Finally, a big antenna is hard to hide

You could always hide an inverted dipole in your rafters,to delay
A speedy visual sweep,but not serious Uncle Charlie style RDF.

KD:it's illegal to use encryption on ham bands

What about on a business license/like GMRS?


PSK31 still in use?
By the time I got radios/laptops working good enough
for stuff like the digital packages of the recent past most all the old
modes were history.

Billy: Depends on the band and service. In some cases it's perfectly legal.

PSK31 is definitely still in use.

Whatever you do, DON'T become a total HAM radio geek and go wandering off into the local mountains hoping to get a better signal. My neighbor did years ago and has yet to return from his little hike.

I should add I have no idea if hiking up a mountain does indeed give you a better experience somehow. All we know is the neighbor left one day and never came back. We are just assuming it had something to do with pursuing his HAM radio obsession... the "lost in the mountains" is the most likely explanation we in the neighborhood could come up with collectively. Of course as a HAM radio operator you would think he would be able to radio out his position if he ran into trouble. Every time I see his still-open windows in the house I get the heebie jeebies thinking about it. (Single guy, no family. House is exactly as he left it that morning. Yeex.)

Other than that it sounds like a nice hobby. But it's best to heed GRF's analysis/warning above.

I'm thinking about a carrier pidgeon instead.

Just for general information.

It's perfectly legal for anyone to transmit in a bona-fide emergency when life is at stake. You better be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt though that life was threatened or you're in deep ****.

For those unfamiliar with ham radio, the IC92 does a dandy job on VHF/UHF, with many, many FM channels for direct contact with other units within a few miles.

Ham radio clubs have put signal repeater devices in many metropolitan areas that allow city and region wide communications. In the Los Angeles area, there are many on mountain peaks that cover a large percentage of Southern California.

The 11 year sunspot cycle is finally shifting to a more active phase. I'm going to break out my HF gear, and see whats going on with transcontinental communications using fairly low power equipment. My ancient Icom IC-751 puts out about 100 watts; antennas are fairly simple. It runs off of 12 volts(eg a car battery), but I usually use an AC supply.

At one point in my hobby career, I was instrumental in developing some of the first packet radio boards. These devices are the interface between ham radios and computers; they transmit in short bursts in AX-25 and are enable a computer-to-computer network. PSK-31 is an alternative protocol more like radioteletype than any computer network.

Its fairly easy to power all of this equipment from 12 volts, and ham radio contacts are frequently maintained throughout widespread power outages. I personally keep a 12V battery bank trickle charged and ready for use in the event of an earthquake. My area also gets winter windstorms that knocks out power overnight every couple of years or so.

A popular joke in the Los Angeles area says we do indeed have 4 seasons - earthquake, brushfire, mudslide and riot. My SHTF planning scenarios involve windstorm, brush fire, earthquake & mudslide; I've personally experienced all of them or had them happen in adjacent neighborhoods.

A NVIS antenna setup is great for local comms on HF (out to 300 miles or so). It's trivially easy to set up a loop under the eaves of your house that is for all intents and purposes invisible to casual observers.

I have this setup and it works well on 160-80M at night and 80-40M during the day.

Well I've begun studying for the technician and general tests and placed an order for a KG-UV6D. I'm going to get into this as cheap as possible at the beginning and may look to buy a decent mobile later.

For mobile HF/VHF/UHF, I have an Icom 706 Mk-I and a Yaesu 897D. Both work well and are very rugged.

The Yaesu 897D is more flexible logistically-speaking in regards to the component configuration. You can bolt all three components (the transceiver, tuner and power supply or batteries) into one unit. You can put that in a backpack with a solar panel and antenna and just go.

The Icom 706 has separate components (transceiver, power supply and tuner) that are loose and have to be wired together.

I've been a licensed ham since I was a teenager, several decades ago. SHTF scenarios are part of the hobby, from hurricane to earthquake to tornado to ice storm to perhaps in Los Angeles, riot.

I find it bizarre the comments having the gear seized by the city I live in. Should a temporary SHTF scenario happen, I'd probably be running a message or phone patch service for my neighbors. That is part of what the ARRL is about.

Should a permanent SHTF scenario occur, all bets are off. I'd probably not be living in a suburb of Los Angeles for very long.

Quote:

I find it bizarre the comments having the gear seized by the city I live in.

