[HCARC] Fwd: Monday Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17

[Gary J - N5BAA]

Kerry,

I get on the net when chores allow.  So often tending the sheep happens 
around sunset and sheep are more important than chatting.  Now my wife and I 
have compounded the problem - we have three 8 week old puppies (2 border 
collies and one Chocolate Labrador).

As far as I know, no one the board is considering a second repeater.  I 
doubt we could get a second 2m repeater freq pair.  For what purpose??  For 
what its worth, I think it was suggested in this discussion by Eddie Kovlan 
KD5DWQ.

73,

Gary J
N5BAA

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kerry
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 3:54 PM
To: Gary J - N5BAA ; hcarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [HCARC] Fwd: Monday Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17

Gary,

I may have heard you once on the net.  A hand-held with a Yagi is
definitely not what I was talking about when i said hand-held.

On a different topic, you may remember I used to work in San Antonio.
For a while I had a 2 m mobile in my car and never heard anything on the
repeaters so I took the rig out of the car.  San Antonio doesn't seem to
have much activity at all.  I only worked 1 Bexar county station in the
last TX QSO Party and he was a multi-county mobile and that was the
first Bexar County station I had worked in the TQP in several years.

Gary, I hope we aren't seriously considering another repeater. I expect
the Red Cross site won't prove particularly useful, reasonably equipped
home stations don't really need a repeater and the hand-helds won't be
able to get into the Fredeicksburg repeater but only time will tell if
my expectations are correct.

