Last updated on August 22, 2026
CWops
Recently, I was nominated and sponsored for membership in CWops, an elite CW organization for amateur ham radio. The club asked me to provide a little background to introduce myself to CW members worldwide. I thought I would share it here since I don’t post a lot about ham radio or CW. In the future, I will set up a dedicated page for ham radio and CW since it’s a big part of my life.
My call sign is KO4LBS. If you are a CW operator, my CWops number is 3936. My LICW number is 2345, and my NAQCC number is 11014.
Lorilyn RobertsI’m probably the most unlikely person on the planet to become a ham radio operator. I don’t have an electrical or engineering background, nor am I even inclined that way.
The Beginning
So, how did I get into ham radio? I’m a prepper and a communicator. Besides writing books, I’m a former court reporter, and I’ve spent the last 25 years providing closed captioning for television. I also play guitar and piano.
During COVID, my brother-in-law, who is also a prepper, sent me a link to a Baofeng on Amazon and said I needed to get one. So, I did. It arrived in the mail, I opened it, and asked, “What do I do with this thing?” And then, when I read the instructions, it said I needed a license. “Where do I get one of those?” I was clueless.
That was the beginning of my journey into ham radio.
Within six months, I had my Extra license. When I aced the test, one of the VEs said, “Your name was familiar to me. When you surveyed the room for us to make sure you had no ‘cheat sheets’ and said all those books on the bookshelf were yours, I checked my Kindle. Guess what? I have some of your books on my Kindle.”
Talk about a day I will never forget!
Soon, I joined the local ARES group and discovered, to my surprise, that no one was doing CW. No one even knew Morse Code except one operator, and he was more focused on digital and other ham radio needs.
The Process
Morse Code sounded like fun, so I searched online for resources, came across LICW and LCWO, and spent the next two months learning all the letters and numbers. Last fall, I took an online course with CWops. Joe Spencer, KK5NA, was the instructor, and it was just what I needed. Then I discovered Bill Lynch, K8WWS. Every week we have a ragchew and transmit Bible verses in CW we’ve given each other to improve our skills. That helped me refine my sending and receiving, and after a couple of months, he asked if he could nominate me to CWops.
I am thankful for all the encouragement I have received from LICW and CWops, and I want to thank Kevin Sulonen, N7KV, who was in my CWops class, Scott Wooten, KW4NJA, and Joe Spencer, KK5NA, for their sponsorships.
My Goal
My hope is to get more young people and women into ham radio, especially CW. I taught CW at a local school to some middle schoolers for two years and had a blast. My latest book for young adults, Eighth Dimension – Frequency, has a lot of ham radio/CW in the plot. I am currently working on book two, Counterfeit, in the trilogy.
I have two grown daughters and am still adjusting to being an empty nester. I am also a nine-year breast cancer survivor, praise the Lord, and provide closed captioning for television on CBS Sports and Fox News. Everyone else seems to have gone with AI captioning, but don’t tell those cost-cutting stations that I said AI captions are inferior.
As a prepper, I think CW is superior to other forms of communication in an emergency. Because I live in hurricane country, Florida, I am thankful to be part of a community of like-minded individuals who strive to help each other and serve. CW has given me the ability to contribute in a way that was needed and appreciated at the local level here in Gainesville.
I am also thankful for the opportunity to be a CWops member with hams around the world who share my passion for CW. There is nothing like hearing those dits and dahs over the airwaves and wondering, “Where is that message coming from?” I will stop and listen, and oftentimes even look up the call sign. And once again, I’ll be amazed at how that CW signal could reach the tiny wire dangling from a tree in my yard. You never know who you will meet, and that makes each day on the air a new adventure in CW.
To learn more about the National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), click on this link.
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