Connunications update following Polls:

[Straight Shooter]

thankyou ned,any reccomends for a rig ? not used one for 30 years

[PrepperJohn]

(4 October 2012, 15:38)Lightspeed Wrote:

(4 October 2012, 15:25)PrepperJohn Wrote: Thanks LS

I am enjoying it.I have only been on air for a few weeks so it is all very new. I have signed up for the intermediate course which will hopefully be in February next year.

I am learning morse at the moment because I want to explore qrp and building my own equipment etc

Ham equipment is so expensive.

Hi PJ,

Yes ham gear ( the proper stuff) is extremely expensive.

Re Morse, its a good skill to have. Find yourself an enthusiastic Ham to help you learning.... I'm not very proficient but good enough to manage some quick QRP contacts on home built kit.... I would not have achieved even this low level of skill without the encouragement and advice of a mentor.

It too late for this year, but have a look at the RSGB backpacker competition. I used to take part in this with a 30 year old Yaesu FT 290 Mk1 2.5w contacts to Scotland and Central Europe through home made portable yagi antennas are a real thrill.......The prepping element to this is that its great cover for going onto the hills to test equipment and operating methods in the real world......that experience continues to benefit me to this day. Getting sensitive electronica to work consistently in wet, windy and cold conditions is a great challenge. ( the Summits On The Air SOTA program is equally good in this respect)

When you have rigs that can operate on 40m and 80m CW let us know as there are a number of folk on this forum who are gearing up for low power CW operations as part of their preps. When we have sufficient number we will be able to start regular CWtraining nets as part of establishing part of the Prepper communications network.

72 de

LS

I am thinking about building a Foxx-3 but I am struggling to find asuitable ATU.

Any suggestions?

pj

[The Local Ned]

(4 October 2012, 21:37)Straight Shooter Wrote: thankyou ned,any reccomends for a rig ? not used one for 30 years

Just like back in the day mate - most of the rigs today are much the same , all very similar - in that you might get 3 identical rigs re-branded in different names etc.

A generic CB these days has all of the euro fm channels as well as the uk fm freqs and can be bought for around the £40 / 50 quid mark.

You'll probably remember Ham International , Cobra , Midland - these are all still around , and still good quality , jeez - some of the rigs I used in my youth are still doing the rounds - rock solid , and good quality.

For ' freebanding ' Paul is the man to ask but my guess is any rig like the ANYTONE AT5555 / MAAS DX5000 will be more than sufficient , but if you're a CB'er from back in the 80s/90s then you'll already have a good idea what you need and want.

TLN

[RoadWarrior]

im of an age where i had a CB after they were made legal..for xmas 1981.....mega fun then......and when i passed my test had with a big firestick ant on a mag mount both an FM and a 120 channel tri star rig...with USB and LSB and the graveyard stuff etc.....still alot of folks still have them ....and i was talking to someone on this great forum bout them and am seriously considering buying one....for a comm device and for the old days...yes its coming flooding back.. i was also suprised that ...Midland ,Cobra and others are still going........think they are a viable means of post collapse uk IMO ...

[Paul]

(4 October 2012, 13:22)PrepperJohn Wrote: Well I am one of the M lot so I suppose I am going to get abused by the CB crowd for being a snob and the ham crowd for not being good enough.

PJ

Not from me you're not PJ.
Good on you for passing your exam.
As LS says,
Our little group has been plagued by a small number of hams who take great delight in causing us F.B. "wanderers" problems.
Funny bit about it is they are going outside the ham bands to do so.
All because they don't like unlicensed operators.
Silly AR##'s.

As for the 'hams' bit, you'll probably get more grief from them than from CB'ers as you had the audacity to invade their sweet little exclusive club. Bunch of pansies.

Happy modulating.

[Lightspeed]

(4 October 2012, 21:53)PrepperJohn Wrote:

(4 October 2012, 15:38)Lightspeed Wrote:

(4 October 2012, 15:25)PrepperJohn Wrote: Thanks LS

I am enjoying it.I have only been on air for a few weeks so it is all very new. I have signed up for the intermediate course which will hopefully be in February next year.

