Be Prepared: A Full Disaster Communications Drill for EmComm SHTF Scenarios

[@jeannemarlene]

Thank you for sharing and my brother shared with my husband and I and just want to say hey coming from Tehachapi California 🇺🇸😇🙏🙏🙏for us all 👍

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Woo-Hoo, Tehachapi sounds a long way away! :) Hello.

[@jackK5FIT]

Our ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service Section (all the state of MS) just completed our 12 hour yearly Simulated Emergency Test last month. The scenario was a cyber attack that affected power, phone, cell phone and Internet at various times and places during the 12 hours. My group, Central MS ARES covers 5 counties in central MS with the base station at one of the county Emergency Operations Center. We have a VHF/UHF rig with the antenna at 200ft on the EOC tower and an HF rig with EFHW at 75ft and the ability to do digital NBEMS and Winlink. Most of our group's home stations have, at the least, battery power with a lot having generators and solar panels. We live in a hurricane and tornado zone so we also support our local National Weather Service for weather emergencies. Emcomm is our job and we are proud of our ability to perform. Thanks for showing us your setup. We can always use new ideas. 73 Jack K5FIT

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Hey Jack! How very interesting. I actually didn't know that other folks tried this stuff out! Nice comment - and keep up the good work.

[@loughkb]

Group field ops are always a good time. Did you bring a portable fire pit for telling DX stories around the fire later in the evening? They're just like fish stories, the distances get longer just like the fish do in the retelling. :-)

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Haha Kevin.. Unfortunately, no fires because the ground was VERY dry. But you are right, soon we will have listened to the guy who heard his own echo long path and short path!

[@sydei3ieb204]

Very interesting stuff. Especially with power cuts expected this winter. At least here in the EU. Well done. 73'2 de Syd

[@problemwithauthority]

A while back I participated in an exercise where we (hams) supplied packet coms between the disaster site and hospitals within a 30 mile radius. Ham's on both ends of the link telling the hospitals the number of patients enroute to their locations. Good things to practice.

[@PaperworkNinja]

I'm happy to see that EmComm readiness exercises are also enjoyed in the UK like we do here in the US. It's always good to test your gear, especially with a good crew. Cheers from KD9SXA.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Thank you! Just a short one but hey, who needs long videos. We have NatGeo for that! :)

[@edcozart9916]

Nothing like getting out with the boys and all they're worried about is bananas LOL good stuff and as always Thanks Callum to you and the guys de W9US

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Haha - wonderful!

[@MrRourk]

It's a good time to get ready and make sure everything is good to go.

[@pc4ad]

Emergency communications, quite often overlooked. Few years ago, the national emergency number 112 was down here in the Netherlands. during that outage I had to go home so I entered the local nets that were set up. I wasn't part or trained in but I have been calling in I'd be driving through the area and keep an extra eye out. Just from the car, as I was able to do it. Thanks for sharing the set up!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Nice!

[@DxiLanyap]

Wow that was really great. Nice to see how you guys do it “over there”. Im in EMCOMM and I like your realistic approach for those of us who are not rich and famous. 73

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Ah. OK! Thanks for the encouragement.

[@Mottersmotters]

Great work Dx commander world comms HQ Love this type of shenanigans. I feel like I go out as a mobile command center when I do SOTA but only 5watts. Nice video loved it Motters M7TRS 73

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@Mottersmotters]

@@DXCommanderHQ very much so hope to work you on the air Callum All the best to you and your 👪 family 73 👍🏻

[@g4lmn-ron401]

I was involved in some experiments a few years back, we had human powered radio equipment. A generator on a bike frame. It was easy pedalling on RX but considerable effort required to TX. Free power but you do have to fuel the human, that's what the bananas are for. You might also consider adding some 27Mhz (I can hear the howls of protest already) to the radios because you never know what might be useful when the SHTF.

[@gerardosullivan1642]

The C.B. Is another network frequency and operators that can be used for communications.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

The TS590 can do 27..

[@PaulaBean]

A professional cyclist outputs about 250W of power at most. 100W should be attainable for amateurs.

