AS you know, the United States recently had two major hurricane strike and particularly hard hit were regions of western North Carolina.  That region is mountainous, with steep slopes and deep valleys: which resulted in at least 1400 land slides, and flood waters in the valleys, filled with trees, boulders and ten meter tall walls of mud, rock and trees moving at highway speeds. The resulting loss of electrical power, cell phones and internet left many people disoriented. My thoughts here focus on how to help non-radio family members during a black-out.

However, a few people posted their experiences and some things were food for thought:

1.  Some people remembered "...an old battery [ AM/FM] radio" they had stored - somewhere. Some noted that theirs was a hand crank "Emergency radio" they had bought on Amazon, just-in-case.

2. In a total information black-out, having even limited  AM/FM news and music was found to be very helpful.  Remember, many people woke-up to no electrical power, no phones and etc. and had zero idea WHY this happened and when it might be fixed. Radio stations provided some of this information.

3. The feeling of NOT being isolated was a factor for many.  To old people like me, the phone is a handy hindrance - at best. However, to many people, they live their lives throught their phones.  Stepping back a generation in technology, yes it's not immediate connection with the outside world, but it IS 'a connection' and having a source of news and music that runs on handcrank recharged batteries or even JUST batteries was seen as very handy, regardless of generation.

4. Some of there radio have a small 'reading light' which was noted as being handy.  My favorite little 'just in case radio, also had a single LED light and frankly, it is always in my daypack when I am away from home. It is not a handcrank radio, but it is rated to operate the radio at 40% volume for 150 hours on 2x AA batteries and I always carry spares. On earbuds it runs longer.

Radio Preppers is primarily an emergency 2 way radio communication website and most of us have ham radio equipment, BUT do you have at least one 'little plastic radio' as part of your emergency equipment?  I do, and here is why; in an emergency like these just experienced, our non-hams are going to be a bit nervous, and while I would NOT put them onto my ham station, because it's too expensive and easy to misuse and damage. However, I can put a simple 'little plastic radio' into their hands, with a pencil and paper to listen to news, weather and etc.  This would be useful to keep them occupied and for the group/family to gather news and information for us to ponder and discuss.

So, do you have a little plastic radio, perhaps a handcranked one? Does your family know how to operate it if you are not there?

Here in the USA, AM/FM are probable the minimum, I add shortwave and NOAA weather radio to basic requirements, if possible.  However, the abasic AM/FM are most likely to be used by the average person for news and music.


de RadioRay  ..._ ._

I was listening to a few hams on HF, who were taking a break by having a small roundtable chat from inside the destroyed area, HF radios, battery power, reduced outputs ( one station was 5 Watts SSB, weak readable here in Virginia). They mentioned recharging batteries "later" and one guy mentioned that had a place he could walk to that had power to recharge his batteries. One CLASSIC "food for thought" comment went like this:

" Well, I was listenin to my A.M. radio and
they told me that if I needed some help to just
call this number or send an e-mail to
some address or visit such-&-such a website .
That'd be just dandy, IF I HAD phone or internet!
What the #%^ are they thinking?"

OTOH, 40m and 80m radio is working rather well.
Of special mention the Tarheel Emergency Net
, Net Control Operators are doing yeoman service.

73 de Ray ..._ ._

As we used to teach in survival classes:
1. Shelter ( clothing is your first layer of 'shelter'.
2. Water.
3. Fire. kitchen.

https://activeprp2k24.law.blog/2024/04/06/the-7-apocalyptic-golden-laws-how-to-survive-more-than-3-months-in-case-the-most-horrible-scenario-called-shtf-happens/

The reality is that I'm just not able to hike and enjoy outdoor radio much at all, these days: welcome to old age and injuries ;-)  .  So,

NO LONGER FOR SALE:  ......  // removed by RadioRay . //

HB1B Sale


73 de Ray  ..._ ._

Another advantage of Morse instead of voice is the built-in ability to accurately produce a written message to avoid confusion. 


link:   https://youtu.be/rhlrOP7ytKs?si=fKBU2GFTUWvn-_3S

I like these guys and their radio traffic nets work VERY well.

https://radiorelay.org/prepper-comms-connectivity-versus-communications/

Did you know that there really IS and has been, a radio relay organization that actually DOES realy radio messages? Radio Relay International has many traffic every day and maintains surge capacity incase of higher need/emergency situations. I have passed some small amoung ot traffic through their Morse network(s) and the message arrived at my friends ear in under one day.  RRI is a mix of Morse and digital (winlink like) stations and very professionally and yet, friendly to new people.

