What looked like yet another hurricane that was going to arc out to sea is increasingly predicted to enter the coast north of us, perdictions have it breaching the coast between Maryland and Pennsylvania (all open to change), putting our home in Virginia into the western semi-circle of slightly lower winds, but this hurricane is on a track that could easily knock-out commercial infrastructure for many people. Here, I've been charging batteries, retrieving equipment from a tin shed for safer storage and filling water containers. QRP radio is no problem, because the basic radios operate for a week of sjeds from AA cells and the big batteries are recharged via folding, portable 'expedition' solar panels (www.ctsolar.com)  and a few mil-surplus , folding panels. Entertainment/news radios are the plastic, hand-crank jobs, one with a built-in light.

>>>=====>  This is a fine illustration of why skeds arranged by internet are no better than selling our radios and using only internet.  A regular - hopefully daily- quick check is great, even if it's just to check-in.  The next is having a regular net that you check-in with, like the MMSN on 14300USB, or some of the CW nets like the waterway CW net or some of the traffic handling CW nets (which are likely my next move).

If we're not doing it NOW, we'll likely not be doing it 'then'.

I am curious what others in the storm track are doing?



73 de RadioRay ..._ ._

Well Done!  If I were to give a recommendation, it would be to learn how to use digital modes, beginning with the most popular: PSK-31.  That is useful in and of itself and will open the door to more special purpose modes.  Naturally, there is every reason to learn the Morse code using the on-line resources.  I can highly the G4FON Koch method software, but Gil has the very recent knowledge of what's on the web for learning morse effectively and it certainly worked for him.

Beck to reading the final book of Hunger Games. It is a highly recommended series, despite my initial misgivings, once begun it's a good read and the movie was actually well done, depicting the first book.


>de RadioRay ..._ ._

WINMOR is absolutely the best PC emcomm software going.  REAL internet e-mail over radio, and ham-2-ham radio e-mail. . . I am very impressed by it.  On the sailboat I used PACTOR III for years and from my little cabin in Idaho before that. The PIII modems cost as much as a new rig or more, but the WINMOR is FREEware.  If a station can work PSK31, then they have the hardware to work WINMOR.


Well - time for Zzz!


de RadioRay ..._ ._
Vigilant Always

When you are ready to TEST your antenna with some of the swarthy crew here, let us know.  I'd be happy to make contact from Virginia.



>RadioRay ..._ ._

Oh Man!  This brings back some memories of elk camp in Idaho and Colorado.  HF in the high country is always a plus - and a good just-in-case piece of gear. 

QQQ: How are you recharging the battery for the 7200 - vehicles?



de RadioRay ..._ ._

WhiteTiger and others -

To monitor digital communications and even download weather charts off the air from marine radio, you do NOT require a SignaLink or anything like that as long as you are only listening.    :)     All that you need is a shortwave receiver capable of receiving SSB.  There are several of these under $100.  Here is an article showing how to couple to your radio using a common set of ear-bus type earphones, to a low grade laptop running FREEware software from the internet.

http://www.radiofreeredoubt.com/2012/04/02/how-to-receive-ham-radio-digital-communications/

EZ-PZ, lemon squeezeeeee   ;D   and you're monitoring the world of ham radio and other HF radio.

... and here it's being done with a receiver that I built, before it's even finished.  I'm using an App for my little iPod Touch.

http://youtu.be/_btTD_PedH8


Have fun - - -


RadioRay ..._ ._

Most of the digital modes are like being in a in Internet chatroom.  You 'text' back & forth by keyboard and read it on the screen.  The GREAT part about doing this via ham radio, is that it works without internet.  Your computers 'talk' over radio - no wires, no phones. As long as you can keep things running, like powering your radio and computer, there is no commercial infrastructure required at all.

I love Morse CW because it's so much less complicated, not requiring a computer to be 'interfaced' into your radio transceiver.  However, it does take a bit of learning, which should be a major joy of life anyway.



73 de RadioRay  ..._ ._

I bought a microphone...  I am sooooo ashamed.  :'(


de RadioRay ..._ ._

Grounding -v- grounding ...

