[PPRAANet] D-14 PPARES: 2010 Salvation Army Thanksgiving Dinners a Success!
Dan Scott
dscott1644 at comcast.net
Sat Nov 27 12:49:46 EST 2010
Phillip and all,
Manitou Setup:
- IC-7000
- J-Pole: Indoor at 25 feet (in the attic)
- Coax: 50-foot.
- Headset: Heil-Pro with boom mic which provided good attenuation
from room and stage noise.
- Watts 70-cm: 35-watts (I thought it was 50, but checked once I
got home)
- Watts 2-mtrs: 50-watts
- FT-100 as backup radio, Kenwood PS-30 or car for backup Power
Supplies.
Location in Room:
- opposite side of the room from the kitchen
- next to stage
- 4-foot from one of the large PA speakers
Unfortunates:
- Easy exterior access would be through windows which over looked
the creek 10-foot directly below the building.
- Window access was not a good exterior access without hip-waiters.
- Door access for reasonable external access would require 150, or
more, feet of additional coax.
Comments:
- I could bring up the 70cm repeater although no reliable
communications could be made from Manitou, both send and receive was
troublesome.
- The 146.76 machine was working very nicely from the location
(even at 10-watts).
- I was also able to monitor the 146.76 machine from my HT during
times I needed walk away from the operating position.
- Monitoring 70-cm from HT was not reliable
- Tried transmitting between songs although that was not reliable
and maybe frustrating for folks at main.
- Lowered MIC gain from 45% to less than 10% to see if that helped
reducing the background noise during transmit. This seemed to help and
allowed transmitting during times with high background noise. Although
this appears to have worked, I am curious how well it worked. Any
before/after comments would be appreciated.
The packet idea is great. An alternate may be to run a "person pick up"
net independent from a "supply" net. Maybe use 70-cm for passing
addresses/phone-numbers and 2-meters for supply. This would then allow
an *easier* inclusion of Manitou for supply issues.
My XLY, Pam (W0PRS) was sick so my son accompanied me and delivered and
took the few messages we had. Basically the "gravy issue". I logged 10
exchanges, although I think I missed logging a couple :-(
We operated from here last year as well; both times it has been so much
fun! Thanks, both Pam and I look forward to future opportunities.
73,
Dan - W0RO
PPRAA Secretary
On 11/26/2010 4:19 PM, Phillip H. Blanton wrote:
> Remember, any hams are welcome to participate in the Salvation Army
> Dinner program. You don't have to be an ARES or RACES member to pitch in!
>
> --
> Phillip H. Blanton (NøTAN)
>
>
> Bill,
>
> Very impressive log-keeping. Many of us just handled the situation as
> presented and didn't bother to log it. Your log reveals some interesting
> information and I'm glad you did it.
>
> Since the SA also plans on running the Christmas operation out of the
> Weber facility, I'd like to arrange a packet station at both the Yuma
> and Weber sites. That way we could gain proficiency in packet operations
> in a real-world scenario.
>
> Anyone interested in setting up two packet stations on Christmas day? I
> have a few radios, but no packet stations (I have an Icom IC-7000 and a
> PC so maybe I do????). Please advise. If you are willing to help me set
> up a couple of packet stations, even if you don't want to spend
> Christmas day watching them, I'd appreciate the help.
>
> It seems that this is an awesome opportunity to do a little packet
> training. In a real-world emergency, a packet station set up for use by
> regular people is a huge benefit. If we can practice this at Christmas
> time, that'd be a great training opportunity!
>
> I a willing to spend the money necessary to get a packet station up and
> running. If you are a packet expert and are willing to help me set up a
> system for the SA for Christmas, I'd LOVE to take the challenge. I will
> accept the responsibility to get a station set up at the Weber facility.
> If someone else is willing to help get a station set up at the Yuma
> facility, then that'd provide most of the packet handling they need.
>
> Seriously, this is a fun mission. You will really enjoy volunteering for
> the SA dinners at Christmastime. If you are a packet guy, then you are
> welcome to pitch in! If not, you are still seriously invited to PITCH
> IN! Maybe you can get some packet training! Even if you don't, you will
> still have a good time!
>
> --
> Phillip H. Blanton (NøTAN)
> 719 357-MAGNUM (6246)
>
>
> On 11/26/10 3:33 PM, Bill Hecker wrote:
>> To everyone.
>>
>> Yesterday was a great success due to everyone's fine efforts. Henry
>> truly deserves special recognition for the superb job as he guided
>> Main and the rest of us through many challenges.
