[Harc] Portable VHF/UHF Opps demo day. March 21, 1200-1400ish. Location is.......

JAMES FALLS radio-tuber at att.net
Mon Mar 8 18:32:08 CST 2021


 Great! Time to break out my yagi antenna and tune it up! 

Jim Falls K6FWT 

> On Mar 7, 2021, at 8:07 PM, Anthony Wiese via Harc <harc at humboldt-arc.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello All,
>   I'm putting together a show and tell event for us portable VHF/UHF and SOON TO BE portable operators.  My vision is that those of us that have a GO BOX and portable mast and antenna will set them up in a field in a widely spaced group setting.  If this is something you've always wanted to build, you have a whole two weeks to put something together!  Once "deployed/stations set up," we will explain to other participants why we decided to go a certain direction in the build of our go box, our mast, our antenna, our whole unit as a whole.  All HARC members are encouraged to come by to have a look, to get informed and get inspired!!!  When show and tell is over, there will be passing of digital traffic between those capable stations for practice, trouble shooting and real world scenarios.  The vision of all this is to be at least 50' away from cars for truly portable Opps.  Not semi, mobile opps.
>   This will be done outside, in Covid compliant protocol.  Please do not attend if you are not feeling well or have been in contact with a Covid Positive patient in the prior 10 days.  Masks will be worn at all times during the event.  6' of distance between participants will be maintained as much as is practicable.  
> Ready for the details?  One part is very easy.  MARCH 21 at 1200 to 1400ish.  The second part is little more complex on purpose.  At 1100, on that day, MARCH 21, I will call out on the HARC repeater a Lat/Long in Degree Decimal Format.  (example of that format is 40.123455 -123.89700)  If possible, when I reveal the lat/long do NOT use the internet to find the meeting spot.  I'm using this realism to show a bad day scenario where the internet is suddenly taken from us.  If you do not have a GPS, you may consider the GAIA app for smart phones.  It's a free app that turns your phone into GPS even when no internet is available.  Practice inserting lat/long in the appropriate format to find out a spots bearing and range.  If you have no way of discovering the spot on your own, day of, you may have to ask other hams homing in the spot to help guide the way.  (No working frequency is assigned for this part.  Just ask away on our different local frequencies and try and find what freq the crowd settled in on.)   In all cases please do not reveal the location on the air.  I, Anthony, will announce it on the air close to the time of the event start.  Please play the game and help other learn new skill by not revealing the spot on the air. 
> 
> Lastly if there are any questions, please contact me directly at KG6LHW at arrl.net and not "reply" to this message.  If there any major clarifications or issues I will address them in a follow up email.  I hope you have fun with all this, get inspired and learn new skills.
> Anthony
> 951-623-3400
> 
> Here are some considerations when planning your portable station demonstration day project in no particular order......
> 
> Key elements to a comfortable, efficient station.  Small table, chair, go box radio, mast, clipboard.
> If you don't have a commercial portable mast, consider these DIY versions.....  Camera tripod with a painters pole securely attached to it.  How about the old retired shop light tripod with an old dive belt weight system? Show us your creativity and let's do what we can to "get the job done and get on the air!"
> 
> 
> Preparing the mast for wind.
> How will you make sure you mast doesn't topple in the wind?
> 
> If using guy lines...
> How will you drive your stakes into the ground?
> How will you mark the stakes for safety?
> How will you mark your guy lines for safety?
> What kind of knots will you be using?  Are you confident in tying them out in the field?  (The bowline and the taut line hitch are the two meat and potato knots for this application.)
> 
> How will you secure your feed line to the mast for the "tidy" look?
> What type of spare equipment, connectors, feed line, batteries, etc should you consider bringing?
> 
> How will you keep your comm log, tracking log, band plan, comm plan organized on your desk?  From blowing away?
> What kind of self care items should you bring, food, water, sunscreen, lip balm, clothing layers, TP, meds,etc?
> 
> Digital operators.....
> How could you recharge your laptop battery in the field?
> Do you have the most current version of FLDigi, FLMsg, Winlink on your computer?
> Do you have a thumb drive in your go bag for passing forms, files, etc?
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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> Harc at humboldt-arc.org
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