"Skunked" Again!

Nice and interesting story Bruce.

The last time we had a tornado warning here the only indication of this was the emergency warning sirens in our county. Nothing on broadcast radio that I found. Nothing on our TIS station. Only the Amateur Radio Skywarn Net had anythihg going. The same thing is true here with power outages. Nothing on the BCB and sometimes a bit of info on ham radio. We are on VOIP for phone and it goes dead with the power out. We have cell phones but those systems (as do land lines) can get overloaded or knocked out with emergencies.

For ham operation I have a Ringo Range on my roof and I can work most repeaters within 40 miles using my Kenwood TR-7400 at 25 watts. I can also open the Skywarn repeater which is about 10 miles distant using my 2.5 watt handheld connected to this antenna. The handheld is kept fully charged with a second set of batteries. I maintain two 3.3 AH sealed lead acid batteries charged so if really needed I can run my 25 watt rig on listen for 12 hours and can transmit if need be at high power. The rig draws .5 A on receive and 4 A on high power transmit.

Another problem encountered with storms is the danger of lightning and I will not connect to the roof antenna when this happens. Back when I lived in the hilly Cincinnati area it was harder to open repeaters with low power and duckie antennas so I developed what I called the "Subterranean Ground Plane antenna and a "Passive 2 meter Repeater". The SGP antenna was simply a BNC female connector to which I soldered four 19" ground radials and a 19" radiator. This was suspended upside down from my basement ceiling and even with 5 watts I could work the repeaters. I have a similar setup here now.

I then got the idea (which it turns out is not original) that I could connect the SGP antenna to the rooftop antenna and the signal from my handheld would be picked up by the SGP and fed to the rooftop antenna. It worked and I could sit in my basement and with 2.5 watts from the handheld I could work the downtown repeaters about 15 miles distant. I haven't tried it here yet.

I actually don't think much about power outages but when they happen and I am sitting here in the dark I am reminded that preparation is a good thing.

Neil

Bruce, your play by play is excellent and it says a lot about how 30,000 people can be dismissed by big communications.

Also, Radio8z, you both have HAM knowledge and experience, which opened a whole extra dimension to you both for checking the "world beyond" through radio, but most people would never have acquired that kind of know how.

Even something so basic as a radio with good batteries might be overlooked.

I have a survival story also, from last night, which I will title "survival of the idiot".

Just at sundown I took out three trash cans of yard waste to put on the curb, and I had my Grundig FR-200 in hand, the radio that looks like a compact purse, tuned to AM 1550, one of the KDX signals.

Two hours later, indoors, I needed the Grundig for a trip to the basement, but was unable to find it.

Retracing all my steps, I ended up finding it out at the curb in one of the trash cans, still playing clearly. I'd set it atop the branches and leaves while I carried the can.

It is lucky that no passer by happened to hear and grab their new "free radio."

Hi Neil!

The upside down ground plane is great, and
the passive repeater antenna is fantastic!
I've heard of the passive idea, but not
for two meters. What a great idea!

My IC-T7H dual hand held is like a brick.
It is made so well. It hears the International
Space Station packet beacon without any problem
indoors. I don't have a computer - as you may
remember - the DRS2 Part 15 computer is broken.
So I can't decode the space station packet traffic.
I'm waiting for a friend to find me an old piece
of junk that I can dedicate just for radio use.

I never get on the "big repeaters" ever. Years
ago, I did participate in weather nets, and enjoyed
those a great deal, but that was about 17 years ago
before my daughter was born. The two repeaters that
are run by chief engineers of some of the radio stations
here have been great because it's just a bunch of
techs talking mainly.

My 220 handheld was given to me as a present by the
owner of a huge 220 machine, who is also a very very
close friend, and the engineer of several BC stations
here. It's an Alinco - right now I can't remember the
model number. It is beautifully made, ergonomically
great, and has a very good receiver. Up to that point
I had been using a 1982 Tempo S-2 HT for 220. After
25 years of use, the faithful Tempo S-2 fell off the
top of the refrigerator and that was that. It was
a new refrigerator, and it jiggled more than the
previous fridge when the door was shut. The trusty S-2 never had a problem staying on the old fridge when the door
was shut. I was really bummed out.

Hence, the gift from my fiend. The batteries in the
Tempo S-2 were long gone. I ran it off of external
power sources. Every once in a while I would run it
off of a 20 amp Heathkit 12 volt supply. It looked
REALLY silly to have this small HT sitting on top of
a huge heavy 20 amp supply. Really silly. But that's
what I had. The S-2 lives still, in the dead radio
box. Now it's only function is to look cool, and it
still does.

As for listening to the local stuff in town, my
Icom IC-R2 (AM BCB up to 1300 MHz)
handheld receiver works fine.

