Busy Weekend - Marathon and Red Cross too

A short and relatively quick post. I'm tired. Had a GREAT Easter at the In-Laws and my Grandparents. Stayed away from the computer for the most part. Brought my 2m HTX-202 handheld to see what repeaters I could reach from Putnam, CT and used Echolink to participate in the WX-Net Hurricane Net, preparing to do emergency nets during hurricane season.

I was "On Duty" as a Red Cross Client Assistance Card Activator from Sat night to 8:30pm ET this morning. Amazingly, no calls. A great weekend with no fires.

Got an email yesterday morning saying that they were still short a lot of HAMs to help with communications for medical volunteers at the Boston Marathon. I replied heavily emphasizing that I was a very new HAM with a very old rig I hadn't tested for more than 3 weeks. I still got a call trying to get me to sign on....so I did. When I got home from the In-Laws last night I went over the ICS-205 Communications Plans, programmed my radio, got all my identification, (my vanity license came in yesterday from the FCC. I am now K3GRN - originally my Grandfather DeLong's callsign.), and went to bed. Got up this morning around 5am and headed into Boston. I perpiperally ran into Elaine's, (), parents though I didn't get a chance to reintroduce myself. I know her Dad from his Web standards work.

I was Elite 3 - a van with an EMT and a driver tasked with picking up past winners and VIPs who drop out of the race. I learned just how challenging it is to navigate around the Boston area with a giant line through it that cannot be crossed at more than a few locations. Next year, *I* navigate :)

More later. Must Sleep. Web site to get finished and Red Cross drill in Belmont tomorrow.

HAMing Around

So patience, (or lack thereof), did finally get the better of me and my desire to participate in the 2 meter community. I went to Radio Shack and bought a 2m 1/4 wave mag mount antenna which is presently anchored outside my 3rd floor office window. I got a BNC to SO-239 connector so I could hook it up to the KDK and despite my fears, the STACO RPS-4 power supply works pretty well.

Unfortunately, I can't really talk on any repeaters requiring a PL Tone to transmit. Not easily, at least. Basically, the KDK has a default tone. In order to change it, I have to physically go into the case and twiddle with a "pot" to adjust the frequency. With no indicators of what I'm changing it to, that's not going to happen. However, since the KDK puts out more wattage than my HTX, I'm using it to listen in on conversations I simply don't have the ability to participate in at the moment.

However, I have taken my HTX and removed the battery, taping some electrical tape over the connectors. I can directly connect the antenna to the HTX's BNC connector and found out that one of the USB/Firewire external drives I have is powered with a 12V/3A power supply. Perfect for the 2.5A that the HTX needs to get max power....though 1.8 more volts of DC wouldn't hurt. The connector is a bit loose but it works. I've also plugged in my PC speakers to better control the volume.

Eric (KA1NCF) says he has a mag mount for my car as well as a cigarette power supply and a PTT headset so I can go mobile. I'm psyched.

Tonight I did my second check-in with the Eastern MA 2 Meter Traffic net and first with both the montly Massachusetts RACES Net and ARES Net. Reading today's Disaster Operations Morning Report from the Red Cross and simply watching all the hail and tornado vortex signatures on NEXRAD the past few days have only reinforced my views of the importance of HAM radio.

I'm working with my brother, (), to try and get Echolink through my firewall - it's a IP ">VOIP link to repeaters and HAMs around the world. It offers some interesting possibilities for passing traffic from locations where only HAMs are on the airwaves to places more populated. I'm also learning about people on my LJ Flist who are HAMs as well as friends and family of theirs.

Kirky has indicated that she realized this year's birthday is "a big one" and asked me what I want. Hard to say - I'd love to figure out how I can get onto HF and do some DXing as well as find some CW channels to listen to to work up to my Element 1 / Technician Plus (Morse Code) status. I need to be careful because most HAMs I'm meeting are a bit older than me and even those who are around the same age-range aren't used to someone with my personality and tendancy to jump-in whole hog with hobbies and projects that take my interest.

Time to crash- tomorrow will be my second "Breakfast" with a few folks from NSRA at a local airport diner.