Radio Communications During an Event

Radio CommunicationsDuring an Event

Who am I?

Lars Noldan

W9ZEB

A Mod on INGO

A Complete Geek

During an event Cell Towers get overloaded

Basic Phone Service may not work.

Internet connectivity may no longer be available.

These technologies rely on Infrastructure that might not exist

Reasons For This Class

CB Radio

FRS Radio

GMRS Radio

Licensed Business Band Radios

Ham Radio

Alternative Options

CB Radio

Pros

No License Required

Inexpensive Hardware

Wide Spread Use

Easy to Operate

CB Radio cont.

Cons

Help may be questionable

Signals don’t go very far

11m band requires large antennas

Hand Held CBs leave a lot to be desired

Only 40 channels

FRS Radios

Pros

No license required

Very Inexpensive

Light weight & Portable

Run on standard batteries

Easy to Operate

FRS Radios Cont.

Cons

Only 0.5w

Poor antenna quality

Only 14 channels

Terrible range

Questionable help

GMRS Radios

Pros

High Quality Equipment

Overlap with Unlicensed FRS frequencies

Higher power (Up to 50w)

Can run repeater systems

Easy to Operate

GMRS Radios Cont.

Cons

$80 License Required

23 Channels available

Expensive Equipment

Limited Group of licensees

Licensed Business Radios

Pros

Extremely High Quality Hardware

No License Required

Repeater Systems Included

Easy to Operate

Licensed Business Radios

Cons

Monthly Equipment Rental fee

Limited to your “group”

Batteries are usually propriatary

May Require Repeaters to work

Amateur Radio (Aka Ham)

Pros

From Local to Global Communications

Power up to 1500w

Wide range of equipment options

Global network of operators

Ham Radio Cont.

Cons

Test Required for licensing

Expensive equipment

Difficult to Operate

Not everyone is licensed

Rules & Regs. can be restrictive.

So What’s It All Mean?

Bands? Like Metallica?

Quality Antenna? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

What Is a Repeater or Simplex?

You Said Something About a Test?

Bands? Like Metallica?

CB - 11 Meter Band (27mhz)

FRS / GMRS - 70cm Band (465mhz)

Business Band Radios - Runs the gambit.

Ham Radio - HF / VHF / UHF (1.8mhz to 10ghz)

Quality Antenna? WTF Man?

Generally a quality antenna starts as a quarter wave.

This means on the 11m band, you need 102” (8ft) of antenna.

On the 2m band, you need about 19”

on 70cm you need only 7”

What is a Repeater?

A Repeater is an awful lot like a cell phone tower.

It is a radio, with a very high antenna that retransmits signals it receives.

Repeaters generally increase the range available due to significantly improved line of sight.

A Repeater DiagramDon’t Count on This Working!Have a Backup Plan.

You Said Something About a Test?

Please see the handout “How to become a Ham”

License Tests are usually $14

Your License needs to be renewed, for free, every 10 years

The test is not difficult.

Links

http://w9zeb.org

http://www.arrl.org

http://ingunowners.com

http://qrz.com

Image Credits

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayfox/410147504

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brighton/2153602543/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnightcomm/1429984238

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjmurphy/373863765/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rescuedog/481592862/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/badwsky/78406047/

http://ham-shack.com/images/repeater_diagram.jpg