the Chicago Suburban Radio Association and can usually be found at many hamfests in northern and central Illinois and Western Michigan.