Earlier we broached to topic of a permit being denied for a wind turbine that would generate electrical power…
CLICK HERE for a story from the Ottawa Citizen on this topic…
Remember the song that Kermit used to sing…”Its not easy being green”? How can we promote alternative ways to create electricity IF they won’t let us install the means to generate it???
Now we could take this one step further thinking about how can the amateur radio community provide emergency communications as a last resort if we can’t put up antennas and towers…
Why would I want to spend thousands of dollars on Portable Style Radios (Ft897) plus antennas and power supplies (Marine Batteries) or generators just in case I might be able to serve my community if my community won’t let me install a simple masting to support a dipole antenna along with a vertical vhf antenna at the top of the masting? Yes this is being dramatic but if you go down to the basic level its true…
In my shack my rig runs off deep cycle marine batteries. During normal operations I use a smart charger to keep the batteries fully charged at all times. My three radios in the shack can survive for a couple of days without commercial power. I have a backup battery pack that could extend the operation for an additional day and that battery pack is charged by a solar panel… At retail when I paid for them we are talking almost $2500.00 worth of radio toys along with 2 deep cycle batteries and one large booster pack with a solar panel…Not counting antennas this is now getting very close to the $3000.00 mark…
Now I did not buy the radios to serve my community… They serve my needs and were purchased for that reason… However I did plan the power system for the setup with a power failure in mind… It made little sense to me to have the toys and not be able to use them if there is a power failure…
Now we also have to contend with neighbors who do not want us to be able to put up an antenna large enough to get a signal out if there is an emergency… As many as the critics tend to tell us THERE WILL NEVER BE A COMPLETE FAILURE OF OUR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS…. Our systems are built to survive and have back up systems to keep them in place…..YA RIGHT!!!!!.
The goverment says we should be prepared for the first 72 hours with out support from our goverment… My radio system could operate for longer than that….IF I COULD PUT UP A PROPER ANTENNA SYSTEM.
One of these days the Not in my back yard syndrome must stop and common sense prevail…
Sorry folks…This started as an update and turned out to be a bit of a rant….
73bob
Tags: Add new tag, amateur radio, Amateur Radio Emergency Services, City of Ottawa By Laws
