Elmer Among Hams

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Dennis. I’m calling from Leds in South Carolina.

Hi, Dennis.

And I know you guys periodically look at words that are related to a particular hobby or something, so I have a unique one for you today.

Okay, fire away.

Well, I’m an amateur radio operator. My call sign is KG4RUL. And, PAMS, we have a term we call an ELMER, E-L-M-E-R. If you look up Elmer, Elmer is an old English word that means basically someone who is a noble or famous. But the Elmer I’m talking about is a ham radio Elmer. And a ham radio Elmer is someone who is basically a mentor who will teach a new ham what they need to know to get their license. And after they get their license, helps them out learning how to be a good ham, basically.

Oh, that’s cool.

Yeah.

What a lovely term, right?

Yes, and I have a little history on it here, too, for you.

Oh, good. So you know where it comes from.

Well, this is the best I’ve been able to find. There is a magazine called QST. It’s an amateur radio magazine. And there is a gentleman who is now deceased. His name is Rod Newkirk. His call sign was W9BRD. And he wrote in his column in March 1971, he was talking about people who mentor amateur radio licensees, and he called them the unsung fathers of amateur radio. And his mentor was a ham named Elmer. So Rod thought that every new ham should have an Elmer, so the name is stuck, and now Elmering means helping. And the actual ham radio mentor who inspired Elmer was Elmer Frodehart, Jr., W9DY of Madison, Wisconsin. He died at the ripe age of 93.

Oh, wait.

So we know the guy that the term was coined from.

Yes.

Yeah, that’s kind of unique. We actually have some positive history here.

Oh, that’s really cool.

Yeah, that’s a wonderful story. Yeah, Elmer P. Frohart Jr. died in 2016, I believe. But you’re right. He was from Madison. And he helped a lot of novices, right? Helping them, showing them the ropes and keeping them passionate about the hobby.

Yes, absolutely. I’ve sort of been at Elmer myself a lot. I’ve taught classes, you know, helped people get their license. I’ve worked on the test teams. Amateur radio licensees are allowed to get their own testing facilities. They don’t have to go to the FCC anymore. We can actually give ourselves our own exams. So we’re also unique in that aspect. That’s really cool. And did I hear you use Elmer as a verb? Can you use it as a verb?

Yeah, we’re Elmering.

Oh, Elmering. Helping out. You know, one thing I love about this is that there is another slang use of Elmer, just kind of in general slang, and it’s somewhat old-fashioned. Elmer is a term for a rube or a rustic or someone who’s unsophisticated, a sucker, particularly a target for a confidence man, someone that you target with your scams. So I love that the term is kind of can be rehabilitated as somebody positive.

Yeah, yeah.

So we’re not all Elmer Fudd’s, I guess.

No, no, not at all.

Well, Dennis, this is just a lovely, lovely word.

That’s really nice. What do you think about other people adopting it for mentors in general, or do you think it should remain in the ham radio universe?

I’d like to keep it.

-huh. Yeah, understandable. Understandable. But it’s such a beautiful notion, this term for mentoring that comes from an actual person. Thank you for sharing. And 73 is to you, Dennis.

You know some ham lingo.

A little bit, yeah. I’ve been a shortwave DXer for a long time.

Oh, Lord. Good, good. Nice to hear that.

All right. Take care of yourself.

All right.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Keep up the Elmering.

Go for it.

Take care.

Well, as Dennis noted, we always love hearing about the slang and jargon from different hobbies. And so if you have one and have some words to share, we’d love to hear about it. 877-929-9673.