[PPRAANet] Katrina info from KM6BA in MS

[W0rw at aol.com]

Hello all,


Here's some data points from someone just back from the Katrina zone:


- Nearly all the repeaters in Southern Mississippi were inoperable even 7 
days after the event. They were either damaged or only had 12-24 hours of 
emergency power. One in Gulfport became operational day 9, 3 days after simplex 2 
meter nets were well established.


- The priority need in S Miss area was for high powered VHF stations 

with HF backup. Most nets were "Mesh" simplex nets, and would have 

overwhelmed a repeater with the traffic volume from all the agencies.


- Repeaters (if operable) made sense for EOC coordination points. Most 

were not. (not surprising.... repeaters are usually 60-100w, drawing 

20-30Amps. Think of how much battery backup would be required for 7-10 

days of operation)


- Repeaters are "Star" nets, and trade off single point of failure and 

bandwidth limitations for wide range HT coverage. Mesh simplex nets did 

most of the work that I saw in Miss. In the area from Pascagula to 

Biluxi there were three separate 2m simplex nets with an average of 

10-20 stations in each, all fully utilized. We coordinated between the 

three with liasion operators who monitored both. We also had a liasion 

operator at the county EOC.


- Even 20w HF was not usable last week due to flares, etc. It took full 100w 
Mobiles with decent bases to operate out of VHF range. 817's are fun, and make 
decent monitoring receivers, but you cannot count on them to get through for 
emergency ops. For our use, the 897 and 706 type radios were the most desired, 
as they could easily switch between 

bands/freqs. Paired with a 2nd-3rd gen dual band mobile (decent power, 

etc) it was perfect. You could monitor multiple VHF nets or HF as needed.


- Feedline and base 2m antennas were the critical shortage. Without 

that, you have to tear down and rebuild each time a ham heads home. 

Extra J-poles and 100' of low loss feedline are critical.


- Ideally each responder would have a complete 2m base/mobile with 

antennas and power supply/battery in addition to their primary rig. IE: 

one they could leave in place with an address to ship home once the 

event is over. Such a kit could be built for $200-300 with a used radio and 
would have been very helpful.


- Several of us have vowed to buy/build the 2m arrow yagi as they were a 
lifesaver. X-50 dual band verticals also worked well. Collapsible masts were in 
demand.


- Forget the RV/travel trailer. While you might be able to use it on the way, 
if you are in the parking lot you are not close enough to your served agency. 
You need to be withing 50-100' of the shelter manager, etc or you will not 
add value. In our case, we manned a radio 14 hours a day at all times, and slept 
within earshot of the radio at night. Our office was in the hallway of the 
shelter within easy walking distance. The travel trailers were ideal for command 
centers, had they been there from day one. But they were not, and you could 
not afford to move the ops centers once the net was active.


- Whatever you think or are told you will need, it will be different. 

Folks brought HF this time, and needed VHF. In other cases it was 

vice-versa. Moral: bring both. Most of the better ARES Go-kit check 

lists have three different modules to cover handheld, vhf base/mobile, 

and HF needs. I used all but the handheld on this exercise. The next one will 
be different.


I have many more learnings from my experience, these are just some of 

the RF related ones.


Alan

km4ba
via  w0rw