>>
>> I had a great time and enjoyed working with the good people at SA HQ:
>> Jim Wright& Brenda Adams, receptionist: Jillian, and Chef Tom Schaeffer
>>
>> * HQ (Yuma) worked well. The SA HQ Leads, the receptionist, the
>> chef were briefed so all knew the PPARES support was present and
>> where the PPARES member was within the building. It was a good
>> team relationship that worked well.
>> * HQ (Yuma) passed/received a total of 35 messages between ~0845 and
>> ~1445.
>> * Equipment:
>> o Icom 2710 at 10 watts and Arrow UHF/VHF J-Pole on mast at 15
>> feet in a open area about 60 feet from station, connected by
>> 100' RG-8. Table, chair, carbon-less two part log book,
>> pens, Phil's Op Plan.
>> o Operated all day on battery power, consuming ~7Amp-hrs (~40
>> Amp-hrs available). 120V was readily available in radio room.
>> o Back up: Icom 7000, a 25amp AC power supply, 60' RG-8X, Dual
>> band 5/8 wave mag mount, and Yaesu VX-1R HT with Pryme
>> VHF/UHF gain whip antenna.
>> * Operated on UHF net, monitored VHF net.
>> * One particular challenge was passing to Weber (Main) 24 requests
>> for delivery of food or the pick up of people by the
>> transportation group at Weber.
>> o For some years, people needing delivery of meals or a pick
>> up have called Salvation Army HQ (Yuma) for this service.
>> With the shift of the operating base to Weber, we were
>> looked to to relay the information to the transportation
>> group at Weber (Main)
>> o Sixteen calls came in directly to the receptionist and 8
>> more were retrieved from the answering machine. They, each
>> neatly hand written, were handed to the HQ (Yuma) radio
>> operator for forwarding to Weber (Main).
>> + The first concern was the passing of names, addresses,
>> and phone numbers on the net; however, Salvation Army
>> leaders said to do it, so we did.
>> + The second dimension of this challenge was the
>> passing of 16 of the 24 by radio. An additional 8
>> were passed by telephone when a member of the
>> transportation group called the Yuma operator by
>> telephone. That was a good call that took the
>> laborious task of passing these 8 off the radio net.
>> o Either way, the information had to be relayed verbally.
>> o Possible alternatives from a HQ (Yuma) perspective for
>> dealing with this in the future:
>> + Deal with it as we did in real time - passing info
>> over the voice net using phonics.
>> + Have the HQ receptionist or the PPARES operator pass
>> the info directly to the transportation group via
>> telephone; however, the transportation group did not
>> have a readily available phone. They had to call HQ
>> (Yuma) to get the information, once they were alerted.
>> + PPARES set up a packet net using Airmail between HQ
>> (Yuma) and Weber (Main) in addition to the voice
>> net. This gets the information into text form where
>> it can be printed on the receiving end for
>> distribution while potentially reducing errors. While
>> this would have been an additional challenge for a one
>> operator node, the voice net traffic was light enough
>> (one call to or from Yuma every 5 to 10 minutes) that
>> both could have been done.
>> + OR, there should be several more not yet thought of.
>> o I will leave it to the PPARES leaders and old pros to decide
>> what course of action would be best. HQ (Yuma) could not
>> assess the impact of these alternatives on Weber (Main). Of
>> course, the solution would need to be discussed with the
>> Salvation Army folks too.
>> * Another challenge was contact with Manitou on the primary UHF net.
>> o The alternate frequency 146.76 worked pretty well (Manitou,
>> Main,& Yuma), but Manitou access into the repeater was not
>> full quieting.
>> o While PPARES has probably already tried 144.220 (USB)
>> vertical polarization and 146.49 simplex at other times, I,
>> as a curious guy, would like to like to learn a little more
>> about 2 meters in difficult situations.
>> * On manning:
>> o It would be great if we could get enough PPARES members to
>> sign up so that for each node the day could be broken into
>> at least two shifts. It is a challenge for my family to
>> support this for the full day.
>> o One operator can handle HQ. A HT to monitor the net while
>> delivering messages away from the station set up is necessary.
>> o A second operator would provide more flexibility but is not
>> essential for successful operation.
>> * The HQ (Yuma) log book is available for anyone who needs it.
>>
>> It was a pleasure to support such a good cause here in Colorado Springs.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Bill
>> KC0ET
>> HQ (Yuma) Node
>>
>>
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Hope to see you at Megafest
July 16th 2011, Monumet Colorado
www.ppraa.org
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