Here is a recent announcement on their website:

RRI Announces Training Class Schedule July 1 to December 30, 2022

Radio Relay International is pleased to announce its 2022, Third and Fourth Quarter Training Schedule. This is your opportunity to obtain official, peer-reviewed training covering emergency communications and traffic handling subjects based on professional emergency management practices and radio communications standards. This training is open to all radio amateurs. An RSVP is necessary to hold a place in these classes. The training schedule can be found here: http://radio-relay.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/RRI-Training-Classes-3Q-2022.pdf

After seeing Gil's review of the (tr)uSDR transceiver on his YouTube channel, I decided to get one.  I took a month to arrive in my mailbox, all the way from P.R. China, but in fairness, over half that delay was in the US postal system,.

When arrived, the only adjustment I made is to calibrate the frequency standard and that is very easy: find the menu item and turn the main dial to zerobeat WWV or other standard frequency station, then press ENTER to save it.  I plan to peak the torroids in the final sections for best power, after I find my QRP dummyload/Watt meter.

First Ham Contacts: Being an old sailor, my first real test of a two way conversation was on 14.300USB , the Maritime Mobile Service Network. Net control station came right back to my call IN THE MIDDLE OF A PILE-UP of many stations calling him.  The transceiver was operating on a nominal 12 volts, so power was likely 3 to 5 Watts. We chatted for a few minutes before I let him know that I was QRP using a 'handheld QRP transceiver.  He was amazed and frankly, so was I.  QRP for me is normally CW/Morse code so that it is quite reliable.  Voice QRP on HF has not been a favorite for me, though this little transceiver REALLY has it's place im my equipment now.

Shortwave Listening: This makes a fine shortwave broadcast receiver when you use either USB or LSB and tune to zero beat.  Open the filter selection all the way and you might be surprised how well it works as a general coverage receiver. I listened to all the usual SW broadcasters and caught some news , music and ravings.

CW QRP:  3 to 5 Watts (estimated) Easy-peezy!  Nothing says efficient radio communication like CW Morse does.  Even at the 3 - 5 Watts output, I had solid conversations with more than a few hams.  I am used to this type of high performance in CW though.  The adjustable 'IF' filters make for a very selective transceiver if you like that sort of thing, and I do. Filters go as narrow as 50 Hz bandwidth.  I don't have test equipment for measuring such things, but my old radiotelegrapher's ears said it was all 'quite good'.

CW QRPp:  200mW per the manual, using the rig's USB port and a USB battery/light I commonly keep available.  This USB battery/light is easy to recharge from a car or solar panel with USB adaptor. That the transceiver operates flawlessly on the 5.x vdc from the USB port is impressive.  I answered a loud "CQ" late afternoon, using my minature straight key and he came right back from Central Florida which is over 600 miles away.  We chatted for a while and then I let him know that I was QRPp at aproximately 200mW.  We were both amazed.  He had a top notch station with a log periodic beam at 50 feet whic of COURSE means a lot, but any contact at 200mW not using a computer is simply amazing, thus proving the point that:

"THE BEST COMMUNICATIONS COMPUTER IS THE ONE BETWEEN YOUR EARS!"

This is definately center stage in my Prepper's radio selection. I now have a fine CW/SSB transceiver with included general coverage SWL and 'utility' broadcast receiver, which easily fits into my shirt pocket.

I'll be trying it on my regular weekly sked in a few hours and hoping to compare it on 12 volts to my BIG home rig as a side-by-side comparisson test.  The home transceiver though /small/ draws 2 Amps on receive - not suitable for man packable use.


73/72 de RadioRay ..._ ._

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58f4e114be6594c2f9bcc9f6/t/594ae675893fc03d52ba3304/1498080889272/Road_to_CW_de_W4ALF.pdf

A very good booklet to read for new and 'seasoned' operators. Have a look at page 12, second half of the page, where it explains the reasons why a 5 Watt Morse signal is equivalent to an SSB signal of 100W for conveying the same message. No computer required, other than the one between your ears ;-)

73 de RadioRay  ..._ ._

High winds broke the line holding up my 80-10m dipole, leaving it laying in lower tree tops, AND it's pointed the wrong way to hear France.  However, I heard Gil veeeeery weakly while he was in Morse QSO with a German station.  Gil was using his home made magnetic loop on the balcony and MTR - 5 Watt transceiver! Unfortunately, I heard him probably at the end of the band opening, because by the time the Dk/F4 QSO ended, I tried calling him while he was fading fast. Of course, my RF noise level at this little country cottage is extremely LOW. His RF noise level in an apartment in a town  - I do not know, but local RF noise from chargers, displays, power supplies & etc.  can make a huge difference.

