QRZ! Ham Radio 6/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 6.iso/mac/files/races/teceqpt.txt

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 16KB | 288 lines

Page 1

             TECEQPT    Version 1. 3     3/1/92



Subject: EQUIPMENT
[Category: TEC]

EQUIPMENT LIABILITY

1. QUESTION: WHAT RECOURSE DO I HAVE IF ANY OF MY EQUIPMENT IS
DAMAGED OR LOST ON A RACES MISSION?
ANSWER: An official answer to this question is pending from the
Director of State OES. To date, it has been understood and
accepted that the volunteer is solely responsible for his
property used when his volunteer services are accepted by a local
government or the C.A.P. The volunteer may seek relief through
his insurance company and/or a casualty loss in his tax returns
filed with the IRS. Any volunteer seeking relief for an
out-of-pocket expense or loss should address their concerns to
the local government agency to which they are a part. If they are
concerned in this area they should probably obtain their local
government's policy or position in this matter before continuing
as a volunteer.
2. QUESTION: What if a local government commandeers a volunteer's
equipment or property, such as appropriating a private vehicle?
ANSWER: Submit a claim to that government.
3. QUESTION: If I don't get satisfaction from my
government, can I go to the next highest jurisdiction?
ANSWER: No. If you are with a city RACES, for example, you are
serving only that city jurisdiction--even if city, county and/or
State RACES may be involved with the same mission. Volunteers
cannot serve more than one jurisdiction at any given time. This
latter point may be the least understood by many volunteers and
should be emphasized by all State, county and city OES
personnel--both paid and volunteer staff. (RB 87-1)

EQUIPMENT FOR EMERGENCY RESPONDERS
There are some items that should be carried in the field or out
to a highway if an incident takes place and we are called out to
provide communications. There are certain items that need to be
carried at all times on one's person and other items that should
be immediately available.
Our state safety orders require anyone working on or near a
highway wear a safety vest, hard hat, safety glasses, and shoes
or boots of sturdy design. The footwear should have traction type
soles for solid footing on slick, uneven surfaces such as mud,
snow, grass, and pine needles. One trade name, for example, is
"Vibram", sometimes called "waffle stompers".
OTHER ITEMS TO CARRY OR WEAR:
Clothing to suit the weather or climate. If you wear eyeglasses
be sure to carry an extra pair. Wear an accurate, rugged, and
easy to read wrist watch. If you have a handheld transceiver
carry a battery pack that will hold double A alkaline batteries.
Nicad battery packs need charging often and usually take hours
and require 110 volts AC. Double A alkaline batteries are usually
readily available and only take a few minutes to change. Keep
your nicad pack with you for backup. Keep it in a container by
itself or cover its terminals with tape; if they short out it can
burn or explode. Carry a speaker mike that can be clipped to your
clothing where it can be easily heard and reached. Boom mikes
work well if you like them but never, NEVER use VOX. If you are
in a noisy environment they can key your transmitter and you may
not know it. This could cripple communications and be potentially
embarrassing. Carry a police whistle. These are good attention
getters and could be used in many ways. The handiest place for it
is on a chain around your neck and placed under your shirt or
blouse out of the way.
Carry a note book and pencil. Keeping a log or diary of events is
very important. It makes interesting reading after an event and
if you must write a report it is a great help to have the dates
and times of important happenings. If the incident lasts for many
days, as they have in the past, the days seem to run together and
to recall from memory might prove difficult. If you must handle
written messages, use a different notebook for this chore. I
carry a small three inch by five inch personal notebook for the
diary and a regular size note book for the written messages.
Carry a small flashlight. I use the Mini-Maglite type that use
double A alkaline batteries. These flashlights are very rugged
and have a spare lamp in their base. If the spare lamp is needed
make sure you replace it as soon as possible. If you are on
medication be sure to have an ample supply.
Carry more than you think you will need. Inform the person or
persons in charge if you have a health problem and if you require
special medication. You may want to carry a camera. I carry a
small 35 mm camera. It has a sliding lens cover that locks the
shutter, a built in electronic flash and another feature that
should prove invaluable: a clock that will stamp the day, month
and year or the time of day on the negative so that it will
appear on the prints.
You may wonder how big your pockets will have to be to carry
these things. I use a fanny pack or, as some people call it, a
belly pack. It is basically a belt with a pouch attached and made
of nylon. Mine has three compartments -- a large central
compartment that will hold my camera, speaker mike, boom mike,
spare rubber duck antenna, and other miscellaneous items. It has
outer compartment, which is smaller that the central compartment,
I use for my spare batteries and battery pack. The inner
compartment is next to the belt and is ideal for your diary or
small note book. All compartments have zippers. They can be
bought for less than ten dollars. Always have drinking water
available with a reserve supply in your vehicle or other storage
area at your site.
THINGS TO HAVE AVAILABLE:
Always carry a warm jacket in your vehicle. Even in the
summertime it can get quite cool at higher elevations. Carry
plenty of clothing. A good rule is to carry twice as many changes
of clothing as you think you will need. Carry a blanket or,
better yet, a sleeping bag. Carry food that does not need
refrigeration. I carry granola bars and canned pork and beans. Be
sure to have a can opener.
Carry matches. I don't smoke and have been caught out needing a
campfire, only to find I didn't have any matches. A muzzle
loading pistol was used to start a fire to dry my wet clothes and
cold body on one of my outings. I carry a tool kit with a supply
of connectors and terminals. If you use cables to connect any of
your gear you should have spare cabling or the parts and
equipment to make field repairs. I carry some solder and a
propane powered soldering iron. This has saved the day on several
disasters. I am sure that you can add to my list. The intention
of this article is to give you suggestions and make you think of
things you will need when you respond to an incident. You can be
called on to supply mutual aid communications for other agencies.
Be flexible. To borrow a concept from the Boy Scouts, "Be
Prepared." (By Les Ballinger, WA6EQQ, and concluded with this
part.)  RB 174-91 to 177-91
(About the author: Les is a veteran emergency services responder
in planning, setting up, and operating temporary communications
in the field for emergency services, forestry, the Red Cross and
other agencies. He is a recognized expert in field response and
all facets of Amateur Radio communications. He is employed by the
California Department of Transportation and is the State OES HQ
Auxiliary Radio Services station manager. )

