Rather cool!

I was on the other end of some of this and was impressed.  Tuned-on the radio and there Gil was operating /java portable copiable and .  I can just SEE a new award now; the WACS  Worked All Coffee Shops  . . . and it's CW only.

However, the relation with prepping is direct, in that, TEOTWAWKI happens anytime, anywhere , so your 'survival, knife, kit, survival radio' is the one that you have with you at the time.

There was yet another report of a couple stranded in their Jeep in the Sierras - out of cell phone range.  The husband decided to walk out for help - and died.  Imagine how EASY that situation would be with even a little QRP rig in the car.


73 de RadioRay ..._ ._

Glad that you like the message form.  It's made in MS Paint, just for fun.
-...-
Gil & I are still making contacts and you can hear his already respectable Morse increasing in accuracy and etc.  At this point, he could easily write-out a message and tap it to me and we'd have a better than average chance of getting this message through on the first try. That's actually a VERY big thing!  While chatting in Morse is fun and I do it often, the ability to effectively send/receive a message very efficiently is where Morse over radio really shines.

If you want to learn Morse, use the computer to learn the alphabet/numbers and limited punctuation and then get-on-the-air!  On-the-air conversation is the #1 way to seriously improve your Morse! A daily sked of only 30 minutes per day will turn your basic knowledge of Morse into a skill with Morse. As we used to say in the survival bizz:  "Do It Until You Own Your Skills.".


de RadioRay ..._ ._

Radio Commune . . . maaaaaan!
Here's a pic of the Groovy Mobile Emergency Operations Center - - -  Whoooooa!



We're -like- gowin' to Arkansas maaaaan!  It's like Woodstock, only with MRE's and Raaaaaay-deeeeee-ooooooos, Maaan!!!


>de RadioRay

Maybe we can post audio sometime of stair-step power reduction.  Basically, power is not the key. Antenas and proper time/band selection is. A Simple wire antenna tossed into a tree costs basically nothing (us generic 'speaker wire' from the Dollar General store.) and ouperforms the snazzy, but unnecessarily expensive commercially made antennas.

When talking with Gil or anyonee else on the radio in Morse, you need to know that this is not unusual to maintain good contact ith small, low powered CW transceivers. Most mil/spook radios that I 've used run 5 to 20 Watts and are exected to be heard with antenna much like what White Tiger and Gil have tossed it the trees.

Here is how well I heard Gil from his wire 800 miles away.

14  Watts:    S9     'Loud - readable'
  1  Watt:     S6/7  'Readable'
200 mWatt:  S4/5  'Weak - Readable'

By "Readable" I mean that I could receive formal message traffic from him at that level.  We exchanged questions and answers of a technical type at these power levels, with rapid exchange and excellent ease of contact. Even with low powered, easily rechargeable and transportable radios, you CAN keep contact.  You    m i g h t    be able to do it in voice, you can do it in computer digital at these levels and for those who do not want to be tied to a computer, Morse does do it effectively and more importantly, it will do it with a minimum of hardware, power and is 'low clutter'.

I second the recommendations -

If you want to get a big bang for the buck , a used Ten Tec of almost any stripe. 

For new or nearly new the 7200 is SUPERB and saves you a bundle in that you do not need to buy add-on filtern, digital mode interfaces r anything like that.  You can operate CW (Yay!), Voice, snoud card data (Yay!) and it's also a very, very good sounding shortwave receiver for general coverage.  Add to that, the fact that it's build like a TANK, yet is only medium size, it's what I would choose .  I know this, because it's what I installed on my sailboat back when I was a cruiser. Very, very good manufacturing, tough and capable - like a good woman. ha ha


de RadioRay ..._ ._

As the Winlink/Winmor system looks at your log-ins.  When you log-into a station, it adds that station to the list (top 3 stations, if I remember) where you are likely to get your mail and forwards to them.  This makes sense, because the system , back when it was WINLINK, was designed for long distance sailors who would be changing their prefered home stations as they sailed around the globe. 