The town system is trunked, but it is just
five FM voice channels and a data channel. If you just
scan the channels, you get almost everything.
Out of the six channels total, all on 860
MHz, the data channel changes. So one of the
six channels will be the sync data. You just
find it and lock it out. When it changes,
usually at midnight, you just unlock the channel
it WAS on, and lock out the channel it moved to.
I actually NEVER listen to the stuff going on
in town. Only when I need to. The R-2 usually
scans the two "chief engineer repeaters" on 220
and 440. It only needs two AA batteries. So
it is very inexpensive to run. It has no
external power jack. (The Icom IC-R5, a newer
version, does.) But the batteries are fine.

Neil, do you or anybody else have any data on how
long or why previously charged NiMH AAs
or AAAs run down after they have been sitting
around for a while? Maybe I'm disorganized and
am mixing up the batteries (the charged ones and
the discharged ones?) but I don't think so.

Oh my. Too much stuff to do. It's fun to hear
about your ham radio stuff, Neil.

Oh, the old 1962 CR-1 crystal set is still connected
to the 80 meter wire. I checked this morning, and
WTIC is still there.

Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2

Bruce,

The results of a net search on "NiMH self discharge" returned several links and one of them states:

"...the rapid self discharge is a major problem with NiMH batteries they lose almost close to 1% charge every day and many batteries get discharged within 1-4 months"

Link is: http://www.rechargebatteryguide.com/batteries/nimh-batteries-and-self-discharge

I am glad you asked since I didn't know this. I don't notice this since, through use, my NiMHs don't stay in equipment that long and are in orbit between my radios and the charger.

Neil

Batteries is one of those things I'd love to spend more time with if there was more time.

During our video years we used Hi-8 CamCorders which used a "battery-pack", like a small brick that clipped on the back.

The notes warned that "to get a full recharge it was necessary to fully discharge the battery."

So I clipped an auto light bulb and drained one of them right down to bedrock.

It never did work right after that.

Hi Neil!

Thank you for the NiMH info. I have
a lot of them - I started buying them
about 2 years ago instead of regular
batteries. But yup, you have to keep
some alkalines around in case all of
the NiMH batteries get used up.

I have a really old slow charger. It's a
big flat thing that opens up and you
can put lots of different kinds of
rechargable batteries in it. It will recharge
AAs, AAAs, Cs, Ds, and the square 9 volt
kind. It's a beautiful piece of equipment.
It has status lights that show the batteries
are charging even if the cover is closed.
(There is a transparent area in the top
cover where the lights shine through.)
It will do at least 10 batteries at a time.
I just leave the batteries on it for a few
days and then use them. The batteries
don't ever get hot at all - they just work.

It's weird, because I'm in a different mind
set now about batteries. If I buy an alkaline,
my mind says" "Here's a battery that can only
be used once. Gee, that's odd."

Carl, I have a bunch of comments for you.
I never saw your post. You sure don't have
to be an expert to listen to hams or your
local town coms. I think some hams that
even have operating stations spend most
of their time listening. That's pretty much
what I do. It sure doesn't take a ham license
to listen. All you need to do is look up
the frequencies of the active ham repeaters in
your area and look up the frequencies of
your town's first responders; police, fire,
and that sort of thing. If your town has a
trunking communications system, your
Alinco UHF/UHF monitoring receiver might
not be able to handle that. But you can
check it out. There is also a rule somewhere
that you can't tell anyone the content of
the transmissions you hear, although that
might not apply to ham radio. It probably
doesn't. But you cannot disclose the content
of Police transmissions, and that sort of thing -
fire, first responders, etc.

I don't know if this does you any good, but
you might enjoy doing some listening.

I heard part of LPH # 37, and the computer
crashed. I'll try again tonight. I am excited
about the present state of your 970 kHz CC
set-up. I hope you keep us posted on the
other thread.

Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2

Reading this post has reminded me how bad "local" radio is in this day and age. Most stations around here have DJs who are in California and have no idea (and don't give a crap) about what's going on in Cincinnati. I can't remember the last time I've actually heard the Emergency Alert System being used in an emergency on most Cincinnati stations. Sure, you hear the monthly tests, but you hear nothing when there's a tornado warning. The only stations I've heard the EAS being used on are 88.7 WOBO, 99.5 WAOL, 103.1 WRAC, and 106.7 WNKR. All of which are independent or community run stations located outside of Cincinnati (WAOL and WRAC are in the fringe areas of most Cincinnati stations).

I'll be honest, the only AM station that even cares about Cincinnati in an emergency is 700 WLW. Back in March, there were tornadoes all over Cincinnati. I was working at Walmart when the storms went through. The Cricket cellular network was unavailable in the building and the Sprint network (Cricket partner coverage) was completely knocked out. 5 bars BUT calls, texts, and mobile web would not work. I had no idea what was going on. As soon as the all clear was sounded and I got a lunch break (2 hours after the storm went through), I went to my car and tuned my radio to 700. It was on that station that I heard about the small town of Moscow that took a direct hit from an F2 tornado. My ex girlfriend lived there. I immediately cried. Luckily, she survived and so did her house. I also heard about tornadoes in Piner KY, Holton IN, and of course the massive Henryville IN tornado. The sports talk host was taking calls from people who were either victims or knew information. 700 continued the storm coverage for 2 or 3 days straight.

