NF4RCHomePage

2019 Ham Radio Emergency Communications Conference

(Preliminary Information -- but will be continually updated)
Jeff Capehart is working on a real registration page
Already created as an "Event" within ARES CONNECT.
SAT/SUN FEB 2/3 2019

Solution finally found for reliable two-node relaying, e.g., all the way from Trenton into GNVWLK:

Big CONGRATS to all the successfull Alachua County Hams who made it into the WINLINK Check-In net this week: AC4QS, AA3YB, KG4VWI, KM4DLF, KM4JTE,KX4Z -- great job!!

Being well-rounded, capable of all kinds of modes, bands, techniques -- a strong asset for anyone in emegency communications!

Raspberry Pi svxlink repeater controller now lives! Able to operate without monitor or keybord.

(freebie: includes the polarity protection circuitry and a voltage regulator as well)

And....it was suspended....due to thunderstorms and apparent recognition that needed to study the wind load of the plans. Lets hope it starts up again!

What We Covered @ July Meeting

SCHOOL COAX PASSTHROUGHS
Dual sets (2 coax lines) were built for FOUR SCHOOLS. Meeting with Tom Cowart net week... Progress!!
School PassThrough Installation Instructions

Corrected list of schools (7/12/2018):

1. Rawlings   (on my previous list)   3500 NE 15th Street, a bit SW of the airport
    (done already) Westwood
2. Sidney Lanier (on high ground near the Red Cross) 312 NW 16th Avenue
3. Williams (on my previous list)   620 East University, sorta downtown
4. Chiles   2525 School House Rd, Gainesville, FL 32608 -- west of I-75 and likely impossible to reach from the EOC without repeaters.
5. Alachua Elementary    13800 Northwest 152nd Place, Alachua, FL 32615 -- in Alachua and likely impossible to reach from the EOC without repeaters
    (done already) Santa Fe HS
6.   Talbot    5701 NW 43rd St, Gainesville, FL 32653   Right near the 146.82 repeater, Devill's Millhopper area -- and likely impossible to reach from the EOC without repeaters.

Initial Response in Steephchase Farms was VERY POSITIVE -- Thanks to Nancy Gibby KM4YGI for volunteering!

Application to become an ARRL-Affiliated Club has now been files. There's a series of steps it goes through now...

Blue area past the green coverage of NF4C-7 (NEWB) is NEW westward coverage for our training/emergency network.

Required a line completely OVER an Oak Tree to get an adequate signal to create this coverage. I'm guessing that is our 22nd antenna since we started putting up antennas.....

Now published and on Amazon -- our copies coming in the mail....already interest from the Alaska S.E.C. and from Missouri E.C.

I (Gordon) was sick as a dog, but everyone LEARNED all kinds of things....how to lengthen transmission line, get on HF, adjust sound levels... propagation....big learning time!! John had huge RFI problems...still working on it....

The MARC trailer may possibly join our June 9th Exercise --- we just keep attracting more groups because we do EXERCISES!

91 pages but very well written and includes an Improvement Plan that has several items that make a lot of sense!

Ham radio is on page A-16 (p 80). The big emphases in this document include INTEROPERABILITY and EXERCISES. It will next be revised in 2019.

Stands to reason that if the county EM took the time to write up an After Action Report.... emergency minded hams should probably read it, right?

Note that hard work has actually RESOLVED 23 issues!!! The ones in the table above are the identified issues from May 2017 that remain. #11 was documented in July of 2016.

SATURDAY 8/19: Jay Garlitz, Susan Halbert, Ed Gray and Gordon Gibby met at the Dental Tower and soon Jay has us ON THE ROOF again examining where we can put microwave and vhf antennas to turn W4DFU into a powerhouse Emergency Comms resource for the University & County.

South tower on Dental roof, HF beam. Possible site for 24dBi parabolic aiming atTom's Antenna/ St.Francis/ Clay Electric

VHF tower at the North end of the Dental building -- possible site for MESH onidirectional antenna to serve the University and beyond.

From the roof, you can easily see direct line of sight to the Seagle Building South Windows.....and I have a colleague who lives on the next to highest floor.....

Three bridging stations now connect our
145.070 network of stations to other groups:

updated 4/4/2017 mnemonics to help the port numbers make sense		Beatty Twr CONNECTS 145.030 to 145.770	Tom CONNECTS 145.770 to 145.070	Jim	Gordon	Forest Grove Fire tower	TRENTON
145.030 (Port 6) "OCALA" "6 is twice 3"	Most Ocala Stations	W4DFU-8 GARC2			KX4Z-7 JNVILL KX4Z-10 GNVWLK
145.070 (Port 7) "GAINESVILLE" "7 = .070"			NK3F-7, TOMGNV NK3F-10 TOMWLK	KI4KEA-7	KX4Z-7 JNVILL KX4Z-10 GNVWLK	NF4RC-7 NEWB	W4DAK-7 DARK
145.770 (Port 8) SEDAN ".770 is almost .8"		W4DFU-8 GARC2	NK3F-7 TOMGNV NK3F-10 TOMWLK		(deleted)