On Monday 27 January 2025 04:43:26 pm wn4isx via groups.io wrote:
At one time 88mH (and other value) inductors were as common as roaches and just about as valuable. Today they are scarce, a quick net search didn't find any 'real' 88mH loading coils for sale.
I remember seeing them mentioned a fair amount back when, not so much lately.
RTTY is a dying data format clinging to life with an amazing tenacity by true fanatics. Almost all are older men, I'd say 70 and up.
I can believe that.
There are many better, as in faster, more reliable, radio data formats.
If I were starting today I wouldn't bother with RTTY. Since I have a decoder that works extremely well and it might be useful in an emergency.
Plus it took me a year to design, debug and build and is the size of 2 paper back books.
Modern systems are PC/Sound card with an interface to activate the push to talk.
This is a good one stop shop for data modes with fairly objective reviews.
An interesting site. Though he needs to proofread it a bit, and maybe update some stuff. I see where he mentions MFJ, who I hear has pretty much pulled the plug at this point. I also have no use for ARRL lately.
I use the free version of Macrium Reflect and have a disk image that converts my general purpose laptop into a dedicated emergency communication PC with all the data software I'm likely to need.
I have a number of laptops here that I'm not doing much with, and it should be fairly trivial to dedicate one to that kind of use.
Typically I'll make an image of this PC as it is 'now' when a tornado watch is declared, load the radio emergency image and start playing ham radio operator.
I haven't been active at all in ages. Been moved over here about 4-1/2 years and I have yet to get any antennas up. At 73 and with ostoporosis I won't be climbing any ladders, and haven't found anybody willing to help out with that even with an offer of compensation. So I have several antennas sitting downstairs, along with some mounts and such, waiting for me to deal with 'em. I did get to meet up with one guy who's down the road a bit, we had a good chat, and he offered me a 2M rig, but I haven't heard back from him since then.
I did try out a rollup antenna that's dual-band, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could accsss one repeater in particular and check in on a net, which was a bit of a surprise since I'm under a metal roof.
I auto-record all the traffic on our primary 2 meter repeater for Skywarn network, I have SDR software for the RSPplay SDR to tune to the other ham repeaters in the area and the US standard Simplex frequency.
There's one repeater in the Harrisburg area that carries a skywarn net, and I did get certified for that a while back, but I can't pull that one in directly and that particular repeater doesn't have echolink available.
SDR is of some interest to me. But again, that'll depend on antennas...
I go from net nut to fully prepared ham in less then 5 minutes.
Of course I'm not totally dependent upon the PC. If it dies I still have voice coms, a solid state office MP3 micro recorder and pen and paper.
The local ham community joins the 4 wheel drive community in the event of a 'bad snow event' like the winter of 1978 when we had 4 feet of snow, drifts 30 feet high and almost nothing could move. The hams and 4 wheelers shuttled nurses and doctors from/to home to work, took food to people who couldn't get out.
Stockpiling food is a good thing. I've looked at emcomm stuff, but way too much of it is way too formal and too focused on supporting various officals, not my thing.
Ham radio has one advantage over cell service. In the event of a wide area power failure, cell sites will go down when their emergency power dies, hams can operate from a variety of power sources.
My setup here included a group 24 AGM that I picked up at a hamfest, but it seems to have reached the end of its life now, won't take or hold a charge, and I am not looking forward to getting that thing back down the stairs to get it to recycling. Or to the cost of replacing it.
They provided the communication backbone in New Orleans after Katrina.
I seldom fire up a ham radio except during bad events. My life is too busy with other projects and most ham comms bore me to tears.
YMMV
I can understand that. I have run across two clubs, one of them more local but there's not much going on there. The other one much more active, but it's a 100 mile round trip to get to a meeting, and I don't participate much in their stuff any more, aside from reading the mailing list...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
