emergency, comm, Tomas
Today will be indelibly etched in the minds of some Caribbean folks for ever. Things like hurricanes impact some people unto death, but for some of us it is a total non issue. I am not one of the non issue subscribers, I am somewhere in the middle, the supposedly safe zone. When you and your community come under hurricane warning or watch it is a serious matter and only those of us who live through the experience know how it really is. There are other severe weather occurrences like tornado and tsunami, but they are not in the same category as hurricanes and storms. It is said that in our recent hurricanes the presence of tornadoes were suspect, and I believe that would add another dimension of destruction and violence to our already killer type hurricanes. I am not waxing on hurricane Tomas which passed through the Windward Islands today, October 30, because the reports are available on line everywhere.
I picked up on the severe weather in the South Caribbean on Facebook and within a couple hours it was a storm, and a couple more hours it was a category 1 hurricane. Just like that. The only St Lucia Facebook friends that I have are ham radio operators, and they were not on Facebook. At best they seem to be mostly absent or maybe they just show a very conservative level of involvement and participation in that social networking community, and it is their prerogative. As ham radio operators we like to know that our ham radio brothers and sisters are all okay, set up and ready to deal with the adverse weather. But all is not lost because we are supposed to have a Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net that is operational 24x7 whenever there is severe weather in our region.
So I leave Facebook and go into my ham shack to see what is happening on the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net frequency of 7.162 MHz. Irrespective of who or what these folks are not, because they are just typical human beings, they take a great pleasure and pride in making that Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net function in our best interest. I spent all my time while home today listening to the traffic and stuff passing on the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net. I am not into the critique business, and nothing and nobody is perfect, but the guys did their usual great job, as far as I was concerned, listening from way up here in the safe zone.
There was a time that ham radio was a significant player following hurricanes and storms because the telecommunications infrastructure back then in some places were just not that robust, and service recovery would take quite a while. Today the telecommunication networks are so hardened and diversified that total failure should be non existent under normal circumstances. I don't want to sound negative but given the work ethic of some of the 'network management' these days, at some point on the timeline it could very well be the same old, same old. Enough said.
Once ago ham radio would assist in maintaining the external communication links with and between regional agencies. These days NEMA, Red Cross and other regional/international affiliated organizations have their own inter, intra and other, radio Communications systems, and their own radio communication operators too. I am aware that some of these "private' radio systems are not working as efficiently as they ought to be, and it is only because there is no real catastrophic emergency need that eyes are not rolled nor heads turned. There could come a time when it is a matter of life and death, and then it may be discovered that the perceived communications reliability does not really exist, and it may be hell and the devil to pay. Emergency Communications in serious business, but some people may not have caught on to that fact as yet.
Ham radio in Emergency Communications [in St Kitts-Nevis] is more of a National Security matter and I am leaving that entirely alone. I have nothing to say. But I must make a related comment. A typical HF ham radio transceiver with power supply and antenna accessory which could be used for any aspect of Emergency communications costs about US$1500.00, in words one thousand and five hundred united states dollars, plus or minus a few bucks. That is about 4-grand in our local currency. Whether it is for a newly licensed ham operator or an old time ham operator upgrading after 20 years from some obsolete equipment, this is typically what it will cost these days.
I understand that once upon a time there was an agreement with the Ministry of Finance here that permitted licensed ham radio operators that qualified, to be exempt from certain import taxes. It would appear that under the new VAT, effective next week Monday 1st November 2010, all ham radio equipment would be subject to the 17% VAT. Not to make any argument, but I observe that radios for fishermen do not attract VAT, and the fishermen are in no way involved with our National Security, to wit, Emergency Communications, et al.
Ham radio is a personal thing for the radio station owners and operators in respect of their hobby. Ham radio is taken from the personal realm into that of National Security [in St Kitts-Nevis] in respect of Emergency and Disaster events. How the ham radio station performs under the National umbrella is critically important, but we seem not to care or be concerned. I am still at a loss why a ham radio operator would invest 1500 Uncle Sams in radio station equipment and then try to communicate around the world on a random piece of wire sticking out of the jack on the back of the radio. I am not upset at the hams who do this, because I can appreciate that he/she may not be privy to certain information about efficient antenna systems like some of us. It is also quite possible that they do not have access to internet nor to information and data available at a discussion group like this.
The ham radio antenna is one of the most critical components of any ham radio station. When the radio station is deployed under the National umbrella it should be able to deliver the ultimate quality of service possible. To this end the most efficient or reliable antennas for the frequencies covered should be installed. Unfortunately many Caribbean hams do not give any serious consideration to these antenna systems. It is not to say that they are anywhere near as costly as the internal station hardware, but they are extremely critical to the propagation of the communications signals. Some hams believe in the fallacy that as long as their signal can be heard that is good enough. The target of every transmitting station should be perfect armchair copy at the receiving station, and not just to be heard amid the noise. This is even more important when operating for long hours under emergency and disaster conditions.