So, if you sign-in with W0ECM, your mail goes there, then you sign in to N0DOG it can go there and then K9MUTT it goes there.  One thing I would do when I heard a lod station that I had not used before, was to long on, sign-off  - wait ten minutes then call back and POOF! my e-mail would be waiting there.

WINMOR is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  If I wanted to use a computer, WINMOR is my first choice. I especially like it because it can wait for traffic right at your house.  Friends drop by, leave you mail,and pick-up theirs directly from you or to you directly from them in Peer to Peer (P2P) connections, or via the WINLINK network.


de RadioRay ..._ ._

Ps. Time for me to shower, shave and smell human for our Thanksgiving Day visit with friends.    ???

I repaired the link to the DDS VFO kit in my first posting.  Sorry - it was not working before. 

Here is is again.

http://www.pongrance.com/super-dds.html


The kit went together VERY easily and does a good job.


>Ray

I am not ative on WINMOR at this time.  The 3585 has not been active in a very long time.

W0ECM in Oklahoma should be VERY strong for you! His mailbox scans 20/40 meters and should show-up on your list of WINMOR e-mail stations.

>Ray

Congratulations on BOTH counts- actually!  That MFJ rig is fine by me, other than the tuning speed that you mentioned.  I had one and added the CW accessory and frankly, it received good audio reviews from on the air contacts. The Ten Watts on SSB is greatly improved by their audio processing.  It's one of the devices that MFJ can be proud of.  If I had one today, I'd probably install this DDS VFO . . . ha ha



>Ray

It does not show data.  The data is compressed, so it must receive the entire message before it's readable, which is VERY good for 'privacy' on the air. It's not CRYPTO, but it's quite private, in that Joe Ham/SWL is not going to be able to read the compressed mail unless he captured every packet, and assembles them, then decompresses it into a coherent message.   This is one of the many things that I like about WINMOR.

Basically at the top of the screen (one of three.... )  there are numbers like 650/28   and that changes 500/237  as the data is received and confirmed.  Remember - WINMOR is checking EVERY packet and rejecting any garbles, then automatically requesting retransmission of those packets so that you receiver fully error free messaging.


>de RadioRay ..._ ._

Back before Y2K (remember that?)  I built an excellent kit transceiver called the Wilderness Sierra.  It's a multi-band QRP CW transceiver with a superb receiver and puts out about two Watts on transmit.  I carried it around in the Rockiy Mountains and made contacts all over.  It eventually went into my storage and stayed in a box for about ten years.  I pulled it out earlier this year and it still works and does it very WELL!. My only complaint was that the tuning range was limited to about 150 kHz of any particular band.  Fine for CW, but I also wanted to use it for general coverage. Back when this was designed, VFOs were set at low frewuency - usually in the 2 to 3 MHz range and 'mixed' by heterodyne up to your operational frequency. That was because low frequency VFOs were much more stable than high.  This does however, limit the tuning range. 

Entern the 21st century.  We can buy an inespensive Direst Digital Synthesis (DDS) VFO for about $50-75.  The DDS VFO is super stable, accurate and covers from a few Hz to about 50 MHz or higher, depending upon the version.  I built one a few months ago and have been doing exeriments with it (No small animal s were harmed during these experiments...  :P  )  This last week, I grafted this DDS VFO into the QRP rig and it works!  Now I am modifying the front panel it add the DDS VFO into the Wilderness Sierra to get it operating inside of the enclosure.   Later, I will likely add a 10-20 Watt amplifier to the rig so that I can have a nice, portable rig for home and away. Because I am not as 'trail friendly' as I used to be, manpacking anything through 12,000 foot mountain passes is not likely in my future, so building this into a small pelican type case for portable operations is the design goal, once the design ti stable and tested.

That's 'what's cookin' at my bench - you?

DDS VFO KIT:       http://www.pongrance.com/super-dds.html


>de RadioRay ..._ ._

Good job on the article.


Congratulations.


> de RadioRay ..._ ._

N0D -  That's funny!  I am designing a WAS  certificate (Worked All Survivors) for post event contesting...