[@77appyi]

@@PaulaBean you need a lot more than a100w of DC current feeding an HF rig to get 100W of RF out of it ..probably about 300w and that's not taking into account the losses ..like the generator will waste 5-10% and the electronics that convert the generated current into a stabilized 13.8volt may take another 5 to 10%

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

no shame in cb. i often hear 27.55 have ops acting way more pro than many hams on 40m or 20 for that matter. in a emcom situation its a boon to have as many radios as possible distributed over an area, as long as the operators know protocol (shut up and listen, only tx in turn, use clear language to convey the message, shut up and listen)

[@Thomas-ZET]

Many parts of the US have put everything into trunking radio systems and shying away from amateur radio for emergencies, sad because trunk systems can be very vulnerable

[@leo3times]

I agree. Years ago when you could listen to police and fire on scanner or other radios, news crews and civilians sometimes got to the scene before first responders would. I remember them saying It got out of hand, and that was one reason why they went to trunk systems in our area.

[@patrickbuick5459]

Just after going trunked here, a fiber cut took out several provinces for all emergency services, Internet amd cell phones for that provider. Very vulnerable, especially when nobody planned for distributed controllers. Luckily, here, we are still pretty integrated with EOCs in city and town facilities as well as fire stations etc, though it turned out 911 wasn't integrated very well.

[@matthew.tamasco]

Agree. I still carry my Ham HT on duty because our EMT and Fire are still on analog and I can at least contact them if needed.

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

@@leo3times uk tetra has great p2p capability but in practice it is never set up for use nor are responders trained to use tetra for anything more complex than a phone. pity because it cost us stupid money (backhanders aplenty from dolphin) and ended up giving worse rural coverage than the old AM VHF sets. the fact that 'first' responders are not first on the scene is a reflection on the budget cuts they are forced into and the crap telephone triage protocols. if they were adequately staffed and equipped they would respond faster. blame the bean counters. i actually think open comms are a good thing, and no problem if user services exercise good practice and protocols. the more layers of obscurity they operate under leads them to act more like secret police instead of public servants

[@colinparrott4716]

Hi Callum great videos just started to get into the ham radio scene all are very interesting

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Glad you like them!

[@colinparrott4716]

@@DXCommanderHQ thanks Callum Mark Hemming said to watch your KZbin channel as I will learn a lot. Off to Hamfest with Mark on Friday if your there I will say hello

[@Captcasper7]

Dad’s army sprang to mind. Good work 👍

[@DonzLockz]

Haha! Just a bunch of old geysers on the radio! I loved that show.😄

[@PaulaBean]

@@DonzLockz Geezers ;-) A geyser is "a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam." (source: Wikipedia)

[@Perthshire]

@@PaulaBean This is from Urban Dictionary Geezer A geezer is a descriptive word in the UK which is used to define a mans characteristics. A geezer will be found usually out side a pub with a pint in his hand on match day. They commonly like football, scrapping, beer, tea, tits, and Barry white. Geezers often acknowledge other geezers by a greeting each other by saying geezer followed by a nod and a thumbs up.

[@jayceew2j202]

Some real ham radio stuff here m8!!! Love it

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Nice!

[@richardwhitcroftkc3rrw63]

Excellent video on a much needed topic... your topic is post on. GREAT JOB!!!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Thanks Richard! :)

[@stevegriffin9552]

Good morning Calum this is my Time of watching your video. I must say that is an awesome looking site that you and the gentleman put up. Hopefully the propagation was in your favor and the test went very well. I know you and the other gentleman had fun, thank you for sharing your video and hope you have a wonderful week stay safe as always.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

What a lovely comment, thank you. Yes we had a great time - and some fab contacts too. You might like this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/onWzlnmshq6iabM

[@stevegriffin9552]

Good evening Callum I did watch the video and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous and the sunset was just as beautiful as I ever seen. Hearing the laughter of you and the other gentleman having a great time on the radio it just doesn’t get any better than that. Thank you for sharing that video also I just wish I had A bigger vocabulary but it was just awesome on the video. Have a great week. WD5ENH Steve

[@JP-tl8rr]

Great video, shows how to put a emergency com center and off the grid.

[@leomartihart]

Dx Commander, usted es un capo!!! Saludos desde FF57nc

[@brucestarr4438]

The price of LFP batteries has really come down in the last year. You can discharge them lower and they recharge faster than lead/acid batteries. A DC-DC charger from a vehicle alternator helps a lot, too. It's not hard to mount 200-400 watts of solar on top of a vehicle.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

INdeed they do. We made do with what he had :)

[@scottjohnson3226]

Fine work, DXCommader! I need to pick my game up in that regard.