The bottom line is that Caribbean hams have to wake up to the reality that their antennas are just as important, maybe even more so, than their base stations. If they want to be at the head of the class all the time, time and effort must be invested in design, installation, testing, and tune up of their antennas and antenna systems. It seems to me that our hams are brain washed into the dipole and G5RV antennas. I can suspect that it is convenient to mount those antennas on one 20-foot length of water pipe, but unfortunately that pipe is way too short, and those antennas which can 'perform' better don't get the chance. Of course 20-feet on 80-meters may be great for local work, but for any kind of DX-ing, [the making of contact around the world], something else is required. But who wants to erect a second antenna, even if they have the space? I detect a certain level of laziness, a more appropriate word is complacency, and only when someone seeks to upstage them that they may recognize and seek to break the mold.
I am not into local chit chat, so dipoles and G5RVs are not for me. I want to talk to the hams on the other side of the world and the cheapest antenna for that job is a home made vertical. A quarter wave of aluminum tubing standing on end and insulated from the ground. Or that length of wire suspended vertically from a mast, tower, tree or whatever. Another quarter wave length of wire to make an elevated radial, or maybe two, three, or four. This vertical antenna is fed with coax cable through an ugly balun made by simply winding 20-feet of coax cable at the feed point end onto a 4" diameter PVC pipe. It is as simple as that. I am of the view, and have proved it, that if the antenna feed line is made even multiples of a half wavelength, antenna matching is most easily accomplished. I have some engineer ham friends who say that it is not necessary, and any length of coax cable will work, but I writing from what I know because that theory may work for them, but did not work for me.
If I use a 20-foot pipe for my vertical antenna it will outperform on the DX any dipole or G5RV antenna that you can place at 20 feet. Fact, indisputable. My 20-ft vertical can also work local, and let me add that these comments pertain to 40-meters. But for 80-meters it is not that big a difference, because with a 32-ft vertical pipe, top and bottom loaded to be a half wave dipole, your signal is able to reach the far side of the planet before that from an 80-meter dipole on a 20-ft pole. Sounds unbelievable? Give it a try and prove it for yourself. I am into Europe on 80-meters before my sunset, with my 32-ft top/bottom loaded vertical and 100 watts TS-940SAT transceiver. Well, you don't have to ask about the 31-ft vertical, elevated radials on 40-meters. I am still talking to the US long after sunrise, when the dipoles can't hear the Yankee signals. This not a brag, just the facts, and anyone can do this to.
So how does this translate to emergency communications. I am not running any class on propagation here, and if you know the theory of daytime propagation just apply the principles and do the math. V4 is at one end of the path J3, J6, J8, is near the other .... I had a perfect copy on the Emergency Net and they reported me as very strong. Guess they never expected to hear someone that strong at high noon. Tomas is gone looking for more victims. The cleanup and recovery continues, while we mourn with some for their loss, and pray that Tomas will not get anyone else in the North. One of these days the hams will get this antenna thing right and Caribbean ham radio will come into its own. Until then we just have to talk about it and try to impress those we come in contact with, show, tell and demonstrate, like never before, and just leave the rest to common sense.
[to be continued]
I picked up on the severe weather in the South Caribbean on Facebook and within a couple hours it was a storm, and a couple more hours it was a category 1 hurricane. Just like that. The only St Lucia Facebook friends that I have are ham radio operators, and they were not on Facebook. At best they seem to be mostly absent or maybe they just show a very conservative level of involvement and participation in that social networking community, and it is their prerogative. As ham radio operators we like to know that our ham radio brothers and sisters are all okay, set up and ready to deal with the adverse weather. But all is not lost because we are supposed to have a Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net that is operational 24x7 whenever there is severe weather in our region.
So I leave Facebook and go into my ham shack to see what is happening on the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net frequency of 7.162 MHz. Irrespective of who or what these folks are not, because they are just typical human beings, they take a great pleasure and pride in making that Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net function in our best interest. I spent all my time while home today listening to the traffic and stuff passing on the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net. I am not into the critique business, and nothing and nobody is perfect, but the guys did their usual great job, as far as I was concerned, listening from way up here in the safe zone.
There was a time that ham radio was a significant player following hurricanes and storms because the telecommunications infrastructure back then in some places were just not that robust, and service recovery would take quite a while. Today the telecommunication networks are so hardened and diversified that total failure should be non existent under normal circumstances. I don't want to sound negative but given the work ethic of some of the 'network management' these days, at some point on the timeline it could very well be the same old, same old. Enough said.
Once ago ham radio would assist in maintaining the external communication links with and between regional agencies. These days NEMA, Red Cross and other regional/international affiliated organizations have their own inter, intra and other, radio Communications systems, and their own radio communication operators too. I am aware that some of these "private' radio systems are not working as efficiently as they ought to be, and it is only because there is no real catastrophic emergency need that eyes are not rolled nor heads turned. There could come a time when it is a matter of life and death, and then it may be discovered that the perceived communications reliability does not really exist, and it may be hell and the devil to pay. Emergency Communications in serious business, but some people may not have caught on to that fact as yet.