5W, homemade magloop on balcony, distance = 4196.5 mi (6753.7 km)

Food for Thought:   the German station Gil had talked with was easily readable, and -technically- could have relayed some short messages between Gil & I pretty easily. That could be handy in a grid down situation.

72 de RadioRay  ..._ ._

Well, not 'death' actually, more like 'DEAF by microprocessor'. 

We all know that radio communication in voice is quite power hungry, so Watt-for-Watt, digital modes are more robust in tough conditions.  Of course, Morse code sent via CW is extremely robust, yielding between 13-18 dB 'system gain' compared to voice modes, depending upon who's math you're using. 

The timing with this 'deafness' is 'educational':  About the time that Hurricane Dorian , a category >5< HURRICANE was pounding Bermuda and forecast to come up the coast and do the same to us, I received a Windows update, after which my laptop would not operate.  I went to SAFE mode, and it worked for a little while, then nothing....  This is the ham shack laptop with all my cool radio gimmicks on it, including weather satellite software to download my own images - directly, WINLINK (for emergency status checks with family and friends) & etc.  Windows is still deader than a bag-of-rocks to this day, until I have time to reload Windows from disc & all the software , then reconfigure it all.  I am in no hurry.

Why am I NOT in a hurry to fix my laptop so that I can communicate? Because my straight key and my 1939 McElroy 'bug' work flawlessly, cannot be virused, dDOS'd , have no 'back-door' vulnerabilities, and never have updates and yet work well below the noise level, require ZERO power, leaving only my transceiver(s) with their many battery back-up systems, which I am well prepared for. I have to ask myself:what would I do, if I had never learned Morse, and had to DEPEND upon a computer to communicate for me? If we loose power for the long term  , and iI decide to send 'health & welfare' messages to key friends, I can easily do that in Morse code, either casually through random hams outside of the area, or as formal message traffic via the various National Traffic System / RRI Morse traffic nets. And I can do it with very little power in CW - very, very little power.

A skill like Morse code will serve you for life. Skills take-up no room in your rucksack, weigh nothing and can be enhanced with a cup of coffee,

and brother, do I love good coffee!

Fortunately, Hurricane Dorian has dropped to a -still dangerous- category 2, and it's track indicates that it will only offer this area a glancing blow as it heads-out to sea. At least, that's the forecast. I'll know more tomorrow when I'm looking at it, or not.




de Ray  ..._ ._

We have a MAJOR Hurricane approaching (It's a CAT 5 right now)  .  If you ever wondered how difficult it is to capture weather satellite images without the internet, it's not difficult, but does require the software and a bit of practice. There are MANY YouTube posts with excellent instruction about this, so I will not repeat what they've done. 

Here is an image received within the hour using an inexpensive SDR and no automatic satellite tracking or LNA: (attached)


de RadioRay

Gil has written about it, I have, others have.  Here is another fellow and he really did a good deed by writing of his recent learning of Morse code.

http://fine.business/ham-radio/2015/12/20/learning-morse-code

Excellent short article from a former Marine and his HF dilemma and solution.

https://www.starherald.com/hemingford/opinion/making-do-with-what-you-have/article_018c654e-86ad-11e8-9247-df74bda297bc.html

I KNEW there was something 'different' about Gil.... Now we ALL know!


//Click on attachment to expand picture. //

Once again, I enjoyed a nice chat in Morse with AH6V who lives on Hawaii.  Listening to his previous conversation, he mentioned that he is 45 miles from the volcano, so no trouble. Electrical power is no issue for him, because he has been living off grid for decades.  His antenna is a dipole, high and in the trees and my antenna is not at all good for long range, being a full wave , horizontal 80m loop up only 5 meters at the support poles, sagging to 3 meters at some points in between.  We discussed his large solar power system, which powers even his refrigeration & etc. -vs- my small sailboat sized system and the work shop/ham shack that it powered. 

Radio is simply amazing and the BEST 'communications computer' is your brain.


