FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- From military police to snow plow drivers to Soldiers training in the field, one Fort Drum Civilian helps to keep the lines of communication open.
David Kalynycz, known fondly as "Radio Dave" among his colleagues, serves as Fort Drum's land mobile radio (LMR) administrator and senior engineer at the Network Enterprise Center, where he is in charge of managing connectivity for hundreds of handheld radios across the installation.
Because of the hard work and dedication that he shows every day, and more specifically, for the assistance Kalynycz provided at Fort Hamilton during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, he was named the 2013 Fort Drum Civilian of the Year during a ceremony Jan. 23 at the Commons. He was among six employees who were recognized as Civilian of the Quarter winners during fiscal year 2013.
Kalynycz admitted that he was "absolutely" surprised as he heard his name announced during the luncheon last month. His supervisors nominated him for the award for his assistance in helping Fort Hamilton?'s Directorate of Emergency Services and NEC team restore communication in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012.
When Fort Drum NEC officials heard about Fort Hamilton?'s degraded capabilities after the hurricane, the team wasn't sure of the severity, Kalynycz said.
"I was literally in the middle of building my Range 24 add-on tower site," he said. "I was going to put it up on our range to cover a gap in the coverage area."
The LMR radio system works similar to a cell phone -- both use towers to provide call service. Fort Drum has a handful of LMR towers, while Fort Hamilton only had one, which was unusable. This proved to be a serious problem at the small Army post, because there was little to no cell phone service and local and installation emergency services and public safety organizations rely on LMR to communicate with each other, Kalynycz explained.
He and a team of four other NEC workers -- to include his supervisors David Davidson and Joe Tremblay, as well as Keith Baker and Jack Hatcher -- left in the early-morning hours to provide assistance.
"In addition to taking equipment for repair and backup for their LMR system, I had a quantity of loaner radios that are utilized by various units training here at Fort Drum," he said. "I have travel cases here that are packed and ready to go. We deployed with over 100 radios that were handed out after I got the LMR tower working."
The loaner radios were set up for Soldiers and Fort Hamilton's Directorate of Emergency Services personnel to use to help ensure they could communicate and provide relief to the area. Over the course of a week, Fort Drum's NEC team helped get their sister post's network, telephone and LMR systems back up and running.
Tremblay, Fort Drum NEC's Transmission Branch chief, said Kalynycz pulled long hours, working through dinner and late into the night to help get the LMR system operational.
Davidson, chief of Fort Drum NEC's Network and Switch Division, said it was easy to write Kalynycz?'s nomination for Civilian of the Year, because his passion spoke for him.
"His mastery knowledge of LMR systems, infrastructure and design is truly unmatched within the Department of Defense," Davidson said. "Dave (Kalynycz) is well-known throughout the signal community for his dedication, self-study and technical prowess of his discipline. This positioned him as the Army's first choice for the rapid deployment response to Hurricane Sandy Relief operations."
Kalynycz was able to install a local LMR module and complete software upgrades necessary to perform custom programming of radios, talk groups and radio trunking, Davidson added.
"Mr. Kalynycz diligently and tirelessly engaged multiple support and relief agencies to discover, understand and resolve mission requirements -- often working 16 to 18 hours a day," he said. "His selfless dedication delivered over 300 custom-programmed LMR radios and talk groups.
"His abilities ensured mission success for agencies such as the Red Cross, Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Air Force, Navy and Marines," Davidson continued. "Dave's expeditious efforts immediately enabled the large influx of first responders to provide relief to the hurricane victims."
Sparking an interest
Growing up in western New York, Kalynycz became interested in radios because his uncle was a "ham" radio operator.
"By the time I was in my early teens, I became a licensed amateur radio operator in 1977," Kalynycz said.
"In the mid-1970s, there were manufacturers that sold kits for color TVs, shortwave radios and your first computer; you could build it and solder it yourself. Those days are over, but that's how it started. I got sucked right in.
"I talked to people around the world and I would get all these postcards from people in different countries," he continued. "It's one of those hobbies where you get hooked. That's how I got my start."
Amateur radio is a licensed service provided by the federal government. Amateur radio operators are allowed access to specific radio frequency bands according to the license class that he or she holds, Kalynycz explained. Amateur radio can be used for hobby, experimenting and public service.
"All the volunteer organizations (during the Hurricane Sandy relief) relied on amateur radio operators to come in, (and) bring their equipment, and they had the means to set up emergency radio communications as a backup," he said. "Hurricane Katrina was another good example. It took out a vast area of not only cell phone service, but public safety agencies lost their towers as well. They relied more heavily on people coming in from outside the area and bringing their own equipment with them, because everything there was wiped out, under water or had collapsed."
Serving Fort Drum's mission
Kalynycz has been feeding his passion for radio technology for 24 years. What started as a hobby helped him get his first job at a radio repair shop fixing police radios. His expertise then led him to a contractor position at Fort Drum, where he set up the post's LMR system. Now a Civilian Employee, Kalynycz now keeps hundreds of LMR devices operational.
"There's no such thing as a 'normal' work day for me," Kalynycz said, laughing. "Every day is a unique experience."
If National Guard or Reserve unit arrives at Fort Drum for training and needs two or 200 radios, Kalynycz is there to ensure the radios are programmed properly and securely.
"At any one time, I have radios being custom programmed for units training," he said. "Sometimes, they want to take them off the installation."
When units want to train off post -- at Whiteface Mountain or other places -- Kalynycz has to coordinate with Army Spectrum Management Office to assign a secure frequency to the radios.
"They need a unique frequency assignment that has been deconflicted with Canada," he said. "Everything we do in the radio world -- whether it?'s Army or civilian -- Canada has a say. They have a 90-mile band into the United States where they can (approve) radio frequencies."
Kalynycz also assists directorates and units with interference issues or other radio problems, and he is currently working to improve the interoperability between Fort Drum and Watertown fire departments.
"When we go into the city or when they come on post, we can't just put their channel on the radio," he said. "Equipment hasn't always been compatible, so it's been a challenge.
"With the LMR system overall, we have interoperability with the surrounding public safety agencies in three counties," Kalynycz continued. "If a city changes something, it sets off a chain reaction. I have to go and populate that change through all the users' equipment that would require that.
That's part of the LMR administration -- to keep up with what's happening both on the installation and in the outside public safety agencies."
In addition, Kalynycz has to make sure Fort Drum's information remains secure because off-post agencies use an unsecure frequency.
Not only does his daily job consist of reprogramming, coordinating and building equipment, Tremblay credits Kalynycz with saving the organization and the installation money. Instead of sending radio equipment out for repair, Kalynycz's expertise allows him to perform component-level repair -- replacing and soldering radio chips on circuit boards.
"Dave works with the garrison and G-6 … and saves lots of money," Tremblay said. "Dave's workload is building, so we've moved that job to the Logistics Readiness Center."
Kalynycz also had the knowledge to review the maintenance contract to ensure Fort Drum didn't have to pay for services he could provide, Tremblay added.
"It?'s called a maintenance-light contract," he said. "Because Dave is so good, he can fix most things. We can cut back the level of support on the maintenance contract."
Kalynycz is now working on Fort Drum's backup plan for the LMR system. If the permanent towers ever fail due to a natural disaster or other disruption, he is trying to ensure the installation can still have communication flow through the LMR system.
"I want to make sure we don't have to call someone else," Kalynycz said.
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