LUBBOCK, Texas - Emergency managers say communication is key when disasters strike, and a group of volunteers is working to expand a support network across the South Plains using amateur radio.

Brandon Kimbrell, a licensed amateur radio operator, said he has spent the past five years on the air and can communicate across Lubbock County, across the country or around the world."Everywhere on the map that has a pin, that's a country, province, or state that I've talked to," Kimbrell said, pointing to a large, wall-sized map of the world in his living room.

There were pins in more than a hundred locations in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.