The ground rod is good for electrical safety as in the refference to the National Electrical Code & etc.  I have also found it VERY useful in eliminating stray RF inthe shack when the antenna and feedline combination was not correct for a particular frequency, causing RF burns and computer resets: all gone when the station had a god ground.  Remember though that this is not the same as a ground for transmitting - at least not in most soils with average conductivity.  A ground rod in soil - despite what the old Army manuals say -  'looks' like a shortened antenna in a leaky resistive environment when it comes to radio frequency energy.

However, If you operate with a balanced antenna like a diple or one of the half wave wires with short counterpoise, this grounding of the station does not cause any problem at all and you get the benefits of the grounded station frame, in removing stray RF energy. If however, you're running a wire int he air against a ground rod, you would be far better using a counterpoise wire and/or radials for your 'ground return path'.

I know that this sounds odd, but remember the RF electronics theory & practice is very different from DC and even low frquency AC as used in house current. So, at RF, not all grounds are equal or for the same purpose.


You're Welcome for the confusion.... ha ha


de RadioRay ..._ ._

What I am finding to be encouraging is that a younger (25-30 year old) demographic is getting into prepping on a scale I have not seen before.  Previously, it was old men like me.  Now, I have questions from young nurses, or some young man who I bump into in conversation and it turns to prepping and the world in general.  Maybe - just MAYbe the TV is loosing it's grip. Naturally, many of the returning vets are switched-on, especally if they understand the long range trends of over expanding 'the empire' and how historically, that's usually the last thing that a fiscally & morally bankrupt country does to try to maintain control: look at the former USSR, The British Empire or Rome for that matter.   It's also a period of increasing political tyrany, with federal (feral) government having their fingers in everything from guns to guacamole. "Creating jobs" by stuffing the government full of evermore useless eaters is NOT building an economy, it's tearing it down, because federal government is a debt, not a way to actually earn money.

Yup - we do indeed live in interesting times.


>Ray


Ps. I remember escapees form the former communist bloc telling me that the reason they were caught by surprise and became de facto prisoners in their own lands was the same thing heard in this country: "We never thought it would happen here.". 'Here' being their home countries. Unfortunately, We do not have an America to escape to.

Congratulations General!


Really awsome that you went there and did it!  You DO realize there there is no cure - right?  Once bitten by raido, always smitten by radio.



'See' you on the Radio!


de RadioRay ... _ ._

White Tiger -  Yes - they are the initial problem and it may take way too much time after things go BANG! for the generally decent people to get up to speed with that fact and be willing to man check-points and etc.  At least we only have a VERY limited avenue of land-based approach.  Anything on the water that is out-of-place would have a tough time getting through and many of these guys may not swim all that well, especially with some of the lead weights we'd be sending their way - at high speed.   8)



The next group of 'people' if we want to call them that, would be federal politicians takine advantage of the situation for their own avarice.  We would be better-off left alone, but that was tried before and the Feds invaded The South then too. Let's hope that it never comes to any of this and that we can once again be a nation ruled by only 10 Laws, without a total meltdown. I can - however- forsee the Feds confiscating from 'hoarders and vigilantes'.... and the media covering their actions in smiling-head accolades for the generally dumb viewers.

Yes - I had an aquaitance of mine kicked into a coma in the L.A. Riots.  He tried to go out there to help with a Bible under his arm.  If you knew him, you'd know that he was genuine in that he lived his beliefs. It took him two years to die in the hospital, at untold cost to his family.  As far as I know, his murderers are voting (or running?) in the upcoming elections...

I'd rather team with 5 of the right types than 20 of the wrong. There is a good mix of skills within one mile of this place and I intend to be one of them.


de RadioRay ..._ ._

I'm in rural, coastal Viginia, right off of the Chesapeake Bay - near the end of a peninsula. We have some down side but not much , compared to the many benefits to living here. A generally mild climate, long growing seasons, peace & quiet most of the time and people who - even one generation before, remember at least SOME of their meals on their dinner tables coming from The Bay and the family garden/farm. Where I sit, the farmer across the field just harvested his field corn, soy beans down the street, goats milk around the corner, my chickens gave me two eggs today and three for each previous day - and I only have a few. My hot season garden is winding down and I'm planning the fall season plant placement right now and yes - my compost pile is doing just fine on anything that I cannot feed to the chickens in good conscience. 

