[MRCA] MRCA Meet Communications Readiness Bulletin I

[Radio Station KW1I]

 MRCA Meet Communications Readiness Bulletin I



Tactical Radio Operations at the MRCA meet are just six weeks away. It is 
not too soon to prepare for these important exercises. You can do two things 
ahead of time.  1. Though it isn't absolutely necessary, team up with 
another amateur or two to compose a comm team. 2. Pull your radios out of 
storage and make sure they work. Try to remember how to operate them, and 
check that you have all the antenna cables, mics, keys, speaker/headsets, 
tuners, ground stakes, guy wires, battery terminals, etc.




Friday afternoon, Sept. 21 we will be having our group field exercise to Big 
Pocono. All of the interested individuals and teams will convoy up to this 
local high point about 19 miles and about 40 minutes away. If you have an FM 
rig with external mobile whip capable of 51 mHz you will be able to be in 
contact with the base station at the Gilbert Fairgrounds throughout most of 
the trip. Once at Big Pocono, utilizing the VHF link for coordination we 
will check out our HF rigs with the base station. This is usually attempted 
on 75 meters. Be sure to have either a frequency agile rig, or a couple of 
crystals in the 3875/3885 vicinity. There is plenty of parking at this 
overlook point and each group can find a place to set up. Later we can 
exercise our back packs and BC-611s as we stroll around the parking areas 
and climb the fire tower.




Mid-morning Saturday, Sept. 22 we will be sending teams out of our base area 
to clandestine sites 2 - 6 miles away. There will be some intelligence 
gathering by these comm teams while on their assignment. Radio set-ups must 
use portable power and portable antennas. Traffic will be exchanged with the 
Gilbert base station which will also function as net control for stations in 
the field, and also with those that may be set-up at the fairgrounds 
awaiting deployment.




If you are planning to participate send mail with comm team participants and 
a list of radio equipment to be utilized. Send to kw1i at earthlink.net.




More later...