Ham radio in Emergency Communications [in St Kitts-Nevis] is more of a National Security matter and I am leaving that entirely alone. I have nothing to say. But I must make a related comment. A typical HF ham radio transceiver with power supply and antenna accessory which could be used for any aspect of Emergency communications costs about US$1500.00, in words one thousand and five hundred united states dollars, plus or minus a few bucks. That is about 4-grand in our local currency. Whether it is for a newly licensed ham operator or an old time ham operator upgrading after 20 years from some obsolete equipment, this is typically what it will cost these days.
I understand that once upon a time there was an agreement with the Ministry of Finance here that permitted licensed ham radio operators that qualified, to be exempt from certain import taxes. It would appear that under the new VAT, effective next week Monday 1st November 2010, all ham radio equipment would be subject to the 17% VAT. Not to make any argument, but I observe that radios for fishermen do not attract VAT, and the fishermen are in no way involved with our National Security, to wit, Emergency Communications, et al.
Ham radio is a personal thing for the radio station owners and operators in respect of their hobby. Ham radio is taken from the personal realm into that of National Security [in St Kitts-Nevis] in respect of Emergency and Disaster events. How the ham radio station performs under the National umbrella is critically important, but we seem not to care or be concerned. I am still at a loss why a ham radio operator would invest 1500 Uncle Sams in radio station equipment and then try to communicate around the world on a random piece of wire sticking out of the jack on the back of the radio. I am not upset at the hams who do this, because I can appreciate that he/she may not be privy to certain information about efficient antenna systems like some of us. It is also quite possible that they do not have access to internet nor to information and data available at a discussion group like this.
The ham radio antenna is one of the most critical components of any ham radio station. When the radio station is deployed under the National umbrella it should be able to deliver the ultimate quality of service possible. To this end the most efficient or reliable antennas for the frequencies covered should be installed. Unfortunately many Caribbean hams do not give any serious consideration to these antenna systems. It is not to say that they are anywhere near as costly as the internal station hardware, but they are extremely critical to the propagation of the communications signals. Some hams believe in the fallacy that as long as their signal can be heard that is good enough. The target of every transmitting station should be perfect armchair copy at the receiving station, and not just to be heard amid the noise. This is even more important when operating for long hours under emergency and disaster conditions.
The bottom line is that Caribbean hams have to wake up to the reality that their antennas are just as important, maybe even more so, than their base stations. If they want to be at the head of the class all the time, time and effort must be invested in design, installation, testing, and tune up of their antennas and antenna systems. It seems to me that our hams are brain washed into the dipole and G5RV antennas. I can suspect that it is convenient to mount those antennas on one 20-foot length of water pipe, but unfortunately that pipe is way too short, and those antennas which can 'perform' better don't get the chance. Of course 20-feet on 80-meters may be great for local work, but for any kind of DX-ing, [the making of contact around the world], something else is required. But who wants to erect a second antenna, even if they have the space? I detect a certain level of laziness, a more appropriate word is complacency, and only when someone seeks to upstage them that they may recognize and seek to break the mold.
I am not into local chit chat, so dipoles and G5RVs are not for me. I want to talk to the hams on the other side of the world and the cheapest antenna for that job is a home made vertical. A quarter wave of aluminum tubing standing on end and insulated from the ground. Or that length of wire suspended vertically from a mast, tower, tree or whatever. Another quarter wave length of wire to make an elevated radial, or maybe two, three, or four. This vertical antenna is fed with coax cable through an ugly balun made by simply winding 20-feet of coax cable at the feed point end onto a 4" diameter PVC pipe. It is as simple as that. I am of the view, and have proved it, that if the antenna feed line is made even multiples of a half wavelength, antenna matching is most easily accomplished. I have some engineer ham friends who say that it is not necessary, and any length of coax cable will work, but I writing from what I know because that theory may work for them, but did not work for me.
If I use a 20-foot pipe for my vertical antenna it will outperform on the DX any dipole or G5RV antenna that you can place at 20 feet. Fact, indisputable. My 20-ft vertical can also work local, and let me add that these comments pertain to 40-meters. But for 80-meters it is not that big a difference, because with a 32-ft vertical pipe, top and bottom loaded to be a half wave dipole, your signal is able to reach the far side of the planet before that from an 80-meter dipole on a 20-ft pole. Sounds unbelievable? Give it a try and prove it for yourself. I am into Europe on 80-meters before my sunset, with my 32-ft top/bottom loaded vertical and 100 watts TS-940SAT transceiver. Well, you don't have to ask about the 31-ft vertical, elevated radials on 40-meters. I am still talking to the US long after sunrise, when the dipoles can't hear the Yankee signals. This not a brag, just the facts, and anyone can do this to.
So how does this translate to emergency communications. I am not running any class on propagation here, and if you know the theory of daytime propagation just apply the principles and do the math. V4 is at one end of the path J3, J6, J8, is near the other .... I had a perfect copy on the Emergency Net and they reported me as very strong. Guess they never expected to hear someone that strong at high noon. Tomas is gone looking for more victims. The cleanup and recovery continues, while we mourn with some for their loss, and pray that Tomas will not get anyone else in the North. One of these days the hams will get this antenna thing right and Caribbean ham radio will come into its own. Until then we just have to talk about it and try to impress those we come in contact with, show, tell and demonstrate, like never before, and just leave the rest to common sense.
[to be continued]
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