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Great article! Thanks for posting JALLEN!

I'd love to have a ham shack like that guy! Anybody recognize his transceiver? Looked kinda like a Kenwood or an ICOM, or Maybe a TEN-TEC, or maybe a Yeasu.....or something.

Great antenna farm he had too!

joe817 wrote:Great article! Thanks for posting JALLEN!

I'd love to have a ham shack like that guy! Anybody recognize his transceiver? Looked kinda like a Kenwood or an ICOM, or Maybe a TEN-TEC, or maybe a Yeasu.....or something.

Great antenna farm he had too!

Shown in the video is an Elecraft K3.

Thats great stuff!!! Son asked why they just dont have computers do it (morse code). Hahahaha kids are cute and NEVER LISTEN.

My brother who has been a ham for many years was involved in our city's CD efforts and his ham group maintained operators, radio equipment and a repeater for the communication system. The powers that be decided they would no longer support or provide facilities for it, though he tried to convince them it was a worthwhile effort. Their reply was "don't worry we have cell phones" As I recall Sprint went down during TS Allison and showed us all just how reliable cell phones are in a disaster. LOL

joe817 wrote:Great article! Thanks for posting JALLEN!

I'd love to have a ham shack like that guy! Anybody recognize his transceiver? Looked kinda like a Kenwood or an ICOM, or Maybe a TEN-TEC, or maybe a Yeasu.....or something.

Great antenna farm he had too!

Decent gear, not an exceptional antenna "farm" for a top contester.

I'm surprised you are unfamiliar with Elecraft. They have been making radios for the DX/contester set for ~20 years now, very highly thought of. My brother, also a ham since childhood, who used Drake, TenTec very high quality gear, made me laugh, saying when he saw the K3, he was like Mr. Toad in "The Wind in the Willows." He loves his. I have a K2, the older little brother model. I would get a K3, but since I am restricted on antennas, it seems silly, overkill.

JALLEN wrote:Decent gear, not an exceptional antenna "farm" for a top contester.

I'm surprised you are unfamiliar with Elecraft. They have been making radios for the DX/contester set for ~20 years now, very highly thought of. My brother, also a ham since childhood, who used Drake, TenTec very high quality gear, made me laugh, saying when he saw the K3, he was like Mr. Toad in "The Wind in the Willows." He loves his. I have a K2, the older little brother model. I would get a K3, but since I am restricted on antennas, it seems silly, overkill.

Well that goes to show you...I've been off the air for 20+ years. No wonder I've never heard of Elecraft!

I cut my teeth on a Heath HW-101 if that tells you anything. Built my own dipole antenna from Radio Shack parts and talked allll over the world. The antenna array he has I would love to have. Especially on top of that 70' f.s. tower.

In the event of a disaster, I am, for lack of a better word, screwed.

joe817 wrote:

JALLEN wrote:Decent gear, not an exceptional antenna "farm" for a top contester.

I'm surprised you are unfamiliar with Elecraft. They have been making radios for the DX/contester set for ~20 years now, very highly thought of. My brother, also a ham since childhood, who used Drake, TenTec very high quality gear, made me laugh, saying when he saw the K3, he was like Mr. Toad in "The Wind in the Willows." He loves his. I have a K2, the older little brother model. I would get a K3, but since I am restricted on antennas, it seems silly, overkill.

Well that goes to show you...I've been off the air for 20+ years. No wonder I've never heard of Elecraft!

I cut my teeth on a Heath HW-101 if that tells you anything. Built my own dipole antenna from Radio Shack parts and talked allll over the world. The antenna array he has I would love to have. Especially on top of that 70' f.s. tower.

I had a HW-101 as well. Put up a 40 meter dipole on the roof. I had a lot of fun working DX.

vjallen75 wrote:In the event of a disaster, I am, for lack of a better word, screwed.

Emergency communication is pretty easy to do these. Days. Inexpensive GMRS can be had real cheap, and licencing is inexpensive and done for the whole extended family. GMRS works well when travelling in an automobile convoy camping or at large events like rodeos and fairs as well as when a problem arises scenarios.

Even amateur radio isn't all that difficult these days. There is no code involved, and cheap but good handhelds can be bought for about $30 bucks. They can function on GMRS/FRS frequencies although not legal. The hambands offer a wide availability of nets and communication with the outside world.

Liberty wrote:

vjallen75 wrote:In the event of a disaster, I am, for lack of a better word, screwed.

Emergency communication is pretty easy to do these. Days. Inexpensive GMRS can be had real cheap, and licencing is inexpensive and done for the whole extended family. GMRS works well when travelling in an automobile convoy camping or at large events like rodeos and fairs as well as when a problem arises scenarios.

Even amateur radio isn't all that difficult these days. There is no code involved, and cheap but good handhelds can be bought for about $30 bucks. They can function on GMRS/FRS frequencies although not legal. The hambands offer a wide availability of nets and communication with the outside world.

Thanks for the info, I will look into it. I read things on the forum and wonder to myself am I not prepared enough or is everyone else just paranoid here (no offense intended at all). After browsing the forum for the past few months, I am starting to see that being prepared and paranoid are two different things.

I would rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I need to get together a get home bag.

I haven't gone full prepper, but a couple of hurricane evacuations have taught me that a little bit of care can have big payoffs. Simple things that integrate with daily life.
Ham radio is is something I enjoy. But I found that GMRS radios are cheap, and also act a PA system with nearby family,
Water I drink bottled water anyway .. Keeping a case backlog isn't much of a life change.
Never let myself run out of batteries. Especially AA and AAAs.
Canned food is something I like anyway. Peas, fruit. Chili, Bush Beans, Spam and even Canned Chicken,
Being a prepper to me isn't a lifestyle, its a mentality. I don't even have a bugout bag, but I know where things are.

Liberty wrote:I haven't gone full prepper, but a couple of hurricane evacuations have taught me that a little bit of care can have big payoffs. Simple things that integrate with daily life.
Ham radio is is something I enjoy. But I found that GMRS radios are cheap, and also act a PA system with nearby family,
Water I drink bottled water anyway .. Keeping a case backlog isn't much of a life change.
Never let myself run out of batteries. Especially AA and AAAs.
Canned food is something I like anyway. Peas, fruit. Chili, Bush Beans, Spam and even Canned Chicken,
Being a prepper to me isn't a lifestyle, its a mentality. I don't even have a bugout bag, but I know where things are.

Thanks for the tips

I discourage encouraging people to become licensed amateurs who have little or no interest in amateur radio itself, merely want it "just in case...."

There is a lot more to communicating on amateur frequencies and especially in organized nets than having the right paperwork and a radio. What invariably happens in emergency type situations is the inexperienced, and incompetent, folks starting talking, screwing up the limited facilities, jamming frequencies, rendering effective assistance that hams traditionally provide more difficult, makes those hams and facilities look foolish and even more unreliable.

I also believe the Forum discourages or forbids advocating unlawful activities or conduct, which using non type accepted or approved radios in FRS and GMRS is. "Well, it's only in emergencies." Right!

Have a nice Elecraft K2 that I built a few years ago.
Fantastic radio that is WAY more than I need for casual QRP traffic (less than 5W).
Using a 10-40 dipole @ 30 ft. Great for overall work and I usually get a 5-9 report. Amazes people that I'm only running 5-10 watts of power.
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