EMCOMM and Interesting Traffic On The Air

[cockpitbob]

Post anything interesting you are currently hearing on the air.

Right now: 14,265
The Red Cross' SATERN net control is coming in strong. They are tying to get info on the airport in Puerto Rico so see if the Red Cross can get planes in there. All the hams in RP are off the air and they can't get any info about the airport.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

Some hams and gear are arriving in San Juan tomorrow from the lower 48. I can only guess persistent poverty, the previous storm, and the latest storm are contributors to keeping the hams off the air.

 

[Woodstock]

No power on the island, and even if they have a generator, their antennas probably got wiped out by Maria.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

No power on the island, and even if they have a generator, their antennas probably got wiped out by Maria.

Could be out for months, supposedly. Arriving hams are bringing power sources, of course.

 

[76Too]

i don't know ANYTHING about HAM's, but can't they bounce off another signal nearby?

 

[cockpitbob]

i don't know ANYTHING about HAM's, but can't they bounce off another signal nearby?

For this kind of thing we use the short-wave frequencies that bounce off the ionosphere, sometimes several times, which allows signals to travel hundreds or thousands of miles. These frequencies require fairly large antennas. You don't need a tall tower. A simple long piece of wire strung between 2 trees works quite well. But they are big. My wire antenna that covers a few bands is 63' long.

It's a fair guess that all big antennas got wiped out. I'm guessing that few hams there have both power and an antenna.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

For this kind of thing we use the short-wave frequencies that bounce off the ionosphere, sometimes several times, which allows signals to travel hundreds or thousands of miles. These frequencies require fairly large antennas. You don't need a tall tower. A simple long piece of wire strung between 2 trees works quite well. But they are big. My wire antenna that covers a few bands is 63' long.

It's a fair guess that all big antennas got wiped out. I'm guessing that few hams there have both power and an antenna.

Definitely makes the case for a military-grade deployable vertical antenna with its own tripod, a couple of wires, some batteries, solar charging capability, all the necessary cabling, and a QRP rig like an FT-817. I have all this and some HTs in a pack ready to go. Regardless, it helps that my shanty has not been destroyed by a hurricane.

 

[76Too]

you can carry all that in a backpack!?!?

 

[cockpitbob]

you can carry all that in a backpack!?!?

Less than a backpack.

Here's my backpacking kit.

The orange wire is a 63' antenna, plus there's 300' of 100lb mason's string. The blue box in the yellow Pellican case is a Morse code only, 3 band radio about the size of a large wallet. The 2 black boxes are battery packs, each will run for 5hrs of operating or 20hrs listening. The whole deal weighs less than 2lbs. I usually use a slingshot with a fishing reel attached to it to get a line over a tree for the antenna. A rock tied to the string and a good arm is plenty adequate though.

Morse is a little slower than voice, but it carries about 70x better than voice. I've talked to Antarctica 10,700 miles away with a very similar rig and antenna transmitting 3 watts (same as your cell phone). (The ionosphere propagation gods were in a good mood that day.)

There's radios like the FT-817 that will do voice and Morse and all the ham bands that weigh about 2lbs. In receive they draw about more current than my tiny radio, so you need more battery. For under 10lbs you can have a very capable short wave station that will run for 5-10hrs on batteries in that 10lbs.

 

[runner]

Less than a backpack.

.

Morse is a little slower than voice, but it carries about 70x better than voice. I've talked to Antarctica 10,700 miles away with a very similar rig and antenna transmitting 3 watts (same as your cell phone). (The ionosphere propagation gods were in a good mood that day.)


Nice QRP kit there Bob . I only have an 8 watt HT now but I did make two Pixie radios last week and they both worked! It is amazing the amount of CW traffic on 40 meters ! And I really don't have a proper antenna set up, it was just two 65 ft pieces of wire as a low dipole.

Did you build the Mountain Topper? How do you like it? I kinda like the homebrew thing, and I need something a bit better than the Pixie. I also want to learn CW and upgrade the license,,, very nice kit there.

 

[cockpitbob]

Hi Runner. Yes, I built the MTR-3B as a kit from one of Steve Weber's(KD1JV) kit runs. I think I paid $140 for the kit from Steve for $140. Everyone begged him to do another run of 100 boards. After that he did a build of about 100 kits for his 5 band Mountain Topper design. Now you can buy several of his designs as well as a bunch of other QRP rigs from LNR Precision(link).

