Its not that I’m not trying but… Once again my ears are confirming what the DX Cluster is telling me… No signals from anywhere are aiming towards North America including Ontario Canada to be more specific. When I can leave the 450 on 14.300 usb (the Maritime Mobile Service Net) and not hear the NCS or hear anyone trying to check in with the Net leads me to believe that the bands are not very good…
Instead I did manage to get some radio activity in at the other end of the spectrum. I jumped on the “Electric Vespa” and headed over to VE3DLJ’s place and was able to help him out by programming his new Alinco DJ 175 2m handheld. It went fairly smoothly and I only had to call the vendor once to clarify instructions.
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I would have to give Sean VE3HXP of Professional Radio Service in Kemptville full credit for taking the time out of his busy day to talk me to me so I could explain the problem then call me back a few minutes later with the fix.
The radio is now programmed thanks to Sean…
So far thats about the only radio stuff happening around here. On the ARES side of things I did remember to charge up my H/T batteries and the spare pack.
The reason for this is that last night there was a fire in the electrical room at an apartment building not too far from my place. The residents were being moved over to a local community center for temporary shelter while the damage was being assessed… The last time our ARES Group had a non table top exercise (unless my memory fails me) this actual senario was what we practised for… I was NCS in the FD Comms Ctr for that one… Last nite if we had been deployed I would of been there with one less battery pack as I forgot to charge it the last time I used it…
Seeing that I usually don’t do that much on 2m FM I guess I should be remembering to re charge the battery packs after use… Another lesson learned…
But if your wondering why I was putting so much into 2m handhelds… This time the reason is fairly simple…. If you look at the above map A + E is the site of the fire, B is the repeater site, C is the reception center and D is my home QTH. Everything is in my backyard and there is no doubt that 2m fm even with handhelds would of been fine for this one…
As it turned out we were not deployed on this one but I figured I better charge up all the gear anyway so just in case I am now “Good to Go”
Its easier to stay prepared than show up with less than 100%
73bob
Tags: amateur radio
