[MRIC] Agenda and text for review

[brettham at aol.com]

All Maryland RACES Officers,

At our previous meeting in January we completed work on, and approved 
our Interoperability Recommendations Document, excluding the HF Voice 
section since we had not yet discussed the final draft. Please find 
below, the same text (unchanged) for the HF Voice section that was 
submitted in January for your review but was never discussed.

Also, as requested, I added a new section for Additional Equipment to 
include headphones, watt meters, etc. You will also find the new 
Additional Equipment section below for your review for the first time. 
If you can think of any additional equipment that should be kept at the 
EOC, please bring product description, model number and estimated price 
to the meeting.

Other than approving these two sections to complete our document, we 
don't really have any new business, so our proposed agenda is pretty 
much the same as last meeting with a few minor changes:

- Welcome
- Attendance
- Review Agenda
- Approval of Minutes
- Update MD RO Contact List
- New 80 meter net frequency (Dan Blasberg)
- Winlink Frequency List (Ray Brown)
- Update MD RACES Freq list
- Publishing RACES Contact info? (Chuck Hodell)
- MRIC Winlink Tech Support contact procedures (Dan Blasberg and Bill 
Clark)
- Discussion on HF Net test results/schedule
- Lunch
- Finish HF Voice and Additional Equipment Sections of our Interop Doc
- 2009 MRIC Interoperability Exercises
- Next M
eeting Agenda
- Adjourn

I look forward to seeing you all again and completing work on our 
Interoperability Recommendations document so the Maryland Emergency 
Management Association can vote on it at their next meeting. This 
document contains a lot of good recommendations and information that a 
number of jurisdictions have requested for some time, so I expect it 
will get wide distribution and use. Nice job!

Please drive safe and I'll see you in Harford County at 10:30 on 
Saturday. Don't forget to send me an email by Friday midnight with the 
name of one of your RACES operators to substitute and vote for you if 
you can not attend. Thank you.

Brett Hammond
Chairman, MRIC
410-829-6749 (cell)

-------------------------------------

Equipment for Maryland RACES HF Voice Net

Since the Maryland HF Voice Net operates best using a Near-Vertical 
Incidence Skywave (NVIS) antenna, the antenna recommended for this 
application are horizontal wires (dipoles) capable of operating on 40 
and 80 meters.

Total Estimated Cost for a HF Voice station: $4,500 (assuming 100-feet 
of feedline) excluding installation labor.


1. Voice HF Transceiver

All band 100-watt HF transceiver that is simple to use with limited 
feature set capable of 24x7 continuous operation, with a proven track 
record and all other functionality required for successful long 
distance HF voice operations.

MRIC recommends one of the following:



ICOM IC-718 All-band HF Transceiver with the high stability crystal 
unit installed. This is a low cost commonly-deployed transceiver for 
Winlink2000 stations world-wide with demonstrated reliability.It 
requires a 13.8 VDC power supply and will draw 20 Amps. It has a UHF 
female (SO-239) 50 ohm antenna connector on the rear. Limited 
functionality and very simple to operate.
Approximate price: $650

or

Kenwood TS-2000 All-mode All-Band 100 watt HF Transceiver – This is a 
very full featured Transceiver capable of receiving on two different 
frequencies simultaneously. Purchase with optional control software 
($100) if you want to control it with a computer via RS-232 cable.
Approximate price: $3,000

2. Voice HF Transceiver Power Supply

Power supply for Winlink HF Transceiver listed above capable of 
providing adiquate power out from a standard 115 VAC wall outlet while 
generating no RF interference.

MRIC recommends one of the following:

Samlex America SEC1235M, 30 Amp (continuous) switching DC power supply 
(115VAC to 12VDC). Includes both Volt and Amp meters built-in.
Approximate price: $140

or

ICOM PS-125, 25 Amp (continuous) DC switching power supply (115VAC to 
12VDC). No meters or controls.
Approximate price: $300

3. Voice HF Antenna

HF antenna for short distance NVIS operation, capable of transmitting 
and receiving on 40 and 80 meter amateur bands as a minimum, while 
generating no stray RF insid
e the EOC building.

Alpha Delta DX-CC Single Wire Dipole Antenna for 80, 40, 20, 15, 10 
meters – Center fed 82-foot wire.
Approximate price: $160

or

Alpha Delta DX-B Single Wire Dipole Antenna for 160, 80, 40, 30 meters 
– Center fed 60-foot wire with RF choke coils.
Approximate price: $110

4. HF Feedline Lightening Protection

A device to be mounted on the feedline within 2 feet of the feedline 
building entry point to prevent antenna lightening surges from entering 
the EOC building.