Kerry



On 11/28/2017 1:37 PM, Gary J - N5BAA wrote:
> All,
>
> 2M isn't my thing except for SKYWARN.
>
> Greg Lewis W3XO from Hamsters is coming I hope in February to talk about 
> 2m Simplex and the Linked Yaesu System Fusion Repeaters in the San Antonio 
> area.  Friends in SA indicate to me that even with the linked repeaters, 
> that other than drive time the San Antonio repeaters are SILENT.  Where 
> have I heard that before??
>
> Are we really considering putting up and maintaining a second repeater to 
> be as unused as the one we have??  Or if ours isn't working, do we need to 
> figure out how to properly use/setup/whatever,the one we have.  It's a 
> virtually new repeater.   Can we link to the Fusion repeaters in SA or the 
> Fusion repeater in Fredericksburg or both.
>
> BTW Kerry - if you hear me on the net it is always on my handheld - 
> sometimes on a long rubber ducky and sometimes on my 2m yagi.  I live on 
> the backside of Center Point, but since I live on a hill have clear line 
> of sight to the tower.
>
> 73,
>
> Gary J
> N5BAA
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Kerry
> Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 10:50 AM
> To: hcarc at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [HCARC] Fwd: Monday Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17
>
> Yes, there needs to be some planning.   That planning needs to include
> the area we need to cover, the kinds and general locations of the kinds
> of emergencies we expect in our area and the equipment available to us.
>
> We have check-ins/members in Kerr, Gillespie, Bandera, Kendall and
> Medina Counties.  In my opinion the kinds of emergencies we are likely
> to face are traffic accidents on I-10 involving multiple vehicles and
> perhaps HAZMAT, flooding in the valleys, wildfires, and possibly a
> tornado or wind damage.  All in all our area is pretty safe.  We have
> the 38/98 repeater near Kerrville (which has had numerous problems in
> the last year or so).  There is also a 16/76 repeater in Fredericksburg
> and a 440 repeater at the Kerrville State Hospital.  The 440 repeater
> has pretty limited coverage and I don't think many in the club have 440
> equipment. I don't know if we could run nets on the Fredericksburg
> repeater but I believe it has some connection with the club but I don't
> really know its status.  Probably about half the active stations on the
> Monday night net are from outside Kerr County.  I believe the only
> check-ins to the net using hand held radios are all in Kerrville. The
> current N5HR location provides good coverage.  A repeater at the Red
> Cross building would be unlikely to be usable outside of Kerrville.
>
> The stations in Gillespie County using 25-50 W and an outside antenna
> seem to be able to work each other.  That includes AF5UX, AD5UZ, AC4CA,
> K5EWS, W4WJ W3XO and K5KS.  Here in Harper I can hear some of the Kerr
> County stations.  Monday night I could hear K5HV and KK5IA on the input
> frequency and I have heard others.   I can't hear any of the hand-helds
> in Kerrville.  Some of the Kerrville hand-helds seem to have a problem
> using the N5HR repeater at the best of times.  Signals tend to be weak
> and very dependent on position of the hand-held.
>
> There are several easy tests we need to run.  1 - have a 2 meter base
> station on from the Red Cross building to see how many can hear it.
> That should give us an idea of the utility of a repeater at that
> location.  2 - see who can hear each other on simplex, and particularly
> if any of the hand-helds can be heard. 3 - see who can access the
> Fredericksburg repeater, and particularly if any of the hand-helds can
> access it.
>
> My belief is that the hand-helds are only useful as a local net with
> several stations within a mile of so of each other and any communication
> outside of that area will require a well equipped mobile or portable
> station.  I recall several years ago some discussions about several
> linked repeaters around this area to provide coverage but that idea died
> as expensive and impractical.
>
> Any way, that's my immediate thoughts on the subject.  It seems we have
> a choice of a few stations that can cover a couple counties or a bunch
> of hand-helds primarily usefull only in Kerrville when the repeater is
> working.
>
> Kerry
>
>
>
> On 11/28/2017 9:07 AM, kd5wdq . wrote:
>> Crap!  did it again.  only replied to Harvey, not the reflector.
>>
>> Forward to reflector...
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: "kd5wdq ." <kd5wdq at gmail.com>
>> Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2017 09:02:36 -0600
>> Subject: Re: [HCARC] Monday Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17
>> To: "Harvey N. Vordenbaum" <tower2 at stx.rr.com>
>>
>> Team,
>>
>> I agree on a backup plan.  Preached this before.
>>
>> Here is my concern, simplex will limit a net to only a few folks.
>> And in a REAL emergency, your going to need "all hands on deck".
>> (many will only have HT's in a real emergency.)
>>
>> Come on team, think big -- get some long term goals!
>>
>> Get a second repeater, then fall back on simplex.  Although it's good to
>> practice in simplex, so everyone knows what to do if necessary.
>>
>> So it goes like this:
>> main repeater
>> second repeater (put on a pole at red cross?)
>> simplex
>> smoke signals, carrier pigeons, etc
>>
>> My belief is this: it's good to have a backup plan, but it has to be
>> thought out!
>> Ask yourself who's gonna be able to operate in an emergency. IMO, a 
>> secondary
>> repeater will serve more, even if it's not in the best of locations.
>>
>> AF5SA
>>
>> On 11/28/17, Harvey N. Vordenbaum <tower2 at stx.rr.com> wrote:
>>> Yes, I could do that.
>>> I could use my top of the mast 2 M gain antenna (55 ft. + 18 ft.) which 
>>> I
>>> normally use for APRS.
>>> And with 100 w. from the TS2000 I could surely be heard over the area.
>>> We'll find out how many can change their radio to simplex. I would have 
>>> to
>>> be able to listen on the repeater input side as well.
>>> That brings up another problem: turning the repeater off/on by remote
>>> control.  Hello Gerry?
>>>
>>> Hv
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
>>> [mailto:hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
>>> On Behalf Of Kerry Sandstrom
>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 7:25 AM
>>> To: hcarc at mailman.qth.net; kerryk5ks at hughes.net
>>> Subject: [HCARC] Mondat Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17
>>>
>>>
>>> Last nights net was a disaster due to problems with the repeater.  We've
>>> talked about having a net that doesn't use the repeater.  I think its 
>>> time
>>> to really look into this now.  We could , in the absence of repeater
>>> problems set aside one week a month to run a net without the repeater. 
>>> In
>>> addition, whenever the repeater is not working properly we could fall 
>>> back
>>> to the net without a repeater.  Yes, there will be some who won't be 
>>> able to
>>> check-in.  Perhaps this net will encourage them to upgrade their station 
>>> so
>>> they can check-in.  The simplest approach would be to run a net on 
>>> 146.98
>>> simplex.  That way, if the repeater is having a problem, it is just 
>>> turned
>>> off and we all use .98 simplex for the net.  That way people will hear
>>> activity on the normal net frequency whether the repeater is in use or 
>>> not.
>>>
>>> Bottom line - we've had enough problems with the repeater that it is 
>>> past
>>> time to figure out how we can have a net without the repeater.  You 
>>> can't
>>> terminate a disaster because the repeater is not working properly!
>>>
>>> Kerry, K5KS
>>>
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>
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