[@jamesm4603]

Fantastic video Cal!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@joeblow8593]

I've been watching videos by KD8TTE taking about the Black Swan emergency exercises going on here in the Midwest U.S.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Interesting!

[@ronleblanc9832]

very nice setup

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Thanks!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Great video, enjoyed seeing the setup!

[@BrightLights1772]

Consider Lithium (Lifepo4) has some significant advantages. You can you the entire battery capacity, whereas the lead-acid you have will be damaged when you draw them down significantly. Lithium is MUCH lighter, charges very fast {e.g., fire up a generator for a short time if needed}, and can cycle thousands of times versus a few hundred. The cost is not as big a barrier as it was just a few years ago. Thanks for your video. Looks like a worthwhile effort to get those real-world tests before they are needed.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Please send some! :)

[@AubsUK]

Just a quick pointer, I didn't know about the old channel until I read your 'about' to get your website. I was just looking at the "DX Commander SOTA / POTA EXPEDITION Antenna Kit" on the site and there's a guide "10m Expedition User Guide" which I thought was brilliant, so thank you for that, but I noticed the KZbin link points to the old channel and not this one. No biggie, but might be worth updating at some point.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

A LOT of links are broken but we are days away from the new website and sometimes I just don't have time.. But well spotted.

[@DominicMazoch]

Looks like our SET or Field Day across the pond.

[@kenluning909]

Nice video. Hopefully you will be able to afford a battery upgrade to LIFEPO4. Lighter without the voltage drop issues.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Yep, maybe one day. But since I rarely (if ever!) operate continuously for more than about 6 hours, it might be a long time :)

[@karlweitzman8501]

Nice field day sight

[@jimpiper5297]

Job Well Done!!!

[@workingwiththelight3119]

What are the VHF/UHF frequencies in UK for emergencies? Which one should we tune in in case SHTF event? I am joining the hobby, awaiting my foundation level manual.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Erm.. Probably the calling freq on 2m FM, 145.500.

[@DonzLockz]

Very cool Callum... don't you only get 10 days a year of sunshine? 😄 Good flat and high location you found, hope it all goes to plan.👍🍻🤓

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Yeah it was a blast - and the ground dropping away from us made for some lovely DX (when we weren't drinking and chatting!)

[@DonzLockz]

@@DXCommanderHQ that's awesome, good times!🍻📻

[@PaulaBean]

I love to see and participate in HAM field work, be it whether for emergency or just for fun being out in the woods ;-)

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Yeah, it can take a while to assemble some folks of the "right mind"..!

[@W9HJBill]

No generators? Looks like there is one by the rear wheel of the silver off road vehicle. Must be for the coffee maker. ;) I do EMCOMM in my area. Part of a group called H.E.A.R.S. Hospital Emergency Amateur Radio Service.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Mike brought a small generator as a test. I think he charged his phone with it!

[@W9HJBill]

@@DXCommanderHQ I'm just goofing. We do the same thing on our FTX's (Field Training Exercises). We do batteries and solar, but keep the generators for the nighttime party.

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

just saying, but in the event of total comms blackout, chances are that its a solar flare, or emp. or worse. that means keep a radio stored in a faraday cage case or it will also be fried. same for all those nice new 4x4. best have a vintage windup deisel, or a petrol with real dynamo/dizzy or magneto. valve radios with carbon zinc a/b batteries will survive a lot. cell towers these days are very resilient and placed on high ground, so flooding and bad weather are not a problem and they generally can work independently with more than one single point to point link. for any less of a disaster, vhf repeaters are the local goto, so its best to take them seriously in good times and have them ready for bad times. one good thing in a real disaster is that radio conditions might improve because all the qrm will shut down, allowing easy qrp dx. these days the most likely disaster will be biological (thanks to fauci/gates/schwab) or fallout from ukrainian idiots shelling nuclear power stations (seems ukraines soverignty is more important that the rest of europe having mutant kids for 3 generations)

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Good point. Why bother I guess :)

[@yellowgreen5229]

1. Lithium isn't much more expensive now 2. It LASTS MUCH longer and us less sensitive in storage 3. It is far more efficient 4. It isn't damaged by deep cycling 5. Glass panels are MUCH better and cheaper per watt AND Last indefinitely in storage.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Great please send 2 x systems. Thanks.