EMP DEVICES
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has available two
four-page pamphlets that should be of interest to technical
communications and electronics people. These are available from
your FEMA regional office.
CPC (Civil Preparedness Circular) 88-3. Subject: Electromagnetic
Pulse Protection Grounding Recommendations. Synopsis: Provides
recommendations for EMP grounding systems. The recommendations
provide a trade-off between the cost to achieve a very low
resistance and the result minimum EMP grounding required.
Grounding is critical in the protection of communications and
electronic equipment.
CPC 88-4. Subject: Coaxial Type EMP Protection Devices. Synopsis:
The widespread use of solid state electronic communications
equipment in recent years, with their inherent weakness to
damaging transient electrical pulses, has stimulated the
electronics industry to develop and market a large variety of
improved transient protection devices. These devices provide full
protection of communications equipment from damaging voltage and
current transients generated by lightning and electromagnetic
pulses. The suitability of these new devices for low cost
protection of communications equipment is reviewed. RB65-89

PORTABLE REPEATERS
Question raised at a recent RACES seminar was "Is it advisable to
develop portable repeaters?" The answer is "Of course!"
Transportable repeaters can be used to replace damaged repeaters
or, more frequently, used to augment existing repeaters by
filling in back country or remote areas not now served by
repeaters. Particularly to support hand-held radios. High power
is not important in transportable repeaters. Even two to five
watts power output is adequate. The cavities required to separate
the receive and transmit frequencies are usually the most
expensive item. RB 86-16.

RUBBER DUCK ANTENNAS
Rubber duck antennas on hand-held radios are a severe compromise
on efficiency. On the plus side is their short size and flexible
forgiveness to brutish handling. On the negative side is their
terrible radiation inefficiency, probably worse than many of you
expected. When did you last replace your helical spring antenna
we call the rubber duck? On testing a hundred or so portable
radios that had been out on the fire lines for a few weeks we
found a typical 60 percent failure rate. Most of the antennas
looked fine. The only way you can detect an invisible rubber duck
failure is by measuring the microvolts per meter with a
calibrated receiver over a measured range under controlled
conditions, such as done routinely by the Boise Interagency Fire
Center. Since this is difficult for most to do, it might not be a
bad idea to replace rubber ducks as a matter or course when they
show signs of wear or if they are a year old. You might want to
consider using a telescopic antenna under non-violent conditions
to vastly improve the range of your hand-held. The National
Bureau of Standards ran some tests that proved what we had long
suspected.

