Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Katrina Deployment in Gruber @RedCrossOK #hamrdio #ARRL

During the Hurricane Katrina event, Camp Gruber was the site of the Oklahoma reception center for guests from Houston and New Orleans.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol and American Red Cross
are joined by Salvation Army, National Guard and a host
of other emergency management personnel at the Gruber
Emergency Operations Center
Amateur Radio and the Military Auxiliary Radio System played  part in the emergency.  Supporting communications to the Red Cross office in Tulsa, the linked system from the Camp was utilized for days.  

The Military Auxiliary Radio System tested a crossband link from the mobile unit in the parking lot on HF to VHF handhelds in the field.  It worked flawlessly.

The American Red Cross supplied services for the large number of persons coming to Oklahoma and moving out to other communities across the Nation.  It was a eye-opening experience and a motivator for learning the Incident Command Structure of the National Incident Management System.


Some of the Oklahoma Disaster Medical Assistance Team
deployed to New Orleans.  Please don't mention this
because FEMA was supposedly missing in action.




Are you using APRS in your Skywarn program?

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Your traveling #hamradio friends need you to ... #ARRL

... keep your repeaters in your area up to date.

Two resources are available for the Mission.  Repeaterbook and Rfinder are online resources with Android and IOS applications.  The latter has replaced the ARRL Repeater directory.

BOTH rely on local users to let them know changes in the repeaters in the area.  The former uses area administrators to oversee the process but they don't do all the work.  The real work comes from reports from users like you.

Repeaterbook can always use administrators.  For example, if you are in the Tulsa, OKC, Guymon, Lawton, McAlester, Durant area, volunteer to be an admin.  There's no cost but your time and the value is immense.

In the mean time, summer travelers need to know what is available.  The next step is to have someone listening when the call comes over the air.


Wednesday, August 14, 2019

It's NOT real radio #hamradio #ARRL

At a recent club meeting, the discussion of ALLSTAR produced a discussion of "not real radio".  Add that to the mix on Echolink, IRLP, Dstar, DMR, WiresX (Yaesu Fusion), and others that use the internet backbone to support long haul communication.

Granted that the connection to the internet is "required".  That connection can come and go based on ice storms, hurricanes, and solar flares.  However, the technology is robust, normally, and your electric radio depends on the electric power grid to work.  That is mitigated by using solar, wind, or mobile power (except the Coronal Mass Ejection will take your power grid and radio down to nothing).

So, it's not real radio but please, try to get on the air using one without verification you have a license.


Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Area #Hamfest notes #ARRL #hamradio

From reports, if you missed HamHoliday, you missed a good event.  The new location was a good choice.

There are plenty of hamfests in the area.  A quick search (just put your zip code and the radius you'll drive) shows:


Southgate News

LinkedIN

ARRL Amateur Radio News

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