If you don't mind the utter lack of display and controls, the MTR is a great rig. It's got a great receiver, transmits 3W-5W and draws 35mA on receive. You do have to be careful and not power it from the usual 13.8V 12V battery. Its output stage isn't reliable beyond 12V. Of course, it's got a nice cool factor. I've got a clip board with veclro that holds it, a battery pack and the tiny paddles you see there and still has room for a sheet of paper folded in half. A whole operating desk on my lap.

Truthfully, I like my old Ten-Tec R4020 more because it's got a display with all the info I want, can receive voice and has a knob for tuning. The receiver isn't as good, but it's just easier to use.

Learning Morse isn't easy, but it's one of those worthwhile challenges. It uses the same part of the brain that learns new languages, so if you have the gift of learning new languages easily, Morse will be easy. I like that it's one of those things you can't buy. You have to earn it. The wealthiest ham with a 90' antenna tower is going to be jealous of a janitor that can head-copy Morse at 30 words per minute. And with Morse, you can work the world with a super cheap radio and simple wire dipole. I know prepper/survival guys that have a $11 Frog Sounds rig, AA battery pack, ear buds and thin wire dipole in a tin in their bugout bag.

 

[runner]

Hi Runner. Yes, I built the MTR-3B as a kit from one of Steve Weber's(KD1JV) kit runs. I think I paid $140 for the kit from Steve for $140. Everyone begged him to do another run of 100 boards. After that he did a build of about 100 kits for his 5 band Mountain Topper design. Now you can buy several of his designs as well as a bunch of other QRP rigs from LNR Precision(link).

If you don't mind the utter lack of display and controls, the MTR is a great rig. It's got a great receiver, transmits 3W-5W and draws 35mA on receive. You do have to be careful and not power it from the usual 13.8V 12V battery. Its output stage isn't reliable beyond 12V. Of course, it's got a nice cool factor. I've got a clip board with veclro that holds it, a battery pack and the tiny paddles you see there and still has room for a sheet of paper folded in half. A whole operating desk on my lap.

Truthfully, I like my old Ten-Tec R4020 more because it's got a display with all the info I want, can receive voice and has a knob for tuning. The receiver isn't as good, but it's just easier to use.

Learning Morse isn't easy, but it's one of those worthwhile challenges. It uses the same part of the brain that learns new languages, so if you have the gift of learning new languages easily, Morse will be easy. I like that it's one of those things you can't buy. You have to earn it. The wealthiest ham with a 90' antenna tower is going to be jealous of a janitor that can head-copy Morse at 30 words per minute. And with Morse, you can work the world with a super cheap radio and simple wire dipole. I know prepper/survival guys that have a $11 Frog Sounds rig[/U hasRL], AA battery pack, ear buds and thin wire dipole in a tin in their bugout bag.

Well it has begun,,,, I just got on list for QRP Labs 5W CW Transceiver Kit in 40 meter ,,, gonna have have to clear a spot in the safe to hide these radios from the wife,,,

 

[cockpitbob]

lol. I'm waiting for mine too. QRP can be a disease where you end up with at least one radio for each day of the week.. The motto of the New England QRP Group has a double meaning:. "The Fun Is Building"

 

[cockpitbob]

Today the SATERN Net is all about hurricane Maria(14,265). Not much real traffic since Maria isn't clobbering any land, but they are working hard looking for traffic in "the affected areas of hurricane Maria".

 

[blindfire]

Had a great experience running Saturday night's Paxton CM2M NTS Net. A station checked in to pass two pieces of through traffic to Puerto Rico to see if they could reach some family members.

One message was even in Spanish! Knowing the phonetic alphabet REALLY came in handy there.

 

[runner]

Had a great experience running Saturday night's Paxton CM2M NTS Net. A station checked in to pass two pieces of through traffic to Puerto Rico to see if they could reach some family members.

One message was even in Spanish! Knowing the phonetic alphabet REALLY came in handy there.

Wow that is awesome,,, I managed to check in to that traffic net over the summer from 55 miles out on my HT. It is great to see the net working in real world situations.


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