I am learning morse at the moment because I want to explore qrp and building my own equipment etc

Ham equipment is so expensive.

Hi PJ,

Yes ham gear ( the proper stuff) is extremely expensive.

Re Morse, its a good skill to have. Find yourself an enthusiastic Ham to help you learning.... I'm not very proficient but good enough to manage some quick QRP contacts on home built kit.... I would not have achieved even this low level of skill without the encouragement and advice of a mentor.

It too late for this year, but have a look at the RSGB backpacker competition. I used to take part in this with a 30 year old Yaesu FT 290 Mk1 2.5w contacts to Scotland and Central Europe through home made portable yagi antennas are a real thrill.......The prepping element to this is that its great cover for going onto the hills to test equipment and operating methods in the real world......that experience continues to benefit me to this day. Getting sensitive electronica to work consistently in wet, windy and cold conditions is a great challenge. ( the Summits On The Air SOTA program is equally good in this respect)

When you have rigs that can operate on 40m and 80m CW let us know as there are a number of folk on this forum who are gearing up for low power CW operations as part of their preps. When we have sufficient number we will be able to start regular CWtraining nets as part of establishing part of the Prepper communications network.

72 de

LS

I am thinking about building a Foxx-3 but I am struggling to find asuitable ATU.

Any suggestions?

pj

I think the FoxxIII is similar to a PixieII, yes? They work quite well on TX but their RX is pretty deaf (Pixie that is) Making contacts with them is hard work and perhaps not the best way to start out.

I've had very good experience with SmallWonder labs kits, in particular the SW20+(not sure thatthis is still available) and the Rockmite20

If you go down the rockmite20 route I think you'll find construction fairly simple and performance both TX and RX as good as the best QRPp rigs. It has crystal filters, TX offset, and even a CW keyer so its ready to use with either a straight key or paddles.

A better bet, if you have the cash to spare is one of the Ten Tec CW rigs specified in the preferred prepper equipment list in this section. There are single band affairs but with VFO ( as opposed to fixed crystal controlled single frequencies of the other rigs mentioned above) For Ham use get one for 20m, this will give you pan european contacts and maybe worldwide if you're lucky. For prepping go first for 40m or 80m as these will git you NVIS contacts within UK as well as into the near continent.... DX is still possible here too but conditions have to be very favorable..

ATU should not be a problem, in fact I'd suggest making one yourself just for the experience.

Bigger problem might be getting an SWR meter that'll work. For my SW20 I use an old CB meter and it works well enough.

I think all this Ham talk may be boreing for the prepper community! PM Me if you need any help.

LS

[Paul]

Boring! What ever next.
Keep the thread going in the open LS you might encourage others into the wonderful world of radio.

Still, I love to talk geek, so here goes.
Here's a dead simple Generic HF SWR circuit.
Not fussy about HF frequencies and VERY robust.
The ideal first project, no tuning, not fiddly, nice and simple.

Just don't hit it with too much power.
2 watts maximum and don't leave it in the circuit.

[Lightspeed]

Cheers Paul,

Tune for maximum brightness yes?

What would be the minimum RF wattage needed to make this function?

LS

---

For the ATU I was thinking a simple L match would do the trick.

L match has very low loss and has teh asvantage that by reversing connections can be used to tune short or long antennas.

[PrepperJohn]

Maybe we should start a project building group and build a few simple kits

[Lightspeed]

(5 October 2012, 13:30)PrepperJohn Wrote: Maybe we should start a project building group and build a few simple kits

Hi PJ

Its possible but they'd have to be fairly generic things like Paul's SWR meter and the little ATU that I described. These would work for HF as well as CB equipment.

I guess component parts could be specified with links to internet suppliers so that all interested parties could acquire the necessary components independently.

Not sure how much interest there would be for this though?

---

Paul,

do you by any chance have an adaption of the SWR circuit that's function at UHF??

A low cost, low power SWR indicator for UHF would be ever so useful to me.

LS