[@DominicMazoch]

During URI Ice Storm, 10W with 40m dipole got me into various traffic nets. Battery only you learn quick QRP is your friend. And QRP rigs. At rest, my IC703 uses 0.5 W. The 746 pro 26.0 W. That 26 can eat batteries fast. Even a 100 W amp at rest is about 25. Best of both worlds? Use a QRP rig, and kick in the amp? My 746 failed, so I am using the 703/Amp combo. It seems to be working. You may want to do this again in colder weather. North Stream One has flow could be iffy.....?

[@DXCommanderHQ]

If we did it in cold weather, we'll take a massive generator and 3kW fan heater!

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

as always, the most important part of the station is a good operator. qrp combined with good antenna can do amazing work, so long as band users know to shut up and obey protocol

[@Jay-hr9ci]

How do you find the victron mmpt? All reports suggest they are very noisy!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

I couldn't find any noise. We anticipated some and brought some ferrites in case. BTW, I also have a 30A PSU/SmartCharger from Victron. That was noisy. Ferrites on the leads cured it 100%.

[@Jay-hr9ci]

@@DXCommanderHQ Thank you Sir

[@stevenyemc]

I have a couple of 12v bombs now. I can get the radio and a Raspberry Pi and my 12V monitor running. Looking at how to run the laptop PSU. how did you guys do it?

[@DXCommanderHQ]

OK, so I bought a 12V to 19.6V converter thing that ALREADY had the wiring for the shitty laptop (Apple Macbook Pro). Jonathan and I both run Windows on our old Apple Macs! Part number (if interested) is XW-12-19-115W

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Correction, the 12V - 19.6V converter box had flying leads.. I then bought the replacement lead to fit the laptop.. (just checked!)

[@stevenyemc]

@@DXCommanderHQ Thanks! I ran a Hackintosh until I lost the charger. How much!! I will look into that converter just what I need! I think I now remember Kevin Kb9rlw showing something like it. I hooked up with him and asked if you guys are going to do another show a couple of weeks back. Said he is keen.

[@bassangler73]

Nice setup! 4 amps isn't bad at all for a portable solar setup..

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

my go-bag has a couple of fuji fwave 100w roll up panels weighing about a kilo each, but solar is still a semiconductor so emp man made or natural will fast turn them into expensive groundsheets. unless in a faraday cage!

[@bassangler73]

@@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024 lol...I see that we see things about the same sir

[@Shep5847]

I’m trying to find that yellow “cloud mast” on Google and can’t find it. Does it have any other names that I can search by?

[@Dave-VK5PL]

Try Clark Masts

[@M0RMY]

It’s a Clark pump up mast.

[@77appyi]

search for "clark pump up mast"

[@Shep5847]

Haha. Maybe I need a tuner for my ears! Thanks!

[@will6051]

Very kool.

[@francoisisabel9666]

Was the Victron controller noisy?

[@DXCommanderHQ]

No. Tom (who owns it) said he has found some noise but honestly, we couldn't find it on the day!

[@cbjamesb1]

We all know if you didn't have the bananas it wouldn't work 😂 fantastic setup though, hopefully we can use our knowledge in a real emergency one day!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

In a way, I hope not! :)

[@sv1dkd]

@DXCommander Cal how come you didn’t take the Tokyo Hy Power amp with you? I thought that you had rigged it for high power portable use…

[@DXCommanderHQ]

It's all ready BUT it trips out at 50W input. I have found someone to repair it.. We will have it out for playing sometime next year.. That should be a total blast! PS - Need some fancy batteries though!

[@sv1dkd]

Oh okay that explains it! Haha, yes it should be a blast next time! Although with propagation on the rise 100w next year should be just fine too!!

[@Chiavaccio]

Interesting👍👍

[@johannbrummer6764]

What do you mean you've got the bananas, you are bananas!! Thank you so much for all your videos Cal, I really enjoy them!! VK4AHR

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Glad you like them!

[@mewrongwayKOCXF]

Callum did you pack the bananas? lol Life would be rough without them!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Mike brought them!

[@darryllshaungarland6114]

Hi Cal, do you have any details about your solar setup? Could come useful.. 73s 2E0IGU

[@M0RMY]

Hi. Yes we used two PowerFilm 60W rollable panels controlled by a Victron MPPT into the 12V batteries.

[@darryllshaungarland6114]

@@M0RMY Thank you Tom I'll be looking in to this later today 👍🏻 73s 2E0IGU

[@M0RMY]

@@darryllshaungarland6114 hi mate. It’s a good way to keep your batteries charged. The Victron I have is the 75/15 one.

