E-Mail 'Radio Communication Methods During Emergencies- Part 3, by R. in NC' To A Friend

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13 Comments

    1. This DOD interoperability test is a great way to develop a view into how our government communicates during major emergencies.

      There’s a whole set of FEMA documentation on the subject. Their structure is called NIMS.

      NIMS overview https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/NIMS_core.pdf

      You can take online free certifications on NIMS here, and if you want to participate in your local CERT it will be required.
      https://training.fema.gov/nims/

      All FEMA jokes aside, knowing how they actually operate and coordinated between agencies can be very useful. The structure can be easily adapted to coordinating community or neighborhood emergencies.

      If your group already has an operational comms plan, you might want to consider using this DOD / MARS / Amateur Radio exercise as a background for your own training. An example would be: how does your group respond and communicate based on the information gathered during the DOD broadcast and the following message traffic communications event?

  2. I’m working on it. Finally upgraded to General Class. Now to make systems out of all the older radios et al that I’ve been collecting through the years. Including a stack of older single band radios (RCI-5054, Radio Shack 10 meter) and one QRP HF radio (SGC SG-2020).

  3. Again, R. in NC, excellent article. I would encourage everyone who preps to get a radio and get licensed. Find a club nearby and get their help. An “Elmer” is what we call an expericened ham who helps the newbie. I was helped and have been an Elmer to to others. Most Hams are pretty good people who love to help. Plus in a local event you are likely to know and trust the other voice on the radio. Go on Amazon and either get the ARRL technician class manual, or the Gordon West manual. Both good. Go over the questions with your Elmer get tested and get on the air.

    As to your first radio get a handheld VHF or VHF/UHF dual band. Think of Kenwood, Yaesu, and Icom as the Ford, Chevy, and Honda of radios. Different major brands but all good solid radios. Steet price for their enty level VHF radios are around $100. I know a lot of folks like Baofeng and other Chinese radios, IMHO for a new ham they are just a little more difficult to use. The programming software (like Chirp) is great, but if you had to put in frequencies without a computer it’s not easy. The majors all have well written manuals and years of experiece designing radios for Hams. A great DIY project for a new ham with a handheld is a role up J pole. If you are in a fixe position this cheap and easy antenna solution with give you better range.

    Like R. in NC I can’t put up outside antennas in my neighborhood. That pushed me into doing portable and mobile HF. Used IC-7000 (HF & VHF/UHF) in my truck with MFJ ham sticks. The secret to successful mobile HF is to make sure your radio and antenna are grounded to your vehicle’s steel body. Scrape off paint, use a braided strap. Ground it! That ground screw on the back of your radio is there for a reason. For portable I have a Yaesu FT-991A (HF & VHF/UHF built in tuner) in a Gator Box. Youtube has great ideas for rugged transportation of radios. Youtube search: “ares races go box”.

    My Elmer taught me “good HF communication is 10% radio, 90% antenna”. The author mentioned using a G5RV. If you have no restrictions you can string up a wire dipole like a G5RV in the trees behind your house. There are all kinds of wire, vertical, and directional HF options which you will learn as you study and upgrade as a Ham. For portable I use a Buddipole. I have had success with US, DX (International) on all bands except 80m. The tuner in the FT-991A has helped. The author and commenters have mentioned NVIS (It’s not a new crime drama on CBS). You can add some wires to the Buddipole and get NVIS and local contact on 20m and 40m, I have. If you are a new ham, NVIS is a little advanced. You will get to it.

    Another comment mentions the upcoming interoperability exercise. The US military has powerfull HF radios that transmit/recieve on 60 meters. This is a new band availalbe to Hams. The test will be on Channel 1: 5330.5 kHz. My new Yaseu has 60 meters, the old Icom does not. In an event might I need to communicate with the military? Maybe, maybe not. But I have the option in my toolkit. Remember you can be DF’ed (Direction Find)if you transmit. Listening is OK.

    As you study you will learn about the Phoentic Alaphabet. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc. Learn it and pratice. Right now say “E, V, C, B” out loud. The all sound very similiar. Listening to another Ham with a weak signal or noise on the band you may need them, or you may need to, literally spell out your message. In the stress of an emergency is not time to try and remember what “U” is. My hint, practice while you drive. Behind another car? What’s their license plate say? HUW-298. Hotel-Uniform-Wiskey-298. Practice makes perfect.

  4. Mrs. RLB,
    That is a perfect example of why being licensed and able to transmit is so important. Satellite communications, either voice or packet, is a skill that has to be developed by both ends of the link. It has limitations, as you expressed and would probably not be seen as a primary communications link. The same could be said about EME (Earth Moon Earth) communications. Although it could establish longer links (distance and duration), it requires similar skills as Satellite links and usually requires far more power. Common methods of EME are CW (Morse Code) and Packets, both pushed through a directional antenna at usually 1,000 Watts plus.

    As far as your Elecraft KX-2 goes, I’m jealous. It’s physically small and easily fit in a Ammo can faraday cage when not in use. In addition Elecraft makes 100 watt and 500 watt amplifiers that can be added on, almost plug and play. Downside $$$, but you get what you pay for.

    Midwest Marco,
    Thanks for the feedback and pointing out that not all HF radios cover the WARC bands (60 meters in this case). This is especially true for older Tube radios.

    If you saw how I have that G5RV wrapped around my basement you would be amazed that it actually works. To improve it, I modified the length, connected one end to my “wire” connection on a MFJ 934 w/Artificial Ground antenna tuner, the other end to the Counterpoise terminal, so technically it is running closer to a End Fed antenna than a dipole. Both dipole setup and my setup sound the same for reception. The big difference is in SWR and transmitting on 80 and 30 meters. This setup is very close to the ground, and technically some is underground which has a big impact on my SWR. If I didn’t have a license I would never be able to experiment enough to see what works best for me.

