[Ares-races] Portable Station help wanted

[Doug Younker]

 Interesting; during this thread I only recall persons relating as to what
they do,  making suggestions or simply sharing thoughts. I just can't recall
anyone telling others what to do.--73
Doug, N0LKK
 dougy@ruraltel.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Grant Hopper" <ghopper@eskimo.com>
To: <ares-races@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 5:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Ares-races] Portable Station help wanted


: This has been an interesting thread to watch over the last day.  It's
: obvious that a lot of people have a different take on what is "right"
: for themselves, the disagreement comes when they are trying to tell
: someone else what to do.
:
: As the longtime training officer, and deputy operations officer for a
: large Department of Emergency Management associated RACES unit, my
: experience has been that many people start out with grand ideas and
: want to cover every situation.  That quickly changes as the realities
: of budget, and situation- ie. assignment and needs of the served
: agency or agencies come into play.
:
: Experience will teach you what you do and don't need in EVERY
: situation.  That's what you must have.  In our group, the basics are
: a HT, personal items, forms, a notepad and pens.  Everything else is
: optional.  In some cases our members need only bring their operations
: cheat sheet with frequencies and our preplan.  This is because we are
: sending people out to county, city and other organization EOCs and
: everything they need is there.  In other cases they have to work out
: of their car.   Mostly a small gymbag or daypack will carry
: everything you need.
:
: Those may not be cool, but they get the job done and are easy to
: carry where you need to be mobile.  Some of our members use items
: like a handcart/handtruck to carry a storage box or milk crate with
: radio hardware built in.  (On a handcart for moving the kit, I use a
: milk crate with a power supply, dual bander, TNC and a metal plate
: fastened to the top so I can attach a mag mount.  A separate gel cell
: gets hooked up where I can't get AC power.  It has velcro attachment
: points for cables, a spare mic and everything I need to hook up a
: packet or APRS station to my laptop or to a served agency's computer
: -CD burned with all the software I might need.  I throw my 72 hour
: kit, and radio jump kit on top and I'm ready to go.  I can strap the
: thing down in my truck to get a second operating position.  I have a
: similar setup for HF but have never needed to use that for an
: operation since we always seem to have our needs met by VHF/UHF
: operations.  The HF setup is GREAT for field day though.)
:
: The army used to have these great field desks that packed up into a
: large chest.  It was a desk, file cabinet (one drawer), supplies,
: etc.  Problem was that it was a lot to haul.  That might be fine for
: a headquarters section or whatever, but wasn't practical when you
: need to be more mobile.  Thus, one of your considerations for a
: design is your mobility needs, and portability.
:
: One member insists that his travel trailer is his kit.  That is a bit
: of an extreme but it illustrates my point.  Your kit should be what
: you will use.  If you get called out once a year, or are trying to
: get prepared for the "big one" have fun, but don't forget that in the
: mean time, you need to have something practical or you are going to
: get left out when they need people who can integrate into their
: operation (remember, you are there to help them...)  Needless to say,
: travel trailer guy doesn't get called out much , if at all because we
: need people who can take their gear and ride with someone else up a
: logging road to a search base, hop on a fire engine or helicopter, or
: set up at the city hall EOC next to the fire chief.  If you can't
: meet the needs, there's no point in building the superkit unless it's
: really to show off or for field day.
:
: As for stations in tool boxes,  A lot of APRS stations are set up in
: those.  If you look on the web, you should be able to find a number
: of them.  The designs are easily adapted but it does require a bit of
: work on your part.  After all, we can't expect others to do our
: thinking for us. We're supposed to do the thinking ( and
: communicating) for others.
:
: GH



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