[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Field Comms - (More Dates) (Page 3 of 3)
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Looking forward to the AAR. Shootindave never had trouble hearing me but I always had difficulty hearing him. No surprise there, since I was 1500W into a 65ft high dipole and he was only 100W and a wire in a tree (or something like that). Both of us in rural locations with very little band noise. However, if I had not had one of the best receivers in the world I would never have heard him at all. Like if I was on my old IC-7000, fuhgeddaboudit... |
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Quoted: Times are local time (CST); Friday 2/24/23 Missouri APC will be at K-6528 for a two day camp/hike/training event. Cell phone service is very limited. I might put out a POTA spot between 1pm and 4pm depending. Any participation in helping us get some Arfcom contacts would be great. Frequ listed as primary / secondary / contingent 4pm; 21.361 / 21.413 / 21.443 5pm; 14.261 / 14.283 / 14.343 6pm; 7.213 / 7.285 / 7.295 8pm; 3.861 / 3.961 / 3.971 ********** Saturday 2/25/23 8am The Arfcom Tech Net; lets try to gather in the Tech portion of the 10m band. There are folks with Tech licenses that have not got on HF. (SSB) 28.445 / 28.435 / 28.425 If there are Techs that want to try a 10m contact on Friday, post it here with your available times. How did I miss the schedule?  
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Quoted: Any other thoughts on this exercise? As I am very new to all things HF / Portable I don't have a whole lot of analytical input. I will provide some basic stuff about the weekend. - 10 contacts were made with arfcom stations. Contacts were made on all scheduled bands, other than 10m (was hoping that might give Alaska a shot). On all time slots, one of the predetermined frequencies was found to be clear on my end and able to be used. There were two relays for a station too close to me geographically for 20m (he made successful contact with a great signal on 40m). - I had S7 static crashes on 40m, so if you were a weak signal I could not hear you and my IL relay station could not hear you. - I made too many POTA contacts to count at the moment, a lot of them were after 9pm local time on 20m. Including Alaska, Canada, Panama and Puerto Rico. (almost had a Greek guy operating out of Serbia, but could not close the deal on my return signal report). - During all Arfcom windows I switched to a marine deep cycle battery and ran 100 watts, into a 72' random wire, inverted V about 30' in a tree. E/W broadside. This campsite is at maximum elevation for the surrounding area. - It was cold and windy. It might have got below 20 degrees at night. We had three overnight campers and seven hikers. Five hikers successfully completed the 6 mile hike (35 lb ruck and rifle) in under two hours, which is the APC standard. There were two creek crossings which soaked my feet, at the three mile mark we arrived at the range and there was a brief rifle drill. There is a lot of elevation change in that area of the Ozarks. - Take medical supplies camping. Supplies used for a knife cut during food prep; butterfly band-aide, band-aide, cold compress to slow bleeding and medical tape.  |
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Thank you for doing these excercises. I know it takes a lot to coordinate, set up, & monitor. Especially, when your trying get ready for the APC part of the weekend, trying to contribute to the camp chores, and trying to get out to the campfire to socialize. I've done two at an APC campout and a CW campout. Lots of fun, but a fair amount of work. |
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I will also add that our group has standardized on MURS frequencies for handhelds and in February we did a training event for radios. The training included radio programming, deploying an antenna in a tree, standardized radio report formatting and a practical application training event to show how VHF fails in elevation changes. This has increased overall interest in all things radio and there was a lot of practical application today when a couple people fell behind and were sending reports on location to the lead group. ---------------- Weather is about to get better, so if other folks want to use this thread for their own camping trips, APC events or other field radio things........ feel free to use this thread to keep it going. |
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Map of the contacts for 3/17, not including ARFCOM stations. Attached File |
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Quoted: What was the "standardized radio report formatting" ? Can you post the protocol? We went over a couple and there are quite a few out there from different organizations and industries. I kind of like one found in some firefighting protocols. LCANS Location, Conditions, Actions, Needs, Safe Zone I think it can be applied to many different scenarios. |
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Times are local time (CDT); (- 5 Zulu) Friday 4/28/23 Missouri APC will be at K-6528 for a two day camp/hike/training event. Cell phone service is very limited. I might put out a POTA spot between 1pm and 4pm depending. Any participation in helping us get some Arfcom contacts would be great. Frequ listed as primary / secondary / contingent. If all frequ are unusable, I will start at the lowest part of the band and start searching to the top of the band until a clear channel is heard. I will have a wire and vertical. If you tried to reach us last time and were unable to, and would like me to use a vertical for a window, let me know. Otherwise, I will be on a wire. 4pm; 28.425 /28.435 / 28.445 5pm; 21.361 / 21.413 / 21.443 6pm; 18.117 / 18.127/ 18.137 6:15pm; 14.261 / 14.283 / 14.343 6:30pm: 7.213 / 7.285 / 7.295 (Night shoot 7pm - 9pm no windows available) 9:15pm; 14.261 / 14.283 / 14.343 Saturday 4/29/23 (No windows available 8:30am - 1pm hike/lunch) 2pm: 14.261 / 14.283 / 14.343 2:30pm: If anyone regional MO/AR/IL/OK/IA/ETC would like a daylight 40m regional window, let me know and one will be added before departing camp. - If anyone wants to setup a different comms window for anything 10-80m, please add it to this thread and I/we will try to make it happen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The contest; - All contacts made with our camp, that identify as Arfcom will get one entry into the drawing for each band/window a contact is made from. - If you are portable, using an antenna not permanently erected and battery power, you will get two entries per band/window activated as portable. Please identify as arfcom portable. This can be in your backyard, etc. ****** Relays Count ******* - If your info is not current on QRZ and you make contact, please IM or email me your info so that I can mail your QSL card and the prize if you are drawn. ** THE PRIZE; A mystery, untested, used, silent key, portable end fed "Princeton" antenna. I am guessing it is a 9:1 random wire. I got it at a ham fest. Associated Radio in Kansas makes them and still sells them in store and online. Link to Ebay listing |
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Bump; One week out. The prize; matching unit, custom high-speed wire winder and wire antenna. Attached File |