But I'm rambling. Just thought I'd share that story.

Now, the big idea that's mentioned in the title. I think I'll invest in a 500 watt generator for Channel X. I'll use the generator to run a laptop computer, the transmitter, a small HDTV with amplified antenna mounted on a tall tower (if Cincinnati stations go down, I could get Dayton stations that way), a cell phone charger, and a lamp. If things get bad enough, I'll take calls from victims and such over my personal cell phone set on speaker phone next to the mike. Sure, it's primitive, but it'll work in an emergency situation.

We have scanners that duplicate pictures on sheets of paper.

Making a sweep of the communications channels is also called scanning.

I often pick a region, like 108mHz (top of FM) up to 500kHz, and there's plenty to find.

The Alinco radio can be set to "auto scan" so that it tunes all by itself until it finds an active frequency.

We humans like to observe what other humans are saying and doing.

Would love to tap into all the security cameras in the whole city.

I'm glad you got the FR-200 out of
the trash. I also have an FR-200.
It has a fantastic AM receiver. I'm
not too sure about the FM and SWL
bands. I really like the crank/generator
that can recharge the batteries. Also,
my FR-200 is yellow, so I almost never
lose it. The flashlight on it is great, too.

I think batteries are fun. I don't know
why. My wife thinks I'm crazy and she
is probably right. It's interesting that
you drained a rechargable battery
and it's specs were reduced. I've had
that happen, too.

Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2

Hi Guys:

This is kind of sad. My dad gave me a
bicycle when I was 12 years old. I had
been blind, and had gotten some of
my sight back, just enough to ride a
bicycle. He had it special ordered so
it was very stable, and it had special
gears that could be switched with the
pedals, actually. That way, I wouldn't
have to look down at the handle bars
to switch gears. I could just look at
the road. That made the bike very safe.
I wouldn't fall off of it, because that
could have caused another detached
retina (long long story.)

Two years ago, I found the bike in the
back of my dad's garage, and restored it.
It was 43 years old at the time.
I rode it a little bit, and it was wonderful.
It was like "my car." I rode it on Friday,
it was so so smooth, and was working
great. Very very stable and safe. On
Friday, the bike was 45 years old.

Friday night, it was stolen from my driveway.
It's gone.

I wish I had a security camera, I can tell you that.

On to happier things, to ChannelX1610, your idea
for the emergency set-up is very cool. I could have
used a set-up like that back last October when we
lost power for 10 days. Because people were out
walking the streets - they were talking to other
people they didn't know - just to get information.
But, in order to do that, your station would really
have to be established in the community. People
would have to know you, too. I was tight with a lot
of people in my neighborhood. Some people would
have actually listened to DRS2 if it had been on.
But - the work involved keeping the listeners informed
would have been great also, and probably very difficult.
I have heard at least one story where a Part 15 station
was able to do something like you mention, but it was about
5 years ago. I haven't heard any stories since. However,
there are several Part 15 stations on this board that do
have listeners, so I guess it is possible.

It sure is a very cool arrangement. It would have worked
for me, at least from a technical standpoint.

Don't worry - a person's Part 15 station can be an
evolution. For some of us it is. I'm going to be
working on mine for a very long time. It was
running for quite a while, and I have to get
it back on.

I'm sure you'll get yours going. It looks like
you have a lot of knowledge.

Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2

Well, that was off topic.

The only thing good for Part 15
that a bicycle might be is for
how it would warp an RF field.

Yeah, I was pretty bummed out at
the time.

All is well now.

Bruce, DRS2

If a radio was clamped to the handle bars you could tour your coverage area by bicycle.

If you put the bike on some kind of stationary mount, you could peddle for exercise while generating the power to run both your transmitter and radio.

If the bike were stood upright it could serve as an antenna.

Bruce,

Sorry about your bike. I know the sense of loss you feel even if you don't depend on the bike to get around and I hope that since it is such a specialized bike that it will be easy to identify and perhaps the police can recover it for you.

I think it was Carl who mentioned discharging NiCad batteries fully because the conventional wisdom is that if not discharged between charge cycles they develop "memory". All of the NiCads that I completely discharged failed almost immediately. The only memory I see with this is that they lose their memory on how to hold a charge. After this experience I would float charge them and never had a problem since.

I do discharge the NiMH batteries in use since that is how I know they need charging and with two years experience with this I have had no problems or apparent diminished capacity (of the batteries that is).

Neil

Is "float" charging the same as "trickle" charging?

What defines the conditions which properly float charge a battery?