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

Wed Nov 29 18:27:22 EST 2017

For about 50-60 including shipping you can buy a 3 element 2m beam on Ebay. 
I fly one from a 12 foot high pole.  Haven't tried to hit Fredericksburg 
repeater.  Gordon Green KG6DKI uses one with his handheld to hit our 
repeater from Medina.  That’s up and over the mountains (big hills that 
block his line of sight).

Gary J
N5BAA

-----Original Message----- 
From: Terry Hipskind
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 10:26 AM
To: 'Gary J - N5BAA' ; hcarc at mailman.qth.net ; 'Kerry'
Subject: RE: [HCARC] Fwd: Monday Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17

My two cents

We have a brand new repeater.  If any time or money is to be spent, it
should be focused on working the bugs out of this repeater - not installing
a second one.
Yes, going simplex will pose some problems - but that’s what happens in
emergencies.  The HT can be upgraded by replacing the rubber ducky with a
better whip and further improved by adding a DIY Tiger Tail.  For $49 an
Arrow 2M/70cm J-Pole can vastly improve the HT's range (better yet, build
one from scratch). Upgrading the antenna is not limited to the HTs (I
seriously doubt Dale is using a 1/16th dipole on his SDR rig) - when
deployed to a wildfire, I carry a 2M/70 Log Periodic. The point is there are
many ways to improve your out-of-the-box rig.

73

Terry - WØHIP

-----Original Message-----
From: hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Gary J - N5BAA
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 6:34 PM
To: hcarc at mailman.qth.net; Kerry
Subject: Re: [HCARC] Fwd: Monday Night HCARC Net 27 Nov 17

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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