Communications/Radios/RadioCheck

Monthly Radio Check

Bootstrapping BCEC's Radio communications requires that we

1. become familiar with our radios
2. know how and where they work in our Canyon

To that end we have a radio check on the first Saturday of each month, at 9am. Often a reminder email is sent out by Wendy or Catherine.

• May 5 2018

• April 7 2018

• May 5 2018 Catherine, Greg, Wendy, Ken, Jerry, Gate Don. Ken was using his new BF radio with a stock antennae from his house. Casey was using a BaoFang with a large GRMS/MURS antenna on a post in the water tower. Everyone else was using whatever it is they use ( ;). Test went fine, with weak communications from Ken to Don's house near the gate. This was rather intermittent, and it's not clear if Catherine was in on those communications. Interestingly enough Casey with a higher gain antennae couldn't reach Don from his location near the water towers in the cathedral. No doubt his radio waves were being absorbed by the tanks and the trees. Transmissions from Ken's house seem to bounce around the corner and into the main areas pretty well. Wendy's house is clearly in a great position for a repeater of some sort. We need to test at the emergency hut in that same role. Later that morning Jerry, Ken and Casey tested a 900Mhz radio used in tricky situations. However the Canyon foliage defeated those radios.

• June 2 2018 Catherine, Greg, Wendy, Casey, Mark. (Mitchell was around but not answering until later. see below ) Pretty straightforward check, this time with Casey and a GRMS/MURS antennae over by the big gate. Gate to Mark and Greg went ok, a bit faint with Greg's setup. (Greg, next time go outside or away from computer monitors / LCD displays? I'm thinking ( Casey here ) that there was some 'digital hash' in the signal. Afterwords checked another location for the PVC GRMS/MURS setup; the big tree just over Spruce bridge where Catherine had a wireless relay for a few years. Mitchell's radio was laying flat, which meant that the antennae was polarized 90 degrees to any other radio being held in the hand. this means the incoming signals were very weak. So hold / stand your radio with the antenna up!

• June 4 2018 HAM uplink test Catherine and Casey participated in the La Honda ( SC4 http://www.sc4arc.org/ weekly radio check ) with about 25 folks from all over the ridge and hollers aboust us. Casey tested a stock BaoFang radio and the default antennae ( rubber ducky as it's called by the Hams ) to see if and how we can reach the rest of the world from the emergency hut / pool area. The Hams were very helpful as we went through an exercise with different antennas as well. TL;DR - The BaoFangs with the stock anteanne work. Reception is spotty, often cutting off at the end of Ham transmissions if one is walking around. Coverage was OK for entire perimeter of pool and parking lot areas with the BaoFang. This is pretty good news. The people who suggested these radios were right, they will work the Ham repeater OOTB, and will work better with longer antennas. Casey has programmed a few of the BaoFangs with a channel labeled BU UP for contact with the repeater in a dire emergency.

• July 7 2018 Catherine, Lisa, DonG, MitchellB, Casey, Wendy, Michael, who else? Wendy's radio didn't fire up immediately for some reason, and Michael's radio was locked. ( Michael was there but not for long ) We had good coverage for GateBurg to Country Club it seemed. Casey had been applying the Butano Zero patch to some radios (Lisa, Catherine, Mitchell, Michael ) but messed something up which he fixed later that day (The Yaesu worked, but the BaoFangs didn't. weird) . That afternoon he applied the fix to DonG and BillC's radios, after testing with Mitchell's BaoFang. We didn't try channel shifting between 1-4 this time. Additionally Casey has a BaoFang patch which will make it so radio users can't accidentally 'block/step-on' First Responders. This will mean we can listen but not talk without messing with the buttons on the radio. ( Leaving the radio 'hot' for Ham operators most likely )

• July 9 Ham Uplink test Catherine participated and Casey tried to from the distant fringes of the Repeater's guesstimated range - Sheep Trail in San Mateo, above 280 / Filoli. Casey was able to hear Catherine, and Pat later describing something about grizzly bears, and little bits of the sort of doing-the-net chatter that is manditory but that was about it. This was a test with BaoFangs and Yaesu walkie-talkies. The BaoFangs weven with good antennaes weren't able to draw any sensible voice out of the background noise. The Yaesus were a bit better but shakey. Probably that kind of connnection needs a more powerful radio and a directional antennae.