MRIC recommends the PolyPhaser IS-B50LU-CO Bulkhead Mount Lightening 
Suppressor for 1.5 to 400 MHz operation directly mounted on the 
bulkhead cable entry master ground bus (MGB), or grounded using 6 AWG 
copper strand wire with green jacket. MGB should be grounded to several 
10-foot ground rods 20 feet apart as a minimum, using 2 AWG stranded 
copper wire with green jacket. The IS-B50LU-CO has UHF female (SO-239) 
connectors on both sides, and supports up to 2 KW of HF, 375 Watts VHF, 
or 125 Watts UHF power out.
Approximate price for PolyPhaser alone: $65

5. Feedline and Connectors

The feedline and connectors will vary from site to site and depends on 
the specific installation.

MRIC recommends Andrew LDF4-50 half-inch hardline and the appropriate 
Andrew connectors to prevent stray HF radiation inside the EOC 
building. Attenuation per 100 feet is 0.46 dB at 50 MHz, 0.82 dB at 150 
MHz, and201.45 dB at 450 MHz. When using the recommended ICOM-718 
Transceiver and recommended PolyPhaser, you will need the following 
connectors:
1 UHF male (PL-259) for the Transceiver
2 UHF male (PL-259) for the tuner
2 UHF male (PL-259) for both sides of PolyPhaser
1 UHF male (PL-259) for the HF antenna if required, and/or
1 UHF female (SO-239) for the HF antenna if required
Approximate price for connectors and feedline: $250 plus $4 per foot.


6. HF Antenna Tuner

Tuner capable of supporting 100 Watt RF output on all HF bands and can 
be remotely controlled and powered by HF Transceiver to eliminate 
cables and provide tuning capabilities from the Winlink computer.

MRIC recommends the LDG AT-7000 Tuner that supports 100 Watts on all 
bands and can be remotely controlled and powered by ICOM HF 
transceivers.
Approximate price: $170

or

LDG Z-100 Tuner – Supports 100 Watts on all bands except 6-meter (50 
Watts). Requires no power once tuned. Also supports remote control and 
DC power from ICOM rigs.
Approximate price: $150






Additional Recommended Equipment

The following equipment is not required, but highly recommended.

1. Headphones for each station (Local VHF, MEMA VHF, and HF Voice 
stations)

Headphones for each rig, capable of passing audio for all receive 
channels for that rig. For example, it is helpful to use stereo 
headphones with a radio that is capable of rece
iving on two channels 
simultaneously. Each channel can be routed to a different ear.

MRIC recommends the Heil Traveler or Heil noise cancelling headphones, 
or other comparable.
Approximate price: $100 per headphone


2. SWR Meter and cables

An SWR meter is recommended with required cables and/or patch panel to 
allow testing of all antenna systems.

MRIC recommends the Daiwa CN-101L or equivalent. They have a frequency 
range of 1.8-150 megs. Information can be obtained via 
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/413?ehamsid=acb1a3209408decf896621c1cd57eb76

3. Connector Adapter Kit

A connector adapater kit to temporarily interconnect radio equipment 
during an emergency.

MRIC recommends the RF Industries RFA-4024, 30 piece Unidapt Kit 
containing 6 universal adapters, 2 male and 2 female BNC, N, SMA, TNC, 
UHF and Mini-UHF connectors.
Approximate price: $300

4. Portable Watt Meter

A Watt Meter that can be moved to different points in the antenna 
system for troubleshooting.

MRIC recommends one of the following:

Bird 43P Watt Meter measures forward and reflected power from 0.45 to 
2700 MHz in power ranges from 100 mW to 10KW, but requires the purchase 
of a seperate Element for each band and power range. Unlike the 
standard Bird 43, the Bird 43P is capable of measuring CW, SSB, AM and 
limited pulse signals.
Approximate price: $550 + $150 per band and power range.

or

Bird 4304 Broadband Watt M
eter measures forward and reflected power 
 from 25 to 1000 MHz in power ranges of 5, 15, 50, 150 and 500 watts 
with no addional parts required.
Approximate price: $620

or

Telewave Broadband Watt Meter measures forward and reflected power from 
25 to 1000 MHz in power ranges of 5, 15, 50, 150 and 500 watts with no 
addional parts required.
Approximate price: $900

5. Dummy Load

A Dummy Load capable of supporting the frequencies and continuous 
output power of all radios (not simultaneously).

MRIC recommends one of the following:

Bird 100-T-FN with N-Female connectors supporting frequencies from 0 to 
2.4 GHz up to 100 watts continuous output power.
Approximate price: $250

or

Bird 8201 is an oil filled dummy load with N-Female connectors 
supporting frequencies from 0 to 2.5GHz up to 500 watts continuous 
output power.
Approximate price: $650

or

Bird 8251 with LC-Female and N-Female connectors supporting frequencies 
from 0 to 2.4 GHz up to 1000 watts continuous output power.
Approximate price: $950