I don't know why this came up, but I can tell you that my city has stated and put in writing that they will take any equipment from me that they want in a time of emergency.

For those that are truly tin-hat afficionados:

There is a technique for communicating beneath the noise level, based on pre-arranged coding techniques:

Weak Signal Communication Software
WSJT, MAP65, and WSPR are open-source programs designed for weak-signal digital communication by amateur radio. Normal usage requires a standard SSB transceiver and a personal computer with soundcard. SimJT is a utility that generates simulated signals for test purposes. Ready-to-run Windows versions of all four programs are available for free download. Installation files for Linux are available for WSJT and WSPR. For other operating systems, see the Program Development page.

WSJT ("Weak Signal Communication, by K1JT") offers specific digital protocols optimized for meteor scatter, ionospheric scatter, and EME (moonbounce) at VHF/UHF, as well as HF skywave propagation. The program can decode fraction-of-a-second signals reflected from ionized meteor trails and steady signals 10 dB below the audible threshold. A beta release of WSJT 9.0 is now available.

See the website at:
http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT....

Its a very involved hobby.

Why is it "tin hat"? Like I said, Austin has put it in writing that they will take any of my property that they need if an emergency is declared. If that is "tin hat" then I guess death and taxes are "tin hat", I'm "tin hat", this computer is "tin hat", this web site is "tin hat"...

It's right here:
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/emergency_ser....

"When an emergency situation has caused severe damage, the county judge/mayor may invoke certain emergency powers [including] commandeering private property."

I looked at the document. Its interesting that the "highly likely" scenarios are flash floods, wildfires and civil unrest.

I also note that the amateur radio organization RACES is listed along with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and a Southern Baptist organization as VOLUNTEER organizations.

So what's your point?

Its interesting that the Austin powers-that-be seem prioritize flash flood or wildfire at the same level as civil unrest among the population.

Maybe I should rate civil unrest at a higher priority as well. Based on my experience, I've viewed natural disasters a far more likely scenario for preparations.

Of course it's rare, but of course it can (and does) happen. i.e. Katrina - New Orleans. You have to watch out for the government as much as the natural elements that conspire against you.

edit: Now, we did have a natural disaster here last September where much of eastern Bastrop county burned to the ground. But there was no state of emergency and almost the whole city of Austin was mobilized to bring people and supplies to the area. When FEMA showed up a few days later, they actually stopped local volunteers from assisting and turned them back; told them to go home and let the Feds handle it. But amateur radio chatter was surprisingly light during that time.

Which bands do you guys consider to be the most useful?

Most would call me a prepper but this thread is a bridge too far even for me.

Quote:

Which bands do you guys consider to be the most useful?

For what distance of communication? Signals in different band wavelengths propagate in a useful way only so far, depending on equipment.

Statewide to country wide. I know that is HF territory but is the equipment different for each band or is it just a matter of different antennas?

For statewide to country wide, you want 10 meter to 80 meters, which are HF. I've heard very good 20 meter RX in South Carolina from someone in San Jose, CA in the middle of the day on a very good set up.

All antennas and equipment are slightly different, so check the specs to see what bands it will TX/RX (transmit/receive). Most modern HF rigs will do all the HF bands.

Antennas are a completely different level of complexity. Gen recommends one length of wire for each band, which will work very well, depending on which bands you want to mess around with. I have a Buddistick HF antenna (among others), which is the ultimate portable HF antenna, but it makes major performance compromises with its compact design.

Texas has several VHF/UHF repeater network systems which cover most of the state. So when you use your handheld VHF/UHF radio and can RX/TX with one repeater, it is linked to all the other repeaters in the network. So you can communicate with anyone within 20-50 miles of all the other repeaters.

One here is called the Saltgrass Network. Austin's repeater frequency is 442.450 MHz. I can hear people from Houston and the Gulf Coast chattering on it almost all day long. It covers about 20 Texas coastal counties and a couple of Louisiana parishes.

I know there are other repeater networks in other parts of the country too. VHF and UHF handhelds are much easier to get up and running right out of the box.

Alright so depending on a lot on conditions that I don't entirely know yet there are various bands in HF that work different distances? Day/night, sunspots, etc?

Yes, exactly. Basically, different conditions exist that allow better propagation of different waves (bands). The AARL study book for the first license, Technician, is excellent. It explains all that in very easy terms.