ARES/RACES Gear question.

[dave6890]

I am currently in the process of getting involved with ARES here in CT and I want to make sure that I have adequate gear for field operation. I have a Technicians class license. I guess the easiest way to do this is I'll list off what I have so far and you can tell me what I am missing and/or should/need to have. Note: Money doesn't grow on trees, if you suggest any gear, please only do so if it costs under $500. Anything over that and I'll assume that you'll be lending me a couple bucks .

My current Mobile rig:
-Icom IC2300H 2m
-Tram NMO antenna mount
-Laird NMO 2m antenna (the $10 one.. soon to be upgraded)
-Uniden Bearcat BC255N scanner.

Current Handhelds:
-Baofeng UV-5R+
-Radioshack Pro-651
-Motorola GMRS/FRS Talkabouts

Other gear:
-12v DC portable power bank. I built it myself and it consists of everything I need for "off grid" or down grid power of my equipment.
-20' portable antenna mast with Laird Tech mobile to base antenna adapter kit. (work in progress, just started building it on Sunday but weather has been crummy since.)
-Pelican case for storing radios and stuff.

Buying in the near future/considering buying:
-Kenwood V71A
-50' Feed line. Not sure which type to go with. This will be for connecting the antenna on the 20' mast to the transceiver.
-Browning BR-180 2m/70cm antenna. This will be mounted on that mast.
-Discone scanner antenna. Will be also mounted on the mast.


Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[teufler]

with 50 ft of coax, I would use RG-8x, its lighter in weeight than rg213 or lmr 400. The loss against the larger diameter coax will not be enough to notice..I would build a tape measure beam, About $9.00, highly portable, can assemble quickly, will make a difference in being heard or just adding to the noise level. A cell phone, that you can takle pictures withj and fotrward pictures over the air. A picture will be worth a thousand words. A small first aid kit, mountain money(alias toliet paper), the antenna mast-an idea, go by the electrical service that takes care of your services in your area. The have 28-40 piles that they use for replaceing breakers. Sometimes they are broken, the breaker holder breaker hold breaks off. Sometimes you can talk them out of one, they collaspe, about 10 ft long before they are puled to their :"UP" height. As for the tape measure beam, Google search, plus there have ben aricles om RR that explains and shows the finished product. 75 ft of small rope cut in 25 ft lenths, to use as guide wires. A roll of duck tape, for wrapping you antenna mast to a tree, rather than supporting with guy ropes. All of what I suggested should not cost $50.00 or less.The discone would be nice but in a pinch, the dual band ham antenna will work. Get yourself a antenna switch, 2 in 1 out. The scanner can be on one side and the radio on the other..The scanner can monitor all the traffic. If you are called, switch to the radio and your using the dual band or single band antenna. The extra height, you have with the antenna, will make up some for an antenna that is really not for the band in question. If you plan on hanging multiple antennas on the mast, you complicate your setup time, plus you nay need manpower to help. The push up pole, from the electrical company was used when I went to operate at Katrina, in Biloxi, Ms. We arrived andf had the antenna and a B&W foldede dipole up in about 20 minutes. Course in the hast of putting it up, I forgot to screw the coax onto the antenna, so remember to screw the coax on before the antenna is erected.

 

[dave6890]

Re: Teufler

Thanks for your input. The antenna mast that I am building is made of metal conduit. One 10 foot length for the main section, a 5 foot length for the base and the other 5 foot length for the top. I've been fabricating a mount and brace system so that I could mount it too my roof rack on my SUV. When it's finished I'll post pictures and I'll be uploading a video onto my YouTube channel.

Antenna wise, I was thinking about having the 2m/70cm transceiver hooked up to a Beam and a Omni-directional antenna. If I need to hit a repeater or another station farther away, I'd switch to the Beam. The only problem would be rotating it without having to rotate the entire mast.

With the mast, I am really shooting for cost effectiveness, easy to set up and functionality. I'll be experimenting with different setups anyway and see what works. I want something that I can pack into my vehicle and then have it set up and ready to go in less than 20 minutes.

I know that I want to have the Kenwood set up with my laptop for EchoLink. I'm probably going to buy the Kenwood V71A next month, swap out my Icom 2m with the Kenwood in my SUV and then go from there.

