Disaster Comms

[franklin]

Starting last fall I've been making strides to upgrade my disaster comms. Got my HAM license. Several amateur radios. And working up both home and portable setups. This includes power for systems so added a small, quiet generator, some deep cycle batteries, chargers, and a somewhat portable solar panel.

Anyone else working on similar setups?

[mlodell07]

Would like to do the HAM thing. Not entirely sure where to start or how, but I always thought it’d be cool


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[franklin]

Would like to do the HAM thing. Not entirely sure where to start or how, but I always thought it’d be cool


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Getting a license these days only takes memorization for the test. The questions are part of a question pool so study the questions and answers and you should pass. If you are in a populated area there should be clubs which can help you up the learning curve.

[Walter Tyler]

Here is an online practice test... you can take it over and over...

http://www.eham.net/exams/

You can get a "ham" transceiver and just monitor... just dont push the transmit button and you are OK.
Scanners are great as well. I have the Bearcat BCD396XT and a Homepatrol 2.

I have wanted to get into SDR and run it on a couple of old laptops... I just havent found something I like for linux yet... havent looked REAL hard either.
http://www.sdr-radio.com/

[OSFG]

Here is an online practice test... you can take it over and over...

http://www.eham.net/exams/

You can get a "ham" transceiver and just monitor... just dont push the transmit button and you are OK.
Scanners are great as well. I have the Bearcat BCD396XT and a Homepatrol 2.

I have wanted to get into SDR and run it on a couple of old laptops... I just havent found something I like for linux yet... havent looked REAL hard either.
http://www.sdr-radio.com/

Cool site...Just took the Technician test here and passed it.... Maybe I actually learned more in the army than I thought I knew. Gonna try the general one and see how I do on it.

[Coppertop]

QRZ.com has a real good set of tests that change until you see all of the questions.

I will see if I can find the link to a book/paper that answers every one of the questions for the Technical test.

I have studied for the tech license, but the only club in the area that tests is over 90 miles away and every test session they have put on in the last year has been on days I work. It' will happen at some point. It's not a huge deal to me to get the license as most of my work is done over regulated emergency services channels.

[juskom95]

Starting last fall I've been making strides to upgrade my disaster comms. Got my HAM license. Several amateur radios. And working up both home and portable setups. This includes power for systems so added a small, quiet generator, some deep cycle batteries, chargers, and a somewhat portable solar panel.

Anyone else working on similar setups?

I inherited some old HAM radios (post WWII, vacuum tubes etc) that I plan on cleaning up and getting working.

Dug out my old toughbook for making an SDR as well.

[juskom95]

Scanners are great as well. I have the Bearcat BCD396XT and a Homepatrol 2.

You need a license to run a scanner in your car here in KY, so I plan to get one. It is nice to monitor the road workers during bad weather.

[Walter Tyler]

You need a license to run a scanner in your car here in KY, so I plan to get one. It is nice to monitor the road workers during bad weather.

Really??? I guess that means you wont have as many departments "encrypted". In the STL area the STLPD is P25 AND encrypted. For some reason the Jeffco Sheriffs are encrypted as well. Really pisses me off.

Have you ever tried broadcastify.com? They have a cool feature that will send a "push" notification to your phone if a channel "heats" up. I wonder how that would work legally for needing a license?

[juskom95]

Really??? I guess that means you wont have as many departments "encrypted". In the STL area the STLPD is P25 AND encrypted. For some reason the Jeffco Sheriffs are encrypted as well. Really pisses me off.
Police are encrypted I'm pretty sure, but not all of them or the storm chasers/watchers.


Have you ever tried broadcastify.com? They have a cool feature that will send a "push" notification to your phone if a channel "heats" up. I wonder how that would work legally for needing a license?
You have to have working 3g/4g for that to operate, and that it sketchy here. I have an old CB right now that has the NOAA weather bands on it (my idiot self ripped the cable so I need to re-wire it) and I have a spare antenna for it.

CB isn't great, but only for receiving its fine.

[franklin]

To SDRs, I'vve now got 5. Best is an SDRplay. I have several of the very cheap dongles but they can't tune below 28 MHz. Not bad though for $25. The SDRplays run $100 to $200 depending on model. With those I can tune HF and SW. You do need a good antenna though.

[juskom95]

You do need a good antenna though.

An antenna is a problem for me. Overhead powerlines right in the way where I would need to put an antenna.

I've been out of the 'radio,' game for too long, so its all a bit rusty.

[franklin]

An antenna is a problem for me. Overhead powerlines right in the way where I would need to put an antenna.



For an SDR you don't need an antenna like you might for transmitting on amateur radio. Can buy a cheap matching transformer from Ebay (China) and us a long piece of wire strung down a hallway or such. Again, magnet wire will work for this. So it's cheap to try out.

[juskom95]

For an SDR you don't need an antenna like you might for transmitting on amateur radio. Can buy a cheap matching transformer from Ebay (China) and us a long piece of wire strung down a hallway or such. Again, magnet wire will work for this. So it's cheap to try out.

I have this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DFZ5HO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) for TV right now.

I also have this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHHOZBI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) because I was up on the roof. It isn't connected to anything. It was cheap and I threw it up there for a radio that never got put in.

This might be my project when the weather clears up. I have a metal sled on the roof which works out great.

[franklin]

I'm getting tired of this weather. I have a 22 foot vertical antenna coming this week and it's going to get planted in the middle of the back yard on Saturday. At least I can play with that until the grass grows and needs cutting. Then the antenna will have to go on the roof. Not into roof walking at 18 degrees and snow covered. Let alone wind.