    Ordered and still waiting on MFJ to build my MFJ-1788 150 Watt loop… that looks really interesting for a stealth antenna deployment.

  5. R in NC,
    I hope you’re going to write up one of your posts on antennas, and here are two additional ones you may think about to add to your upcoming post:
    Magnetic Loop antennas – small, very portable, great for those indoor/HOA/CCR locations. Very popular now, many being both commercially and home made. Great for the digital modes when used with a QRP radio at low powers (can’t use too much power due to HV arcing in the loop antenna tuning cap, AND burning out the radio due to high duty cycle transmit)
    NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) antennas – the RF goes practically straight up and down, for hitting those areas in between where the sky wave starts and the ground wave ends.

    B Woodman
    kc7jds

    1. Deplorable B Woodman,

      Major antenna types will be covered, including loop and additional info on NVIS. Most of the loops on the market are low powered due to the variable air capacitors used. And many build their loops out of coax. Great for 20 watts and lower. I wish I could include more info on the MFJ-1788 but I am still waiting on mine to arrive (this model handles up to 150 Watts on 40 to 15 meters).

      Mrs RLB,

      Your point about scheduling times and frequencies for communication is absolutely necessary as far as I am concerned. It’s true when you have a HAM radio or just a cellphone. This planning isn’t just important for talking, it is critical for battery and power management over time. I’ll be covering common methods for developing a scheduling plan later in this article.

    1. Good question, and a concern of many preppers. I have an entire section on pros and cons around this because it comes up so often. I’m going to save most of my answer for that section of the article, but for those wondering:

      The FCC allows you to submit your SSN separately from taking the test. You can get your FRN number beforehand and hand over the FRN number instead of your SSN when taking it.

      When getting that FRN, the FCC requires your full name and an address. Note I did not say your home address. This can be a PO box.

      Websites like QRZ.com and the FCC database allow looking up a call-sign, and it will come back with the address you provided, along with your full name. It will NOT come back with your SSN.

      Also note that you can have your license sent to you via email instead of an actual mailed paper (hint hint). They will only send you information to your address if there is a legal FCC reason to.

      Now for OPSEC. Remember there are lots of methods that people can look up your address and get your name. Many counties even will provide that information along with the value of your house and if/when you paid your property tax this year. The FCC database is a data-point, and not unique with having that information. But yes, no one likes how the FCC allows for the lookup of an address in the DB, except the FCC. But I’ll tell you here, and later in the article, it really keeps the “trolls” away. The conversations you hear on HAM radio and the personal interactions are far more civilized than anything you will come across on twitter, or other anonymous internet communications.

      The real question is how do you handle OPSEC during an “Event.” As you start to communicate with people in the local ham clubs, local repeaters and nets, and longer distance, you really start to identify people from their voice, and even CW swing. Under these conditions it becomes much easier to identify and accurately validate someone (not using a call-sign for “Event reasons”) on that personal level than authentication protocols used on the internet. [and the rest I’ll save for later]

  7. No mention of IRLP, perhaps it has gone out of favour? It is a useful way of getting two distant radios to link over the internet using Linux. IRLP.net has more information.

    1. ER,

      I won’t say that IRPL has fallen out of favor at all, just that I don’t use it. Mostly I use EchoLink when routing RF over the internet.

      Unfortunately there’s lots of info that I didn’t cover. By the time I submitted this article, the doc was already 18+ pages long, and I started to have a little sympathy for HJL (the editor). I even submitted a shorter version, but thankfully HJL went with the long version.

      There’s a good 60-100 different digital formats that are popular that I don’t even reference. For instance FT8 is new and gaining in popularity. I mention Winlink but not Outpost, and I don’t even mention SDR USB Dongles.

      Heck, people are even using Raspberry Pie kits and/with Adriano kits along with rx only and tx/tx dongles and qrp kits to create standalone beacons, scanners, remote BBS systems for midway points, and all kinds of standalone/internet capable RF interfaces. With the Pie/Adriano’s being so low cost (monetarily and power consumption wise), they can actually make great ammo-can stored (Faraday) cache kits for staging drop offs.

      What has been great, is that people like yourself, and many others have brought these items and their own experiences up in the comment section.

      These comments are what really adds value to the article. So please continue to comment, ask questions and point out alternate methods and experiences that I did not cover. Every paragraph in this article could have been a books worth of writing, so use these comments as a way to make this of greater value to you and others.

      Thanks!

  8. Ready to buy my first ham radio, been looking for over a year and just cant decide which one. Can anyone help me? I need to be able to reach family about 215 miles away. Both will have antennae’s in a 40ft tree. Still have tons to learn I might add and feel like I may be a little late to the game but better late than never. (Will be buying two – one for them one for me). Thanks!

    1. Budget is a major factor, but in general any HF transceiver from Yaesu, Kenwood or ICOM. I would go with a model that has a built in sound card, and run 100 watts.

      Personally I am partial to ICOM, they are a Japanese company that builds their radios in Japan. The others are Japanese, but build in China. I just don’t like my money going to China.

      There’s a US company called elecraft that has an excellent qrp and 100 watt transmitter http://www.elecraft.com but what would cost you $1,000 from icom will cost you $3,000 from them.

      The two that I was comparing for my HF rig were the IC7200 and the IC7300. Both excellent, but different. I ended up with the IC7200, because … well, I don’t need a GUI touch screen, and the IC7200 is more portable/rugged… plus with the overpriced metal handles it has a nostalgic PRC77 feel to it.

      Remember, if the radio you select does not have an internal antenna tuner, you will probably need to by one separate… you will be able to use more frequencies on that dipole.

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