[@darryllshaungarland6114]

Thanks for the information Tom I'm seriously considering the same setup

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

@@M0RMY how is the emi from the victron mppt? does it need extra sheilding? i have had my fair share of cheap makes that blotted out the whole band without being in an earthed tin box and extra caps

[@problemwithauthority]

Did you pack the bananas? Is that still code for db's (da bananas)?

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Haha Yes Ed!

[@lonewolfhamradio]

All very interesting, I know Army Reserve Royal Signals units exercise for similar situations. Are you a member of RayNet ?

[@DXCommanderHQ]

No, we're not RayNet affiliated. I did speak to someone (once) and to be honest, I was put off by the trad "old guard" political baloney that reminds me of all village halls, scout groups and to be honest, the guard at RSGB! (ducks!)

[@lonewolfhamradio]

@@DXCommanderHQ I was put off by the paperwork and in the end the attraction of being a free marshal at a sponsored walk wasn’t enough.

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

big up to the signals! one of the few branches of the british military that can think, think fast, and tell the difference between catshit and brown crayons, and eat neither. i had the privilege to work with these boys at gchq taunton and the speed and accuracy they copy cw impressed me.

[@PaulaBean]

Light up the BBQ, crack open a few cold ones, and enjoy!

[@Ei2iP]

100w on HF? Been there done that but unless you're using data modes, I wouldn't be relying on 100w ssb, unless I was using directional antenna or lived by the sea.. Just a observation..

[@77appyi]

100 watts on top of a big hill is better than 1000W and a beam at the bottom of the hill..the height and the land sloping down from the antenna will lower the takeoff angel considerably apart from that if you have 24hr of battery life with 100 w you will only have a cpl of hr with a 1000 w amp plus you are still running the radio to drive the amp

[@nathanw851]

On the weekend they did this video I was camping 360 miles away, and made two QSOs, one using 50watts, and later one at 10watts. We were both using DX Commander Expedition antennas. Running 400w when portable on batteries is not practical in most cases.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Bloomin heck Robbie, 100W rig is plenty enough to get a message through on say 40m or 80m.. And on VFH, Woo-hoo!

[@killerbites3963]

Did you pack the bananas 🍌 😂😂 question: in a emergency can ham radio be used if you don’t have a licence?

[@DonzLockz]

Yes you can, if a life or vessel is in immediate danger you can... that's Australia but I think it's the same everywhere.

[@DXCommanderHQ]

If someone's life is in danger, you would speed, go through red lights, talk on your phone while driving and reverse up a one way street, all whilst talking on 6.66MHz and listening on 27 at the same time :)

[@GateKommand]

I've sussed you out DXC - you're trying to take over the world!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Putin tried that!

[@Embarking-on-a-new-adventure]

First thing crossed my mind after seeing the title "Brexit" , take back control

[@tincanblower]

Haha. Unfortunately this video was an "if the worst happens" scenario. With Brexit, the worst has happened and it's just getting worse!

[@karlweitzman8501]

That’s it cal get out of the shack and get on the air

[@wloop7659]

check out BBI on youtube he makes some very high power density lipo batteries with xs power cells type in LTO in channel search

[@DXCommanderHQ]

INdeed. But most of these were FREE!

[@lifeundergas]

✌

[@timprice1284]

Did you bring the bananas? Ha Ha!

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Haha

[@maciejkowalczyk23]

i've got a bannanas 🤣🤣🤣

[@darrellcollins877]

How many Banana's did you all have ?

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Only one each! Actually, I think I had two :)

[@WiggyVideos13]

Haha Mike and his 🍌🍌🍌

[@DXCommanderHQ]

And my wigglies :)

[@rogerm1cdq407]

Callum If you have not already done so contact your council emergency planning also known as Local resilience forum for the Volunteer Coordinator Group( VCG) I was Comms officer with a Charity that assisted with Comms in Emergency . Private Contact me if you want for more info M1CDQ

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Hey Roger, good idea! I will track the individual responsible.. No idea what I should say to them though! We should chat.. Please feel free to drop me a one-liner to jog my memory to chat. qrz at m0mcx co uk. Thanks!

[@michaelmohr9700]

Hi Callum , Thank for this video . Have fun and Good DX !vy73 de DL1AQU

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Hey, thanks!