The efficiency of a hand-held is dependent upon how much antenna
it has and how good the ground plane. Most portables have very
poor ground planes; the more metal the better. Also the more
antenna the better. Hence the rubber duck is a woeful but often
necessary compromise. But if a portable is not going to be
subjected to the abuse of fireground or street cop utility, you
should consider the telescopic quarter-wave antenna if range is
important. Compare the figures and discussion that follows. Be
aware that the telescopic antenna is nowhere as rugged as the
rubber duck but it will talk circles around it. You might say
that the quarter wave whip is to the rubber duck what a 106 inch
CB quarter wave whip is to a 36 inch whip on a base loaded coil
to compromise range for low garages. Our reference antenna in the
Public Safety high band and 2-meter Amateur radio measurements
below is a quarter-wave telescopic antenna, extended, and held at
face level: One-quarter wavelength extended and at face level = 0
dB One-quarter wavelength collapsed and worn at belt level =
-40dB Rubber duck held at face level = -5dB Rubber duck worn at
belt level = -20dB Translated, this means that a 5-watt hand-held
with a rubber duck worn on the belt has an effective radiated
power not of 5 watts but only .05 watt. Held at face level the
radio has an ERP of 1.6 watt. 15dB is quite a difference!

In the previous two messages we gave you facts and figures of the
quarter-wave telescopic versus the rubber duck for Public Safety
VHF Highband and 2-Meter Amateur handhelds. The 40 dB down for
the nested telescopic relates to those commercial models where
the telescopic disappears within the radio. Such an antenna won't
break when it's nested but it won't receive worth a whoop either.
In those radios where the collapsed quarter wave is external to
the radio they break very easily. For that reason we recommend
the style that has a spring at the base. The spring makes it very
forgiving of elbows and other bum raps. We have not researched or
measured five-eighth wave antennas because they are too long for
most public safety use and because they typically require too
many telescopic sections. The more sections the more chance of
troubles. Few people take the time to correctly telescope any
hand-held antenna. They should never be whacked down with the
palm of the hand on top and push. They should be pulled down with
the thumb and first two fingers.
If you are interested in the figures for 450 MHz, using the table
in the last message, they are respectively 0dB, 30dB, 5dB, and
30dB. One more reference for the technically inclined--the loss
of a telescopic antenna compared to half-wave dipole: VHF -5dBd
and UHF -20 dBd. Telescopic antennas should be changed at least
annually and whenever they become the slightest bit loose. Any
looseness can mean a poor RF connection inside the antenna where
you can't see it or fix it. Simply change it.
RB 86 -23/25.

GROUNDING SYSTEM
Scientists working on a U.S. Army grounding analysis project have
shown that grounding with the standard 6-foot metal rod, or even
several rods, is often unsafe and more often inadequate for good
low noise communications. They have found that a better ground
can be established by stapling a 100-foot length of standard
1/8-inch stranded steel wire to the earth every 4 inches with
6-inch pegs. A 3 pound hammer (in lieu of the 10 pound
sledgehammer sued on ground rods) should be sufficient to drive
in the pegs. Tests at all sites in the country show the surface
wire to be from 35% to 95% more efficient than the 6-foot
grounding rod. (Courtesy of WORLDRADIO and the Sacramento Amateur
Radio Club's "Mike and Key)  RB 27-88

PHOTOCOPIERS
A photocopiers bright light contains ultraviolet rays which can
damatge the eyes retinas and perhaps cause cataracts. Also the
rays may produce ozine, a lung irritant. Solution: keep the
copier in a large, well-ventilated area. Close the
radiation-proof cover when you use the copier. Shut your eyes and
look away if the item you are copying is too big for the cover to
close over it. (SGD) WILLIAM MURRAY, Radiation Section Chief,
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati,
Ohio.  RB 86-36

PORTABLE RADIO TIP
Sometimes portable radios have to be placed on the floor, the
seat or the dashboards of cars. Then they go scooting off turning
corners. One method of retarding their unwanted movement is to
take an old bicycle inner tube and cut off some one inch wide
cross sections. Slip it around your radio or its carry case and
the rubber will now greatly retard slipping and sliding.
You may wish to put some paper between this oversized rubber band
and your radio to prevent discoloration or the rubber migrating
into the plastic.
Never leave a portable on the dash or anywhere lying in the
direct summer sun. Even professional portables can drift off
frequency when subjected to such heat.  RB 86-44

PORTABLE RADIO BATTERIES
On protracted emergencies, such as wildfires or an earthquake,
there may be no A-C power to recharge your portable radio nicad
battery. Do you have a spare nicad battery and a D-C charger, or
throw away battery packs for your portable radio? You will often
be expected to use your portable where your mobile cannot go.
RB 85-9