Rensselaer County

RACES

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

Jim Noble - Chief Radio Officer

GO-KITS

The following is what the webmaster considers a minimum equipment list for RACES/ARES members using an HT for VHF/UHF communications.  There are lots of other sites on the web with far more detail than this list provides.  Links to them will be provided at a latter date.

Equipment

  1. 2 meter HT with DTMF and Subaudible encoders.  No radio, no talkie!
  2. HT Operators manual (photocopy) . Its easy to forget how to use the many features our radios have.
  3. Speaker mike.  Lets you carry the radio on your belt and still talk on it.  Will also let you set it up on a semi-permanant basis in a car or as a base station.
  4. Ear Phone.  For noisy areas or where the chatter on the radio is distracting to others in your imeadate area.
  5. Alkaline battery pack with fresh alkaline batteries.  Alkaline batteries can be found  almost anywhere and will allow you to run the radio away from a power source for as long as the supply of batteries last.
  6. Spare set of Alkaline batteries.  You never know when you will talk the others flat.
  7. Cigarette lighter adapter (cla) Allows you to go mobile with a minimum of fuss.  If you can' t afford one made special for your radio, there is a chance that an adapter for a cell phone will work.  I use one from a defunct Nokia 100 with my Alinco DJ5G dual banders.  The cla for the Nokia 232 will work as well.
  8. Gain type "rubber ducky" antenna.  Good for those areas where you are just a little bit noisy.
  9. Roll-up J-pole with about 10 feet of coax.  Great for semi-permanant base station applications.  Easy to make or cheap to buy.  This web page will have a link to instructions on how to make one eventually.
  10. Mag-mount antenna with about 10 feet of cable.  Don't forget a connector that matches your radio on the other end of the cable.  Makes mobile installations a snap.
  11. Coax adapters - UHF to BNC, BNC to UHF, Also SMA to BNC and reverse.  For those unfortunate enough to forget to bring theirs and need to use one of your extra antennas.
  12. Roll of electrical tape.  Good stuff to have for dressing off cable or sealing outdoor connectors from the rain.
  13. Repeater directory.  Helps to find the repeaters in areas that you may be unfamilure with.
  14. Local area repeater list.  Helps find the little used repeaters in your own areas.  This web page will have a suitable list eventually.
  15. Swiss Army knife.  A tool kit that fits in your pocket.
  16. Small flashlight powered by two AA cells.  Allows spares to be shared.  Also, batteries that are too weak for use in an HT may work in the flashlight.
  17. 12v 1a "cube" power supply with a connector that fits the DC power jack on the HT.  Check for hum in the high power settings before using!  This will allow the HT to be used as a base station.  Some HTs will charge their batteries from the DC port, so the AC supply could perform double duty as a charger and operating voltage supply.
  18. Case to carry this mess in!  Consider a belly bag.  A canvas tote bag might be better if you bring along the Personal Items below.

Optional Items

  1. Spare rechargeable battery pack and charger.  It is hard to justify this one for occasional use.  If you use your radio a lot in normal service, you will probably have one anyway. However, to make truely effective use of it, you will have to carry a charger as well.

Personal Items

Good stuff to have around.

  1. ID Card.  Inquiring minds need to know.
  2. Pocket First Aid kit.  The Red Cross sells a nice one.  And while you're at it, take a First Aid course as well.
  3. Hat.  Bald headed men like me need lots of protection year 'round.
  4. Bug Repellent.  These days a simple mosquito has gotten down right dangerous!!!
  5. Sun Block.  Keeps the sun off so's you can go to work the next day.
  6. Rain Gear.  Keeps the rain off.  Get a set that has a hooded jacket and rain pants.  Plastic rain gear also makes a good wind breaker as well.
  7. Snack food, trail mix, lunch.  I never show up at a function with out something to eat.
  8. Two pints of water.  Keeps the whistle wet.  Don't bring soda as it will make you want to drink more.
  9. Small pack of kleenex.  For those runny noses.
  10. Several paper towels folded up.  A quicker pickeruper.
  11. Poison Ivy lotion.  You never know...
  12. Spare cash and several quarters for the phone.  Regardless of how good we are at communicating over the radio, there will times when we have to rely on Ma Bell.

Links

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