Please take a look at your address label, if next to your name is 99, thanks
for renewing your SRRC membership.  If it says 98, please fill out the
application from last months STATIC and send in your dues.  In order to stay
affiliated with the ARRL, at least 50% of the members must also be ARRL
members.  Please consider joining the ARRL by including your ARRL dues with
the SRRC dues.

73 de kb9ezz       Tokarz@ivcc.edu
 

"Emergency Communications..."   Jim Freeman     N3OHS

Just because you have a deep-cycle battery to power your 2-meter mobile or
portable HF rig, an "Energizer Bunny pack," a couple spare sets of AAs for
your dual-band hand-held, telescoping Hot Rod, a canteen of water and a
fanny pack full of MREs, doesn't mean that you are ready to be an emergency
communicator.

In a disaster, license class doesn't matter. In an emergency you must use
whatever assets are available to get the job done. The no-coder who can
keyboard data can pass more packet traffic in a second than the best brass
pounder in the world will in a minute.  But, when the propagation is really
lousy,  CW gets through "when nothing else will."

After hurricane Hugo we lost ALL of our amateur, commercial, public safety
repeaters and telephone service for FOURTEEN DAYS!  Later, hams shadowed
National Guard, Red Cross and power company, but early on were on our own
for a week and actually had to dispatch police, fire and EMS on 2 meters.

Hams trained in map, compass, GPS and APRS are valuable assets.  This is
because responders from outside the local area, will get lost, because
street signs and landmarks are obliterated. Lots of amateurs equipped with
mobile rigs and mag mount antennas will be needed as "shadows," and to
provide backup communications for utility companies and private relief
agencies whose land mobile radios are not compatible with those of your
local public safety agencies. KE4SKY likes to say that HT's are little
better than baby monitors on simplex, but you will still find plenty of use
for spare HTs and mag mounts to loan officials who want to monitor your
traffic and to replace lost or broken ones.

Limiting your emergency power to batteries only postpones the inevitable.
This is because when the power goes off, that 150 amp-hours won't last more
than a few days if you can't recharge them. That means you must ALSO have
either portable generators and fuel, a solar-powered trickle charging
apparatus, muscle-powered dynamo and regulating mechanism or some other
means, is entirely "off the grid." A 20 watt panel such as Siemen's SM20
produces about 1.6 amps which is adequate to maintain a 100 ah deep cycle
battery, weighs 5.5 lbs., is 22"x13" and costs around $200.

I recommend building "pedal generators." These originated with the Imperial
Japanese Army and were copied by the British during WWII. They are still
common in Africa and Asia and are home-built from a discarded bicycle frame
and automobile alternator, using a battery to stabilize the alternator
output. One of these will maintain a large deep cycle battery indefinitely
if you have enough candy bars and kids to rotate on 20 minute shifts.
Encourage scout troops and high school industrial arts classes to build
them. They are really great tp attract crowds for Field Day and special
event stations.

My final advise is work smarter, not harder. You don't need to practice to
be uncom-fortable. Your best defense not to ignore the chaos around you, but
to ac-knowledge that it will be dark, wet, cold, crowded, noisy and you will
be tired and uncomfortable, so join the club. If you realize that you aren't
the Lone Ranger out there, but part of a team, you draw support from them to
stay focussed on your "comm" mission.
 

February SRRC Meeting Summary

Francis, WB9VLW gave us an annual and two monthly reports.   Whitey, KC9NL
made the following committee Chair appointments:

Activities: W9ZEN               Bldg & Grds : N9HON     Repeater: KF9NZ
Repeater Mon: N9OUW     Net Control: N9PLM              Equipment:  Open

The QSL contest was won by W9ZEN with a card from KB0YCI, Woodland Park Co.
Next month's target is KB7OAD, Scottsdale AZ.  The possible sale of TEN-TEC
kits at the hamfest was discussed.  A motion NOT to sell them was tabled for
further information on the cost of shipping.

The matter of what's not happening in the back room was brought up by W9ZEN.
There is to be a party back there on Saturday, the 6th. starting about 9:00
AM.    The conditon of the club's antennae was discussed.  The VHF antennas
are not working.  Apparently the coax lines to them became huing up in the
HF beam and pulled out.  The 40/80 M inverted vee is noty working either.

Jeff, N9OWP has a great price on a 18,000 BTU air conditioner. He can get it
for $350.00, or possibly less.  It was approved to go ahead and buy it.
==================================================
In 1998 we spent $??.?? more than we took in.  I hope the budget we set
this summer will help regulate things like that better.

In case you don't already know, the remote receive equipment has been
installed and is working at the club house.  The receive end of it at Ottawa
is not installed yet.  I accepted the job of maintaining the repeater since
I had already committed to the installation work anyhow.  I WILL NOT
continue in this position ALONE!   If any club member has an interest in
getting involved in maintaining the repeater, please let me know.  I will be
happy to teach you so you can be part of the Committee (more than one
person) that maintains it.  All it takes is a solid foundation of electronic
theory.   During my career on the Railroad I hired more than one person as a
radio repair tech. who had never fixed anything more complex than a table
lamp.  Three  of them are still there, fixing all kinds of high-tech two-way
and data stuff.  I can do it for you too!
--- De KF9NZ

============
For Sale-Trade
============

Heathkit SB-200 linear amplifier with manuals and spare set of finals,  in
pretty good condition just about three years of dust.  $300  Please call
Rich K9BK at 223-8306 evenings.
C-64, Monitors, cassette and Disk Drives will trade for antennas or 2M
communication equipment KB9EZZ.

