As a follow up to my tool box story earlier in the week, there is a question!

What is in your tool box?

Now, the reference is to your Emergency Preparedness/Public Service Communication Equipment!
This can be narrowed down to a county or regional (adjacent county(s) incidents, in which several common modes of communication have failed or not available.   Including cell service, internet and public service digital systems.

While I have procrastinated for several years now to create a formal go-kit/box, much of my equipment is here and ready for use, 80% of the time.

A drill last weekend showed me that was indeed not sufficient, as a serial-to-usb converter that was needed for a connection to my packet radio was missing in the laptop bag. Seems it was in the other laptop back that was at work. Why? Well, I had acquired another similiar laptop which was being formatted for my go-kit (per-se) and I had not completed merging both set-ups.

In preparation, I had also failed to charge 2 of 3 my ht’s, that were still packed from the last event in Bandera! Luckily, the 3rd HT had a spare battery which was fully charged.

Now, this was in preparation to deploy to a fixed station, that was for the most part supposedly ready to activate, although lacking a second laptop for VHF-UHF packet, while the laptop that was there was connected to the Winmor station.

Anyway, as a Amateur Radio operator, I am pretty much set for the standard stuff:

•  VHF/UHF Mobile
• VHF/UHF Portable
• VHF Packet Radio, Laptop and TNC (although this one has developed an low audio issue)
• VHF/UHF HT’s – several, although it helps to keep the batteries at full charge
• And a variety of antenna’s, coax and army still poles to elevate them
• HF Radio and 40/75 dipole (although I am now convinced that portable capabiliy in bands from 10 – 30 are badly needed)

Now for the non-standard stuff:

• HT’s that are programmed to cover all the personal non-licensed frequency’s:
  • –FRS,
  • –GMRS (I know, one is supposed to be licensed here, but the bubble pack user do not comply and the FCC is refusing to do anything about it and when the SHTF, the FCC is not going to complain.)
  • — MURS: both the color dot frequency’s and the narrow band 3.
• – Citizens Band/CB/11-meters (Yes, this wasteland of frequency’s has a large role in community communications when the SHTF. FEMA, MARS, Citizen Corps, and the list goes on has proven this, and one should be in everyone’s tool box. I personally used the CB in my truck several years ago during major flooding in Kansas to coordinate with a local ARES team for a Airlife extraction of a pregnant woman that was in labor and we were stuck between 2 flooded tributaries. The further north you go, the more they still believe in the value of the old CB.)
• Deployable Broadband-Hamnet nodes (5 planned), micro server with VOiP capability among other things.

Other things:

• 10×10 pop-up with a wall kit – quick portable station set-up and shelter
• 6 man tent – may need somewhere to sleep
• various battery’s (which need to organized better)
• portable gas heater
• small and large propane bottles
• various security and defensive items (will not delve into the details as those tend to cause bickering)
• other personal items.

And most if not all of this equipment gets used for community service events, to make sure it works, and to continue to learn how to use it, and fix it, or work around it when it breaks.

So, what is in your tool box?

Louis Upton K5STX
Hill Country REACT Team

The class will be an entry level Test Equipment Class.  This class is for newcomers to amateur radio or old timers that just want to learn how to use test equipment, the tests and how they can apply to us as hams.  Our equipment list includes but is not limited to:

• Digital VOM  Fluke
• Analog VOM  Simpson 206
• Oscilloscope 20 mHz Tektronix
• 30 Amp Power Supply
• Motorola Signal Generator
• Elecraft RF Signal Source
• MFJ-259 / 269

We will explore capacitors, resistors, diodes and ohms law!  There will be lots of “hands on” activity in this class!  Bring some paper, pen or pencils, and a calculator with you.    This information will help you understand the Ham Radio hobby, and might even help you better understand the questions on the Extra Class test as well.

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Technician Class Ham Radio Course

When: Saturday, February 22 and March 1, 2014.  9 AM till 5 PM. Examination will be administered at approximately 3 PM on Saturday, March 1, 2014.

Where:

 Cross Church Fellowship Hall
314 H Bauer Street, Seguin, 78155

Cost:   $15 for the examination.  If you wish to obtain the study guide, approximately $21.00 (Strongly recommended), it is “Technician Class Study Guide” by Gordon West.  (Available locally)  Please start studying ASAP.

Contact: To register and/or further information contact Training Coordinator Ron Clavette, w5rjc@arrl.net (210) 535-4620 or Instructor Bob Rodriguez, bobrod@flash.net (210) 887-6618.

• $200 – Timewave DSP 599zx
• $500 – HAM IV –  CD45 Controller Computer Control with Brake Delay and Release. 75 ft 8-conductor cable, Bottom Pole Mount Bracket
• $50 – KPC 3 8.2fw
• $100 – KPC 9612 9.1fw
• $100 – 220 5 Elem MYA2205
• $100 – 220 5 Elem  MYA2205
• $50 – 220 3 Elem MYA2203
• $60 – WRT54g-TM w/dd-wrt same as gl but with 32MB memory
• $60 – WRT54g-TM w/dd-wrt same as gl but with 32MB memory

Today is the 2014 San Antonio Radio Fiesta. Talk-in will be on the SARO repeater 146.94 (-, 179.9) by W5SC with N5NTG as the  net control operator for the morning.

