[HCARC] Volunteer at Disaster " and Preparedness"

[Gary and Arlene Johnson]

Good article on being PREPARED in advance.  And remember, BEING PREPARED 
goes much further along than your being prepared to help others through 
RACES, ARES or whatever.  Preparedness actually begins at home.  Make sure 
your home and family are properly taken care of, so if you are a member of a 
group providing emergency response that the people you are helping are not 
your own families.  It is interesting that in the LDS (Mormon) Preparedness 
Manual they indicate that being licensed as a Ham radio operator is an 
essential tool in being truly prepared.  Having a working Ham radio lets you 
communicate, but as important it allows you to LISTEN to others who can will 
tell you the extent of the emergency without the filtering of either the 
Mainstream Media or the Government.  Sometimes you just want to know the 
straight facts - unfiltered by what others think you should know.  This 
ability to get the straight news/information was a prime mover in my 
decision to finally get my license and also in obtaining the ability to 
utilize all of the Frequecies by upgrading to at least General Class.  Being 
prepared is also why I plan to operate my radio when I get it off of solar 
panels and batteries.  That way, I am independent of the power grid for my 
communications.  What better way to make sure the system will work, than 
using it on a daily basis.  On page 36 of this months QST magazine is a 
whole article on setting up battery power for radio systems.  Jeff has asked 
me if I would be ready to provide "GREEN POWER COMMS" at the next Field Day. 
My answer was absolutely.  In fact, it would not be too hard to provide 
power for the entire field day from batteries.  In fact, for most Hams, the 
cost of a couple of Golf Cart batteries from Costco coupled with a 45 watt 
solar panel setup from Harbor Freight would allow the operation of a radio 
setup for less than the cost of a good Power Supply.  Depending on the radio 
being powered (Elecraft K3 in particular which is happy transmitting at 11 
volts) the cost of the two 6 volt, 220 amp hour batteries and the solar 
panel would be less than $300.   The reason I say "depending on the radio" 
is that some radios want to see 13.8 volts and battery banks quickly drop to 
12 volts when being used.  To compensate for this, many radios would require 
the addition of a battery booster to the battery bank to maintain the 13.8 
volts to the radio.  It was a problem I was trying to overcome when I had 
decided to get an Icom 7410.  My changing to the Elecraft K3 solves this 
problem and saves me the additional $150-200 for a battery booster. 
However, if I were to decide to run above 100 watts, I would need 120 volt 
electrical power to power the amplifier.

Gary Johnson
N5"BAA"