---

As for the Decision tree:

1.  Financial collapse:   We are already in 'it', but it's a train wreck in SUCH slow motion that we're not in shock and even worse, most people are not perceiving the magnitude of the downward motion of the economy -v- the upward surge of inflation from the banker bail-outs. The welfare State is a ticking time-bomb, which I believe will be used as shock troops to take down most of any resistance, before it's time for the gummit to mop-up those who are left.  It's a Win/Win for tyrants: two birds/one stone.

Have the government threaten entitlements, the media whip-up a crowd with reporting of events - real or contrived and the usual suspects will hit the streets as they shift into high level crime/low level warfare against those who are still functioning [that's us]. This 'war' would eliminate the non-productive burden and greatly thin any potential resistance forces by having the mob and the resistance fight each other to the bitter end, then the paid troops slide-in to kill/control what remains.  Ordo Ab Chao [Order out of Chaos] . It's an old game and well practiced.  Ask the Polish Resistance during WW II why the USSR told them to rise-up! , then the Soviet troops were held back until both Nazis and Poles were almost completely fought out, and THEN the Red Army moved in to kill/enslave what remained of all sides. Joe Stalin did this in many places and I would believe that so will these guys, given the chance. The reporters will be gushing out praise of how the politicians liberated us. "History" will be written by those who remain victorious. This is why history will convince you that good people never lost a war. . . because good or bad, those defeated are NOT allowed to write the history, so that even the most evil tyrants look like perfumed princes in their own 'history'. [but I digress...]

2. Natural Disaster:  We were (fortunately) on the south/west side of Hurricane Sandy (Thank God) and so had a little less wind.  The effect of the storm surge was negated by these same winds blowing water OUT of th Chesapeake Bay in my region, making what remained of the surge more like a very high tide, rather than a Hurricane surge. We can deal with four feet of extra tide.

Fortunately, the best thing that I can do in this mortal life is also a bit of fun with more home 'mini-farming' , perrenial food plants, laying hens, fishing and etc. The more that I can make this little house into a cornucopia of fruit, nut and garden production, the better.  There is no downside to these kind of preps, because if you over do it - you eat your mistakes and share with neighbors and recycle the surplus through the hens and compost pile.

It's just good home-economics: Shelter, water, fire and the last 0.01& is the ability to defend your shelter, water & fire.


de RadioRay ..._ ._

Hi Tess,

I do believe that while musical ability and language ability are not required, that it can be a plus. The ability to learn tempo & etc. make a strong case. I once taught a young lady friend of mine half the Morse code during about a 1  1/2 hour drive.  Now, that WAS exceptional, and though she could not hold a tune , even with a VERY large bucket, she was a professional ballroom dancer, so rythm and format made sense to her.  I'd give her the DAAH DI DAAH DI    and she'd call out "C". Eventually I was spelling words (nice ones...) and she'd tell me the word. She thought that it was 'fun', having never been told that it would be difficult. Come to think of it, she also had reading difficulties, but learned the code easily and retained it.

So - if she was all that keen on radio and on me and learned Morse so well - why are we not together now?  Well, the last contact with her, she stole over $400 out of my bank account, leaving $5 to keep it open. . .  My lawyer said that it would be more trouble than it was worth to go after her and the police were not interested. However, she was extremely pretty   :-*  , so I guess that make it all OK.   :o  Come to think it it, she also told her boss that I was some kind of a terrorist, because I had radios and used 'secret code' (Q-signals.) Fortunately, this was well before 9/11.

Some lessons in Morse are best forgotten .  ha ha

de Ray

Peer-2-peer  goes directly between hams.

a WINLINK message goes into the WINLINK system for auto-forwarding. Via internet, it will route to the stations where the ham usually picks-up his radio e-mail, or to the 'normal e-mail address of a non-ham.

It is very common for hams to have a couple of WINMOR (or winlink) stations between them where they can send/receive messages for each other, not requiring internet, by using those intermediary stations as a BBS/Mail Box. There is also provision for BULLETINS which is quite handy during disasters.


de RadioRay ..._ ._