Location is 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas, at the Schertz City Community Center.  Take Exit 174B off of IH-35 and turn back towards the SE on Schertz Parkway (that’s to your right if coming from San Antonio).

Admission is now $10 at the door. All indoor flea market tables have been sold out!  Some tail gating spots were left, as of Friday night.

!!!Radio Fiesta 2014  is coming to Schertz Civic Center!!!
January 11, 2014 … Mark your calendars!

This  Flier/Registration Form, in PDF format, contains full details about today’s activities.

ARRL VE TESTING  ON 1/11/14 CHANGED TO 12 NOON AT SCHERTZ LIBRARY   – more info on testing page

Complete program is included in mailout flier (dated 11/12/13)

Visit www.w5sc.org for full details about the schedules, etc.

Amateur Radio Related News and Information

December 26th, 2013

RE:

It is with great disappointment that we hat 800-444-4799. ve determined that Tokyo Hy-Power, formally known as the Tokyo High Power Research Institute founded in 1975, has filed for bankruptcy which appears to have occurred on or around December 25, 2013.

This action in Japan appears to be similar to a Chapter 7 action, here within the United States, as the process in this case appears to be the liquidation of organizational assets in order to attempt to fund some portion of its debt obligation(s). This appears to indicate that a court has deemed the organization unable to be effectively reorganized under Japans Civil Reconstruction Code.

We at HRO are deeply saddened by this event as Tokyo Hy-Power has been an industry leader in military, medical, commercial and amateur product delivery in various capacities since 1975. Ham Radio Outlet will be taking the following steps to provide as much relief to our current Tokyo Hy- Power customer base as possible and will begin contacting all current paid backordered customers for full refunds on any and all items not yet delivered.

  1.. HRO is working with AVSL in Virginia Beach (the current US provider of service for THP) to discuss the opportunity of continued maintenance at the component level of the US sold Tokyo Hy-Power line of amplifiers. We are working directly with senior management at AVSL to determine if component level support is possible and will do what we can to continue to support what is currently in the field. Past maintenance was module level support meaning the module with the defective component(s) were pulled and replaced and subsequently returned to Japan for final component level service. We do not know at this time as to whether we can effectively support these items at the component level without specific component level service manuals.

2.. We have discussed continued phone support with Tom Rum the former Tokyo Hy-Power representative here in the US. His phone support will remain in effect through January and perhaps longer.

3.. All customers with back orders awaiting pending delivery of Tokyo Hy-Power products will be contacted and provided a full refund.

4.. No further Back Orders will be taken at this time for Tokyo Hy-Power products. HRO will continue to sell its current in-stock inventory and as these products become unavailable we will remove them from our Web Site and in store offerings within our twelve (12) store retail chain.

5.. Any and all sales of Tokyo Hy-Power items past and present will have no manufacturer warranty.

Ham Radio Outlet has not been directly contacted by Tokyo Hy-Power Japan concerning any of the information provided on this page. Ham Radio Outlet was notified of this very much like the general public and only after enlisting the assistance of two (2) separate Japanese translators have we determined that the reports of bankruptcy appear to be true.

Questions concerning this event should be directed to Steve Gilmore, HRO National Sales Manager. He can be reached at the Virginia Store facility

59^th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest

and ARRL West Texas Section Convention

March 15^th, 2014
Midland County Horseshoe Arena
2514 Arena Trail Midland, Texas

The St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest is hosted by the Midland Amateur Radio Club.

All the information about the hamfest will be posted on their website as soon as it’s available. In addition, our traditional flier will be mailed out in January. If you’ve registered in the last three years you should receive a flier.

Take advantage of our early bird pre-registration special through January 10!
Check out the details on the pre-registration page.

STRAIGHT KEY NIGHT! JAN. 1st

The rule proposal is RM-11708

Time is running out for comments on the ARRL proposal to modernize the FCC’s digital regulations.  The current rules date from the 1980’s before modern modulation schemes were available.  The end result is that we are limited in how fast we can send data by these rules.  Right now, the rest of the world (advanced technology societies such as Mexico, Haiti, and others) can use the latest digital techniques while we can’t.  The result is actually more bandwidth utilization due to slower speeds.

(http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=6017477458) and comments can be filed until December 21.  The proposal would not increase the frequencies used for digital communications and would not result in any degradation to existing operations.  It would increase the efficiency of spectrum utilization by allowing digital messages to be sent roughly twice as fast so they would be on the air half as long.  It would also allow continued development of newer techniques that could be even more efficient.  Without the rule change, US amateurs will be shackled with an obsolete regulation while the rest of the world moves ahead.

I encourage you to fill your own comments with the FCC.  You can do so on their web site with an express filing which only takes a few minutes.

Jim Russell, NQ5L
ARRL STX SEC