New to the hobby

[Davichko5650]

On 2/22/2025 at 10:26 PM, OffRoaderX said:

The math proves that channel 16 is the ONLY channel for off roading:

Off-Roading is usually referred to as 4X4'ing or 4x4 ...

4 x 4 = 16

There is no other choice but to use channel 16 when going 4x4ing ..

Except when I go over to Wisconsin and run with the Clearwater guys & gals, they seem to like Ch 7 there!

[TDM827]

On 2/28/2025 at 11:13 AM, GreggInFL said:

I've noticed this locally as well.  Makes a good case for avoiding repeaters and simplexing with your group.  Those repeaters are going to burn up with traffic with the next hurricane -- if they are still standing.

I am super grateful to the owners / operators of our local repeaters. They dedicate lots of time and money making these repeaters go, and in return they seem to put up with a lot of BS. Way more than I could LOL

Who knows what can happen or how long a disaster will last. So for any emergency comms planning it's good to have one plan for repeaters being functional and another if you are limited to simplex. 

 

[TDM827]

On 2/28/2025 at 11:13 AM, GreggInFL said:

I've noticed this locally as well.  Makes a good case for avoiding repeaters and simplexing with your group.  Those repeaters are going to burn up with traffic with the next hurricane -- if they are still standing.

I am super grateful to the owners / operators of our local repeaters. They dedicate lots of time and money making these repeaters go, and in return they seem to put up with a lot of BS. Way more than I could LOL

Who knows what can happen or how long a disaster will last. So for any emergency comms planning it's good to have one plan for repeaters being functional and another if you are limited to simplex. 

 

[WRUE951]

On 2/22/2025 at 8:26 PM, OffRoaderX said:

The math proves that channel 16 is the ONLY channel for off roading:

Off-Roading is usually referred to as 4X4'ing or 4x4 ...

4 x 4 = 16

There is no other choice but to use channel 16 when going 4x4ing ..

I use Ch 24 where the Big Boys hang out  

[WRTC928]

On 2/28/2025 at 11:13 AM, GreggInFL said:

I've noticed this locally as well.  Makes a good case for avoiding repeaters and simplexing with your group.  Those repeaters are going to burn up with traffic with the next hurricane -- if they are still standing.

With regard to radios and disaster preparedness, there are two major elements to consider. You'll need to be in contact with people in your immediate area and you'll need to be able to get a message to the world outside your immediate area. For the first, simplex is obviously the answer, ideally with a base station and a tall antenna (assuming the storm leaves it standing). For the second, repeaters are pretty much a necessity, with the same caveat that they need to be still functional. Yes, traffic will be heavy, but it's better than the nothing you'd have without it.

Many years ago, I was in a remote village in the interior of Alaska when an earthquake took out all the communication for all the villages in a sizeable chunk of the state. Within hours, military aircraft with God's own comm systems were running laps around the state talking to anything that could send a signal -- marine, CB, GMRS, Ham. Unfortunately, that isn't going to be the case in the wake of most disasters. Just knowing that someone out there is hearing you improves your confidence immensely.

[WSEZ864]

2 hours ago, WRTC928 said:

With regard to radios and disaster preparedness, there are two major elements to consider. You'll need to be in contact with people in your immediate area and you'll need to be able to get a message to the world outside your immediate area. For the first, simplex is obviously the answer, ideally with a base station and a tall antenna (assuming the storm leaves it standing). For the second, repeaters are pretty much a necessity, with the same caveat that they need to be still functional. Yes, traffic will be heavy, but it's better than the nothing you'd have without it.

Many years ago, I was in a remote village in the interior of Alaska when an earthquake took out all the communication for all the villages in a sizeable chunk of the state. Within hours, military aircraft with God's own comm systems were running laps around the state talking to anything that could send a signal -- marine, CB, GMRS, Ham. Unfortunately, that isn't going to be the case in the wake of most disasters. Just knowing that someone out there is hearing you improves your confidence immensely.

Our county emergency communications response vehicle has radio capability in just about every band/mode as well. They join our club for summer Field Day exercises and I have operated from their vehicle. Amazing capability and array of radios. They have retractable VHF/UHF antennas on the vehicle that are run up on telescoping masts, plus they have an exterior connection panel (SO239s) to allow coax connection to any exterior antenna. Pretty nifty setup.

 

[WRTC928]

6 hours ago, WSEZ864 said:

Our county emergency communications response vehicle has radio capability in just about every band/mode as well. They join our club for summer Field Day exercises and I have operated from their vehicle. Amazing capability and array of radios. They have retractable VHF/UHF antennas on the vehicle that are run up on telescoping masts, plus they have an exterior connection panel (SO239s) to allow coax connection to any exterior antenna. Pretty nifty setup.

The National Guard of several states has Civil Support Teams whose role is to provide highly technical assistance to civil emergency and law enforcement agencies. For example, they have hazmat teams with the cutting-edge technology to detect pretty much any chemical, biological, or radiological hazard. They're a strange hybrid because they're funded and get their equipment from Regular Army and they're full-time active duty soldiers and airmen, but they belong to the National Guard because the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the regular Army and Air Force from acting in a civilian role except in very specific circumstances. One of their assets is a big van with the capability to provide all the emergency communication routing and interface for an entire city. That's pretty impressive!

[WRTC928]

The night before last, Ada Oklahoma got hammered badly by storms. They have an active amateur radio club with a repeater that I can hear and sometimes even use on a good day. It was very interesting to hear them reporting the action in real time, routing volunteers to areas that had just been hit, doing "damage triage" to help decide who needed help most urgently, etc. Radio is greatly superior to other forms of communication for that purpose because the word gets out to hundreds or potentially even thousands of people all at once. Obviously, there's always the potential for some bonehead to screw stuff up by getting on the repeater with extraneous traffic, but I didn't hear any of that. The local club has obviously practiced this; they ran very smoothly. I was impressed.