 

[teufler]

kenwood is a good choice. Years ago, I had a Yaesu 8900. Played with some other radios but finally went with a kenwood d700. I will do aprs, which allows you to send emails . Course dual band, and cross band, but the email ability has come in handy mant times. I sent out a 100 or more emails to peoples relatives, because phone and cell phone were not working.

 

[n2hbx]

Sounds like a pretty good assortment. I would opt for a dual band mobile, however, instead of the single band.

Larry

 

[prcguy]

I support ARES in my area including donating time and equipment to the Baker to Vegas law enforcement foot race across the California and Nevada desert. ARES also supports some inter hospital communications in So Cal during disasters.

In addition to reliable radios for whatever bands you operate I would put my money on the best antennas you can afford and not mobile antennas with ground plane adapters as some of your comms are likely to be simplex, especially during power failures where some repeaters have no backup power.

I like the Comet CX-333 because it covers 2m, 220 and 440 which are popular bands for ARES and its got some reasonable gain. It also breaks down in two sections for easy transport. The CX-333 at 10.5 ft tall would be the smallest antenna I would use for temporary base station use that may have to communicate long distance on simplex. If 220 is not needed I would use a Comet GP-9 series or I have separate 21ft high gain mono band antennas for 2m and 440,

I'm not a big fan of Yagi or directional antennas for ARES type work because you never know what you may be asked to communicate with or what direction. A 20ft tall omni on 2m would have about the same gain as a 3 element Yagi anyway.

I use LMR-240 coax for portable VHF/UHF use up to maybe 30ft and for 50ft or longer runs its LMR400 or 600. I've got piles of LMR240, 400 and 600 with various connector combinations and in lengths up to 200ft ready to go at any given time.

I also like to have a couple of radios that will do cross band repeat, which can be great problem solvers when repeaters are down or to allow access to a distant repeater from a handheld via cross band. The Yaesu 8900 is good for this and I've had excellent results with the TYT 9800 in cross band service.

For temporary antenna mast I use the heavy duty 5ft aluminum or fiberglass military surplus stuff once sold by Fair Radio Sales and not to be confused with the flimsy masts that held up cammo netting sold on Ebay. There is a guy on Ebay that sells a trailer hitch mount that accepts masts up to about 2" OD and you can safely get about 20ft of mast unguyed with a big antenna in the air with one of these. I also have a 42ft Will-Burt pneumatic mast with rotor that goes in my pickup bed but that's a story for another day.
prcguy

 

[codblackops2]

I am also part of our local ARES and also CERT Team in NWFL. I built my own home made antenna out of #2 copper wire. Pretty much its a ground plane that is on 20ft of aluminum conduit that I bought at the local home depot. I am able to pull the antenna down disassemble and reassemble in the field. I also have a Yaesu FT-7900 and a Kenwood V71A in my SUV that I use in the field also. I can run low power off the ground plane and still hit our EOC repeater that is 30 miles away on low power. So you really don't need a beam or anything unless your going to be down in a valley. Plus with the kenwood V71a I can use the crossband repeater to relay or receive information on my handheld. Just my 2 cents if your looking to save money like I was

 

[dave6890]

Thanks guys. Yes, I will be going with a dual band mobile. I'm not sure about sending emails with it though, I am likely going to invest in some sort of wireless anywhere satellite system for my laptop so that I can have full internet access. But again, cost is the only issue.
Regarding antennas, how tall should the mast be? I am currently building a portable one that will be able to mount on the roof rack on my vehicle. (will have pics up this weekend when it's finished). The mast itself is 6' tall but when mounted on my vehicle it stands roughly 11.5' tall. I can make it taller by adding another section as well. It is made of EMT conduit (essentially aluminum tubing)

I have a feeling that I'll have to make the mast at least 20 feet tall but I am not sure as I have never done this before.
Other than that, I have my portable power supply almost complete and a Pelican case at the ready to be turned into my Go Box.

 

[dave6890]

Codblackops2,
I used to live in central FL and will be moving back down there in a few years. I miss the "bad" weather and sunburn. It snowed here yesterday afternoon as if spring was just an illusion!

Hopefully you see another quiet hurricane season down there this year though.

Cheers.

 

[N0IU]

These are all good suggestions but they are very "generic". You might want to see what the other members of your ARES group are using and see what works best for them and ask if there is anything specific to their operation they recommend.