Battery Basics It is basic to emergency operation that stations have backup
battery power to operate for at least 24 hours. A minimum of one amp-hour
per PEP watt of battery capacity should always be available. Powering a
mobile rig from the car battery works well for a few hours, but during an
emergency gasoline is scarce and it is wasteful to run the engine for 10
minutes out of every hour to keep the battery charged. The best solution is
to equip a vehicle with dual batteries and isolation circuitry obtained from
a boating or RV supplier to separate the "starting" battery from the "comm"
battery, then add solar panels and a charge controller to keep the batteries
charged when the vehicle is idle.  The low-cost option is to carry a boxed
deep cycle marine battery with trickle charger and mobile power cord in the
trunk along with your "go kit," antenna, extra coax, portable mast and
tripod adapter.

To determine battery needs take the total equipment current load in amps
times the duty cycle in percent, times 150 percent. For instance a 50-watt
VHF mobile requires 10 amps in transmit and 2 amps for receive. Assuming 25%
duty cycle over 8 hours, two hours           of transmit time requires 20
amp hours; plus six hours receive at 2 amps is 12 amp-hours, which equals 32
amp-hours times 150 percent means 48 amp hours for an 8-hour shift. You then
need TWO such batteries if you use one to power your station while
charging the other. Correct charging current for lead-acid batteries at
normal ambient temperature is between 1/10 and 1/20 of capacity.

Gel cells are NOT deep cycle and depth of discharge greater than 25%
significantly reduces their life. They must not be used below -20 degs. C,
in the engine compartment of vehicles or in uses subjecting them to
temperatures above 50 degs. C.

Dry NiCds used for hand held transceivers are subject to heat damage caused
by excessive charge current or prolonged slow over charging and cannot be
deeply discharged as this may cause cell reversal. Small gel cells of less
than 5 amp-hours should be charged at the same rate as similar sized dry
nicads to prevent over-heating. A common rule is to charge at rated battery
voltage + 15% to overcome internal resistance, using a charging current of
not less than 10% and nor more than 25% of the amp/hour rating of the
battery, for a charging time equal to the amp-hour rating of the battery +
25%, but not more than 14 hours. A 12V, 2 ah cell is correctly charged at
13.8V/500ma/5 hours or 13.8V/300ma/8 hours. Gel cells of larger than 5
amp/hours can be left on         continually on regulated 1 to 1.5 amp,
pulsing type "smart" charger or "maintainer" without harm.

Train on Simplex   When used to operating on repeaters, people forget that
on simplex you must open the squelch to hear the weak stations, instead of
keeping it tight to reduce random noise.  New operators need to develop
judgement on how much power is needed on simplex compared to working
repeaters.  An HT is not adequate as a primary rig for emergency communications.

For VHF simplex nets covering several counties it is recommended that the
majority of operators have either 50-watt mobiles equipped with 5/8 wave or
collinear antennas or
equivalent ERP fixed stations, capable of 24 hours operation on emergency power.

Hand helds can participate effectively using 5w PEP into a 3 or 4-element
yagi or alternately using the HT to drive a 20-30w brick amp into an outside
omni-directional gain antenna, such as a J-pole. If an outlying station or
HT signal is so weak that it cannot be copied, it takes double the air time
and battery consumption from others to provide relays, repeats and fills to
get the traffic through. Operators should use adequate power to          get
their traffic through the first time, without wasting the battery by using
more power than necessary and causing interference to stations they cannot hear.

Get Antennas Up High, Use Low-Loss Feed line   Best simplex performance
always results from the most efficient antenna, at the greatest height above
ground elevation and           shortest run of lowest loss feed line, to
provide the highest ERP for the least battery consumption.  The antenna
should go outside, away from people, as high as you can get it.  With an HT,
rig a gain antenna, such as a J-pole up in a tree. Increased antenna height
and gain enables you to use less power to save your batteries.

Most 2-meter mobiles draw about 10 amps of current for 50w out. At 25% duty
cycle a 50w mobile depletes the popular 6.5 ah "Power Station" in 2.5 hours.
Using a 10 db, 4-element yagi, you can reduce PEP to 10w, for the same ERP
as a 50w into a 5/8 wave          omni, but draw only 5 amps, so the battery
would last 5 hours. I don't recommend such a small battery, but use it here
only for illustration. Best for portable emergency power are 30+ ah wheel
chair gel cells, AGM or aircraft nicads.

For further information see theVirginia ARES web page located at:
http://aresva.org

This is the official notice to members that a vote on the proposed amendment
will be taken at the March meeting.   It is proposed to amend Article VI,
Sec A. Para 2 to read:

        "Regular meetings are scheduled for the first Monday in the
calendar month unless changed by a vote of the membership, or if a
holiday, or any act of God occurs which precludes holding the meeting as
scheduled; at which time the regular meeting will be held on the
following Monday."

Persuant to Art VIII, this NOTICE is being mailed to those entitled to vote
at the next meeting.  This is for your information and discussion. Also,  a
new by-law to reimburse members the cost of the exam fee if they upgrade was
voted. Final consideration to be at the March meeting.

Ham Fest Work List  Have you signed up yet????
ONLY N9PLJ  OR  N9OUW  can put you on this list!!!!
Buck - evbuck@ivi.net,   or
Rich -