QRP And Amateur Radio
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While many operators tend to operate using the 100W or 200W their radio provides, and yet others use external amplifiers to run hundreds, even more than 1KW, there are others who operate at the other end of the spectrum, 5-10 Watts.
QRP operation is often practiced by operators participating in Parks On The Air (POTA) or Summits On The Air (SOTA), who are often hiking or backpacking their equipment to the operating location, carrying their power source with them. Naturally, packing a Marine Battery would be a bit of a challenge, so smaller and lighter batteries with lower power capacity are used.
NTS and ICS-213 Messages
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Note: Images may be clicked for enlarged view
The National Traffic System (NTS) has provided a means of passing messages (usually referred to as traffic) via Radiograms for almost as long as amateur radio has existed. Before long distance telephone was common, and until the
Should You Use UTC Or Local Time?
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The use of "local", Universal Time Coordinated (UTC/Zulu/GMT), or a specific time zone (like Eastern) when specifying the time a message was created or a net is scheduled, or even passing the current time over the net can create confusion for all involved, especially when nets or message traffic cross time zones.
Here, in Carroll County, Georgia, we are close enough to the Central time zone that their and our VHF net times are "one hour off" from each other.
Other Benefits Of Field Day
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We've discussed the usefulness of Field Day as an EMCOMM training exercise as well as a fun weekend event. We've talked about the benefits of having deployment ready equipment, especially antennas and patch cables. The same equipment used on field day can be easily deployed to ad-hoc shelters, hospitals, or other locations. Field Day preparation, setup, and operation allows for testing, debugging, and finally operating equipment, ensuring the equipment is actually functional and ready for use during an emergency.
There are other benefits of Field Day beyond those above, some only marginally applicable to Emergency Communications, but still very useful. These include educational sessions and, in some cases, other activities.
Standardized Radio Memories
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ARES, RACES, SATERN, MARS, and virtually every other Amateur Radio organization will have a plan for nets and tactical activities, including a range of frequencies (spanning several bands) to be used for different modes of operation.
Just as there are a range of entities using a range of frequencies across many bands implementing multiple modes, a typical Amateur Radio Operator will own a collection of radios with a variety of differing capabilities. While not all radios will operate across all the bands and operate in all the modes, there is often quite a bit of overlap of functionality.
Prowords
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Like the use of standard phonetics, the use of standard Procedure Words (usually referred to as PROWORDS) helps to ensure the clear conveyance of information between radio operators.
Like phonetics, there is a standard set of prowords used in communications, increasing the probability of understanding even when hearing only a part of the proword during noisy conditions.
Some prowords are more commonly used than others, and some prowords, while more expedient, can be a little confusing because they aren't commonly used in Amateur Radio.
Here are some of the most common prowords you'll hear on formal nets, especially when passing formal traffic:
Wilderness Protocol and LiTZ
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The Wilderness Protocol, like many Amateur Radio practices, is not part of FCC regulations or law, merely a generally agreed upon practice. The purpose of the protocol is to provide a way for operators outside of repeater range and in need of assistance to make contact with other operators to request assistance.
Although it could, and should, be practiced under any conditions, it was originally designed as a tool for hikers, campers, and those who work in wilderness areas.
Operators, especially those in wilderness areas, would monitor calling frequencies on various bands (146.52 MHz, 52.525, 223.5, 446.0 and 1294.5 MHz) at the top of the hour. Ideally listeners would monitor from a few minutes before
Vanity Call Signs
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Amateur radio operators are issued call signs by the FCC upon qualifying for their Technician license, and have the option to be issued new call signs that reflect their new class when they upgrade to General or Extra. The form of call sign is limited by license class, where higher class of licenses allow simpler/smaller call signs. For instance, a Technician class licensee may be issued something like KX4XTT (often referred to as a two by three, two letters before the number and three after); however an Extra class licensee may have a call sign like W4BK (often referred to as a one by two). There are various call sign formats between these extremes, often limited by license class. You can view the "rules" by going to this link and clicking on "Sequential Call Sign System".
Handheld Radios As Go-Kit
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The most basic “go-kit” item in the Amateur Radio Operator's bag of tricks is the Handheld Transceiver (HT). No, HT doesn't stand for handy-talky. While most of us own several HTs, and they are useful tools, especially when near repeaters, we also know that the HT, out of the box, makes for a pretty poor emergency station. The rubber-ducky antenna and lower voltage batteries often supplied with the radios, along with the lower power output HTs have are challenges to be overcome.
Let's take a look at some things that can improve HT performance:
- Purchase a higher gain antenna for the HT. The original manufacturers equipment (OEM) antenna that came with your HT is little more than a dummy load. Many aftermarket antenna manufacturers make replacement antennas for just about every HT. Talk to others with the same HT as yours and find out what they are using. A step up from that is a mobile antenna or even a base station antenna on a push-up pole. Antenna gain and height are the keys to overcoming marginal operations.
Power Connectors
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One of the interesting things about Amateur Radio is the nearly universal use of PL-259 connectors for base and mobile radio gear, at least that at or below the UHF end of the frequency spectrum. We typically utilize 50ohm cable, even if there are variations of loss across the frequency spectrum, diameter, etc.
One area we see very little standardization, especially across brands, is power connections. Almost all mobile and base gear runs off 12 volts, yet there are a multitude of connectors, having little more than the red for hot and black for ground color coding.
In addition, we will connect that equipment to a variety of sources, some making it obvious which connector is hot and which connector is ground. Others, like car batteries, often require a close look. Also, in some instances the wires are always properly color coded.
Because of these variables we can almost be certain, that if we tinker, change, or rearrange our radio gear very much, we WILL accidentally hook the wires up wrong and let the smoke out of some valuable piece of radio gear.
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