The Chesapeake Bay is full of food and is a natural transportation route for those who know and a natural barrier for those who don't know how to live on the water. We have some lite ranching in this area to suppliment the farming & watermen. A person would have to PLAN to drive here to find us, because nobody is going to find us by accident, because the few roads in here, are not a through-way of any kind - it's a dead end. Tactically, we're surrounded on three sides by water for over fifty linear miles, with one land route in from the cities, but it's easily blockable, because of the many water crossings which a car cannot get across, but few bridges to our landward side. Water barriers can be good or bad - depending upon your relationship with the water.  The biggest dimwits in the world can setup an effective check point at a low bridge surrounded by high ground.  So, if left alone, common people , many of us with hands-on military experience in third-world-hell-holes, who CARE about defending our homes would do even better against that pesky 'Looting Tourist' problem.   

   >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(

     "Ya'll need to take it on up the road a piece and DON'T come back now - y'hear?"
                                                  :o


It's a fine place and it's home, so that makes it 'special'. Whether during a sudden shock SHTF situation or the slow drain of the current economic depression, there are far worse places to be if you want to grow/catch your own food, put-up canned whoo-knows-what in the pantry for winter and enjoy living so far from Baltimore, D.C. Richmond... You know the score. We do have a slight problem with the 'entitlement class' locally and their tendency toward criminality - even when well fed by our tax dollars, but if the economy goes 'bang! , that can be worked-out - if necessary, which it will HAVE TO be worked-out peacfully, whatever that requires. The tools for working this out depend entirely upon their initial tactics for feeding themselves by their own hands, many for the first time in a generation or two. Farming and fishing without fuel requires labor (1) We'll all be a little thinner, which - looking ay MY wastline, wouldn't be a bad thing - in moderation.


... and then, there's ham radio -...-  but that's for another day.

de RadioRay ..._ ._

... and is it better than THIS one?




Just askin'

:)  ;)  :D  ;D  :o  ::)
de RadioRay ..._ ._

Ps.  I saw his "plan" and just HAD to share it.  Dilbert lives in the real world...

One of the growing problems on the WARC bands is that despite 'No Contests' they have 'sorta-contests....'  You know-we'll all meet there and have numbers (like the digital 'meeting' on 30m) and see how many others we can exchange numbers with.  Well, is that NOT a contest?  I hear the RF storm of N0GUD 599 N0GUD 599 N0GUD 599 N0GUD 599 and two dozen others all doing it across the bottom half of thirty meters. 

You are right though - this is not and should not be a matter of legislation and I really do not want it that way.  Common courtesy is no longer common, yet a punch in the nose for even the most impolite and down right rude offences is illegal. Though we're no longer able to talk sense into miscreants, use the rod for the back of a fool & etc. & it's still too early for a rope and a tree - hmmm, life is just too complicated these days (Grin )  A couple of jolly good stonings would solve all of this for two reasons:

1.  There would be no repeat offenders.

2.  Those who MIGHT behave equally as badly, would see the results and be afraid.

An armed society is a polite society. 

Being from the wild West, I'd prefer to just hang'em with their own coax, but some panzy eastern lawyer would think that was a bad idea. Of course our cure for that out West would be preemptive: hang the lawyers first, which is why we are so free out there.

Fortunately, CW and digital have an edge - though small - over the SSB guys who really have to endure this and worse - largely because voice on radio is the lowest common denominator, so it also gathers more of this sort of problem.  Code software makes CW "contesting" an auto-frenzy even for the CW illiterati as long as the code is loud and relatively uniform and/or actually machine generated. 

Well - the nurse is coming down the hall with my medication and she becomes angry when she finds me using the staff computer, so I'd better leave now...






RaDIoRAy  ..._ ._  moo-ha-ha-ha!