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Thread: Disaster Comms

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    Asks, ignores and leaves franklin's Avatar
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    Disaster Comms

    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?

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    Daily Abuser mlodell07's Avatar
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    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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    Asks, ignores and leaves franklin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mlodell07 View Post
    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.

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    1-800-JUNKIE Walter Tyler's Avatar
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    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/

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    I Never Log Off! OSFG's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Walter Tyler View Post
    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.

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    Dinky Dau
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    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.

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    Quote Originally Posted by franklin View Post
    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.
    "Every person’s life is theirs by right. An individual’s life can and must belong only to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave. No one can deny another person their right to their life, nor seize by force what is produced by someone else, because that is stealing their means to sustain their life. It is treason against mankind to hold a knife to a man’s throat and dictate how he must live his life."



    COFFEE!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Walter Tyler View Post
    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.
    "Every person’s life is theirs by right. An individual’s life can and must belong only to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave. No one can deny another person their right to their life, nor seize by force what is produced by someone else, because that is stealing their means to sustain their life. It is treason against mankind to hold a knife to a man’s throat and dictate how he must live his life."



    COFFEE!

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    1-800-JUNKIE Walter Tyler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by juskom95 View Post
    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?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Walter Tyler View Post
    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.
    "Every person’s life is theirs by right. An individual’s life can and must belong only to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave. No one can deny another person their right to their life, nor seize by force what is produced by someone else, because that is stealing their means to sustain their life. It is treason against mankind to hold a knife to a man’s throat and dictate how he must live his life."



    COFFEE!

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    Walter Tyler (01-16-2018)

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