Individual Preparedness – Part 1

Bob Kenyon – K8LJ

February 7, 2007

This training tip deals with three specific areas of individual preparedness required to be able to effectively respond in a time of emergency. Much of this material has been covered in previous training tips, but it is a good idea to provide periodic reviews and gather thing together in a cohesive manner. Today’s training tip will focus on three topics: Power Considerations, Rigs, and Antennas.

Power Considerations

Never assume commercial power will be available to run your equipment

Never rely on only your vehicle battery to power your gear…you may need the vehicle for escape or refuge

Consider a supply of Gell-Cell or other types of sealed lead acid batteries. Appropriately sized and fully charged, they will power a medium power rig for quite some time, and an HT for a very long time

Have a generous supply of alkaline batteries available for your HT, if it can utilize them. If not, consider a power cord and appropriate adapter/connector that can be used with another power source if the internal battery fails

Have a power supply and extra re-chargeable batteries on hand just in case AC is available at your location

Rigs

Never depend solely on an HT for communications, unless it’s all that’s available

Consider a 25 watt, or better yet, 50 watt rig to better ensure reliable operation under emergency conditions

The FM mode is the lowest common denominator for emergency operations at the present time. SSB, RTTY, PSK and even CW and other modes are great and can be beneficial, but your favorite mode might not be the best one to use in a particular situation

Antennas

An HT rubber duck is a nice dummy load and about as good as a rubber chicken

It’s a good idea to have more efficient, and/or even gain antennas available. Some possibilities include a telescoping whip (can be used easily on 2M and 70cm), twin lead or solid J-poles (provide gain) and mag-mount or other types of ground plane antennas, some of which may also provide gain

Have sufficient coaxial cable to operate at a distance from your antenna’s location

Take care not to place antennas near objects or bystanders

An assortment of extra patch cables and adapter/gender changers/etc. is a must

This concludes this week’s training tip. Any comments, suggestions or corrections are most welcome.