Nothing at All...

Over the weekend NW Vermont had a wonderful ice storm. The news was reporting that it was worse than the 1998 ice storm. One of the electric co-ops actually requested the Red Cross to open a couple of shelters. During the early morning hours on Sunday I was was what looked like lightening, but it turns out that the transformers were popping and trees shorting out power lines were the cause.
The weather was funny. Raining and freezing as it hit. Overcast, foggy skies. I cleaned off a two inch blanket of ice of the cars. Trees are popping and snapping leaving one heck of a mess. Sunday appears was the worse day at the moment in the this storm. Still have the branches loaded with ice and it is going to get a colder. More snapping with limbs and trees coming down soon enough. We were without power most of Sunday until late evening. No TV, no internet, I live in an area where cell phone coverage is generally not available for the carrier I use.

What did I do and what did I learn?

Nothing beats a quiet day with the wife and Christmas music playing on the radio...

Heat - I used a small indoor propane heater called or made by Mr. Heater. Has two ceramic waffle plates that heat up a small room nicely. When I bought the heater I bought the extension hose that connects to a grill tank. Normally the heater will use two Coleman fuel lantern tanks. The wife was happy about being toasty warm. No smells or fuss.

Food & Water - Well, what can be said about this. I suppose that people should exercise a bit of common sense here. Having a supply of food and water to go for a week or more is a given. If you don't I would give some thought to it. No issues with hydrating or eating.

Communications - I have a small portable radio that I listened to local news, music, and shortwave. My scanner radios were working as well as my 2M/440 radio. Used FRS radios to update and keep in touch with the neighbors. The one radio I was not going to use is the HF rig. I need to work out the DC power for that. I have car battery that I trickle charge that I connect to my DC distribution panel. It is not a deep cycle battery so I don't get to carried away when it is hooked up.

Lighting - I have purchased some 12VDC LED reading lights from Amazon. Very bright and useful. I plan to get several more as they draw .020 amps DC. The battery will last forever with lamps like this. For wandering around we have some LED flashlights. No worries with lighting.

Power - As mentioned above I have a auto battery for the radios and a couple of lights. Total draw with radio receiving and LED RV Lamp was four (4) amps. Also, cranked up the generator long enough to recharge the battery.

What do I want or rather what does the wife want? What do I need to do to provide the wants?
TV and internet. Working out the details for these two. Got pieces & parts on order.

Stay Tuned....

Enjoy,

To Send an Image or Data without Internet

Let's say there is some sort of disaster where the internet is not working in my area, phones are down, the cellular network generators have run out of fuel and batteries have died. How would one communicate in such an environment?
As of late I have been tinkering with RTTY, Contestia, PSK using my PC and radio. The program I use on the PC is fldigi. I run Ubuntu 12.04 at the moment and have been having good luck with it. Not real happy with the new desktop and fell back to the Gnome desktop and interface. Enough of that.
Anyway, I have been operating on 20m, 40m, 80m in data mode. Made contacts as far as OH, lower NY, SC in the evening with little power out. I will need to continue my testing to see how far I can get. Folks from all over the world use this mode of communication to pass data. It is exciting to know that anything from SITREP to images (using QSSTV) can be sent in these modes. The new version of QSSTV just got loaded on the PC. I need to test since I used a much older version. The caveat for any of this is atmospheric conditions.
What do you need to try it out? An amateur radio license (simple enough to get), radio, PC, interface cable. All the software is free. Unless you are a Windoz fan.

Enjoy

A Book With A Map & Repeaters Listed...

If you are a amateur radio operator more than likely you have a repeater book on your desk or in your car. These little books are handy, especially if you are on the road. Technology today finds us with a cell phone with GPS or a GPS on the windshield. What happens when there is no cell coverage or for some reason your GPS dies? I guess it is time to break out the good ole' road atlas. Some of them are gigantic and a pain to keep from getting torn up as they float around the inside of your car/truck.

I have this bag I keep in the car. Has a few items in it that would prove useful in an emergency. What can I keep in the bag to give me a basic map? How about amateur radio repeater frequencies (That I forgot to program into the radio)? Hmm...

Check out this handy little book. Maybe not so little as it is bigger than the repeater reference book. But, it is smaller than the average sized road atlas. Artsci Repeater Map Book is published every year or so. Contains all of the amateur radio repeaters across the US and a map of each state. Each state map has the major routes listed as well as a few other goodies. A very handy book to have in your kit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIXuXsXvAWM

Can be ordered from here: http://www.artscipub.com/mapbook/

** I am not associated with Artsci in any way.

A Radio To Communicate...

In times of emergency or while you are out and about having a way to communicate can be handy. It may even save a life. Now, there are several types of radios; FRS, GMRS, MURS, Amateur, etc. Cell phones are every where, but maybe there is no coverage. Something has caused the local cell to be off the air? What to do now?

FRS & GMRS operate up in the 400 MHZ range of frequencies. Good for keeping in touch for everyone in a two to five mile radius. The user can set up privacy codes, but the transmission is not secure. The privacy codes just let the users "call" each other by setting a code up in each radio. Prevents unwanted contact in the band.

Trisquare TSX-300 and its variants are pretty cool radios that operate in the 900 MHZ range. Limited in distance, maybe on a good day a user can get a mile. But, that depends on the terrain. The best I could do is half a mile. You may ask what good these radios are? Well, they use spread spectrum frequency hopping, texting capability radio to radio. Each radio has a specific address. This means users can communicate directly without people listening in. Or use the group frequency and talk to all radios. More frequency codes then you can imagine.This results in a very secure means of communications in your AO base camp and vicinity. Some users have complained that they cannot sync more than three radios. At the moment I have two of these with plans to get more to test out. Amazon has these radios at a reasonable price for two.

Lastly, the one radio I found to be a bargain; Baofeng UV-5R. This little hand-held radio is excellent for the money. Less than 60$ at Amazon. Has more features than you can shake a stick at. Single LED flash light, FM broadcast band reception, transmits high and low of the 144 and 400 MHZ ham bands. Can be programmed by a USB cable attached to your PC. Takes a little bit of time to get it programmed, but I found some useful Youtube videos to help out. Once again the price is great for a radio that will do as much as more expensive radios.

Baofeng UV-5R Setup Operation By AB5N

Give some thought to how your family, friends, and neighbors will communicate during an emergency. Develop a plan and acquire the equipment you need to keep everyone safe and in touch.

Enjoy