73 de RadioRay ..._  ._

This fellow has a lot of useful information and just returned from a successfl, though 'politically frustrating' deployment to Puerto Rice.  Though a relatively new ham, this is noe very switched-ON person.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P56ox8COG64FXfVrU5nig16AgU19NS5b3EDf1LIO4lw/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs

Dominica (and many other Caribbean islands, including much of Puerto Rico).

Infrastructed destroyed...

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/21/552649149/in-devastated-dominica-hams-become-vital-communications-link

Literally the other side of the world; that was this morning.  The operator on the other end is part of a French Antarctic expedition, sending from aboard their ship - FT5XT/mm.  My station is an older Kenwood that a friend found at a truck stop and sold to me for $450.  My antenna is a piece of house wire formed into an 80 meter horizontal loop up only 15 feet. I looks like this contact was 40 meter band long path along the greyline to reach him, 12,717 miles distant.  Not bad for a sub-urban ham with a fairly common station.

Morse/CW is what makes this possible.  SSB would not have made it, signal levels were too low.

When I was a boy (shortly after the Earth's crust cooled...) I had the great privilege of studying Judo and later Ju Jitsu under some very good instructors - true masters, before that term became en vogue and horribly over used.

Learning judo, as an American boy steeped in the idea that rage and bulging muscles were everything, I soon learned that quiet, focused power, applied exactly where and when required was far more effective and very efficient.  As a result of a few years of training, back then, I could fight multiple opponents and rarely tire - because THEY were burning a lot of unnecessary energy; not me. Now I am old, so opening a bag of coffee makes me tired, but I don't mind: I love good coffee. As I read more about the origins of Japanese martial arts, Judo in particular, I came across a quote that has stayed with me for life:

"Maximum effect, with minimal effort." - Jiguro Kano

To some people, that's an excuse for laziness : it is not.  To others, it is an 'attack' on their delicate egos, which are tied to things which they bought at great expence in an attempt to have internal peace, no matter how ineffective and/or in efficient those possessions are.  To back woods radio people, this makes perfect sense.  When away from the "FREE" electricity of city A.C. mains, you must be efficient in your use of power. For hams, this is largely seen in proper time/frequency selection and MODE.  It's a well documented FACT that Morse code (CW) is very much more energy efficient than voice, for conveying the same 'intelligence' ; 13-18dB more efficient, depending upon whos math you're using, but at the least, that's 20 times more power needed for SSB over CW. Translate that into batteries, chargers, heatsinks accessories and you'll see that Size, Weights & Power (SWAP) is huge compared to a QRP CW rig with the same relative capabilities , and much more expensive.

Simplicity: I was recently at a demonstration of emergency communication held in a pasture.  There were cafeteria tables, many laptop computers, some networked, A.C. power, cables all over the place and the list goes on.  When I left 24 hours later, the only successful comms as of that time was QRP handsent CW using my KX2 and a low dipole.  All CW skeds were achieved right on time, with very good results.  Naturally, as those laptops were also running NOT on internal batteries, but plugged-in to A.C. power, their RFI ensured that any comms were likely to be unsuccessful.  All that power, software, training experience and MONEY - very inefficient. These were intelligent, dedicated people , many of whom are experts in various professional fields. However, a single band QRP CW rig costing almost nothing, could do much more, for much less and fit into a pocket.

The lesson - do what works, and forget the colorful advertising that tells you that you must be dissatisfied with your life and buying their 'stuff' will make you content, successful and adored by the opposite sex: it's all nonsense.  Use whatever is as simple as possible (but not 'simpleR' than possible) and works reliably. for my experience, that is HF CW. If the 'necessary' accessories like computers, panadaptors, wifi routers, and more are required, then THEY must be added to your calculation s of SWAP.  That's a LOT of Size , Weight and Power to drain your recharging and to carry around, It multiplies the set-up and (trouble-shooting) time , tremendously.  I had two 'wires' coming out of my rig: coax to their antenna and my ear buds - to eliminate their constant yelling at each other.

Like judo: efficiency matters. During hobby times, it's basically stress free. During an emergency; it's essential.


de RadioRay  ..._  ._

I like watching Gil, Julian, Spanish QRP cw, Peter Parker with delightful videos on youtube. They go someplace, set-up a station in a few minutes and then are having fun operating and learning on the air. Enjoyment,  fresh air and into the LOW RFI outdoors: all good.