Repost: WL2KEMCOMM
From the WL2KEMCOMM yahoo group
Howdy,
I was called upon to help the Salvation Army in the last week (9/11-9/15) with communications in Mississippi. What me and the team I was with were expecting was to find a number of families with no communications to the outside world and in need to the ability to send and receive health & welfare traffic. What we found, instead, was that even though cellular coverage was very spotty in some areas, most everyone had already had a chance to contact someone and let them know that they were OK. I was hoping to be able to demonstrate the efficiency and speed of WL2K, but we really needed to be in earlier before the communications were restored.
Having said this, I used WL2K over HF to keep the Salvation Army headquarters and our local ARES management team in Collin County Texas informed of our progress, record our daily activities and communicate with the Salvation Army team that had email in the field. The Salvation Army Disaster Services Director form LA-MS-AL was so impressed with Winlink that he asked me to stop back by Jackson, MS headquarters to demo the technology in person and help him figure out what he needs to buy to get started on Winlink (he is also a ham).
When I was in the field, we sent back to the SA headquarters the exact location (street address and GPS coordinates) of people that needed services over Winlink. As we drove around we just added locations and status to the email and then sent it after an hour or so. This allowed us to send a message that was not going to be distorted or miscommunicated with a high degree of accuracy right where it needed to go. I also sent a daily status report that covered any activities not previously discussed and was in a form easy to forward to others to let anyone that needed to know how things were going along the coast.
If we had been able to go into the affected area sooner, I believe we could have done much more. We could have followed behind an entry team that hacked their way down the roads and stopped at each house that became passable and asked to relay any H&W traffic as well as provide traffic to the proper authorities related to medical needs, status of electricity, etc.
For the record, I would like to thank each of the WL2K stations that I used during my trip: WB5KSD, WU3V, N0IA, K4CJX, K6IXA, N5TW & W9MR. I would also especially like to thank Steve, K4CJX, for all the help getting started and for helping while I was on the road.
73,
Steve, N5AC
++++follow on response to an earlier question++++
>can anyone give me some ideas what you are setting up for portable stations?
>
>I’m thinking something like a 706, pactor tnc, scs antenna tuner, 2-meter antenna and laptop >and you could put it all in a Pelican case and would be able to set up anywhere as either a >VHF telpac or HF winlink
Nick,
I am using a Yaesu 857D with an SCS PTC II-pro and a Tarheel 200 antenna on my Avalanche. I had not used this configuration before the Katrina effort (the modem is new) and I found out a couple of things that might be of use to you:
My truck has a lot of RF noise from the ignition. With the slow AGC enabled, acceleration produces approx 20 dB of effective desense that makes digital operation difficult. I am in the process of working to reduce this I have already done a lot of bonding and I will be taping the coils and plug wires this week which will hopefully help. Noise is radiated, not conducted. But, hey, who does PACTOR and drives at the same time (no fair responding to this one, John J)??
A screwdriver antenna is great for lots of mobile work generally you go to a band and stay there a while. For Winlink operation since you really don’t care who you talk to, I found myself trying one PMBO on 30m and then another on 20m and a third on 40m looking for a good match with propagation. The propagation module attached with Airmail helps locate a station, but again I generally did a little searching. With a screwdriver, you have to wait for it to retune and with a manual tune, you get to do that yourself. I did a lot of mobile work driving from place to place I’ve not tried it, but perhaps a long whip and an auto-tuner might have worked better
While I would love to have a $900 radio, a $1300 TNC and possibly a $300 laptop in a box for rapid deployment, I don’t have $2000+ to dedicate in this way so my station is available to put together with known pieces when required.
I used a Motorola MW-520 computer in my truck on a Jotto-Desk mount. I have run a lot of different mobile computer solutions including a real home PC and a 9 CRT connected to an inverter to laptops — for Winlink the Motorola MW-520 is IDEAL. This computer is a 12v machine with a separate enclosure with the processor and hard drive (floating on a mount inside the PC prepared for jarring about), a remote touch-screen and a detachable keyboard. Not all machines are configured the same and mine, an older one, is about a 233 MHz Pentium from days-gone-by. I say it is perfect because there is no boot time. The machine stays connected to 12v and goes to standby when not in use. A touch on the keyboard brings the PC to life with Winlink and Street Atlas/UIVIEW connected to the GPS and this feature alone makes the PC worth it’s weight in gold. The mount was about $260 (great mount with articulating arms, etc) and the PC about $200. Also, I’ve had permanently mounted laptops stolen from my vehicle, but not a 520. This is a small sample size obviously, but I think the MW-520, looking more like a professional vehicle PC and not a laptop, is a little less likely to be stolen. Also, if it goes, they’ll get a monitor and not the PC itself which is bolted to the floor under the seat. I can always buy another for $200 it’s the time to load and configure everything that is what I really don’t want to lose.
Hope this helps,
Steve, N5AC