Tech Class Amateur Radio License

[workinwifdakids]

A recent storm knocked out all power to a half-dozen school sites, and lightning took out their radio repeater. Now, they're looking for one employee per campus to become licensed as an amateur radio operator.

A group of volunteers will be giving a free 8-hour class ("study session") on the Technician Class Amateur Radio License, and after dinner they'll proctor the exam session. I think this is a great opportunity, since the city-wide group/club who's putting this on has a focus on disaster/emergency/civil response situations. That's exactly where I want to be. In the foreseeable future, I cannot turn this into a hobby. I have two little kids, I work two jobs, and my wife just bought a shovel, a poncho, and a tub of lye to remind me not to take on anything new.

QUESTION 1: I would like some free online study materials, please! This class is too soon to order, read, and review the texts properly.

QUESTION 2a: I'm going to ask the District to purchase the radio equipment that I would use on-site should the worst come to pass. I have no idea how far an amateur radio transmits, but the city covers roughly 55 square miles of flat land, with no geographic obstacles. Given the current budget disaster, what is a robust yet financially reasonable setup? I'm thinking something along the lines of a handheld unit that takes batteries. Again, I'm too green to even formulate a proper question.

QUESTION 2b: Is there such a unit that could take a charge from one of those tarp-like solar sheets you can buy online? No power means no power, and eventually batteries will run dry. The one thing we have here aplenty is strong, uninterrupted sun nearly year-round.

[randy]

I'm going to break my responses up:

QUESTION 1: I would like some free online study materials, please! This class is too soon to order, read, and review the texts properly.

On line practice exams. These use the same question pool and the same algorithms for developing tests as the VE (Volunteer Examiners) that will give you your test. I've found them invaluable when studying for my General, Advanced and Extra exams (they weren't available when I did my Novice and Tech), both in highlighting weak areas for further study and to build confidence when I went in to take my exam (i.e. passed the online tests 3-5 days in a row prior to the actual testing).

http://www.eham.net/exams/

http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl

The full FCC Technician Question Pool is available here:

http://www.ncvec.org/page.php?id=349

THe ARRL (American Radio Relay League) has an online study course (NOT Free):
http://www.arrl.org/cce/Tech.html


If I find any free online study materials I'll post it here. In the meantime, feel free to post any questions.

[randy]

A recent storm knocked out all power to a half-dozen school sites, and lightning took out their radio repeater. Now, they're looking for one employee per campus to become licensed as an amateur radio operator.

Be VERY careful how you proceed on this. The FCC has been coming down on employees using amateur radio to benefit their business (i.e., being a paid to act as an operator). Even as an Emergency Management employee performing tests to support emergency training I need to get a waiver from the FCC each time. The problem is that as amateur radio is recognized as a tool in the emergency communications tool kit, companies and local governments are jumping in without fully understanding how the Amateur Radio Service differs from the more familiar Public Safety and Land Mobile services.

If they are looking at hams to supplement their normal operations, they need to look into other solutions such as back up power (batteries/generators, back up repeater, training to use their equipment in Simplex mode) for their normal system.

Of course if we are talking about safety during true emergencies you're OK, but normal every day type operations are a no-no.

What we are doing here is that employee hams are acting as Subject Matter Experts and points of contact and coordination, and available for initial emergency operations with other (volunteer)vhams from the community responding to provide long term operators. The group you are getting licensed through are probably good people to talk this over with.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but you do need to move carefully and study the issue to avoid getting you and your district in dutch with the FCC.

[randy]

QUESTION 2a: I'm going to ask the District to purchase the radio equipment that I would use on-site should the worst come to pass. I have no idea how far an amateur radio transmits, but the city covers roughly 55 square miles of flat land, with no geographic obstacles. Given the current budget disaster, what is a robust yet financially reasonable setup? I'm thinking something along the lines of a handheld unit that takes batteries. Again, I'm too green to even formulate a proper question.

Most local amateur radio emergency ops take place in the VHF 2 Meter (144 MHz) band of frequencies. They are basically line of sight. It is likely that there are several amateur repeaters in your area, and the odds of ALL of them going down at once are usually low (unless they're all on the same tower site). With a repeater you can easily cover that area. The one I'm active easily covers 70 miles each way with the right radio and antenna.

From your description, I assume you are talking point to point communications between buildings. In that case I STRONGLY suggest you get a minimum of a 2 meter mobile radio configured with a power supply, battery back up and an external antenna, the higher the better. Mounted on the roof at a minimum, but the higher on a mast or tower the better. This is how my home station is set up (with a dual band 2meter/440 MHZ radio) and how I designed the amateur station at the local Emergency Management Agency.

ETA: If you have antennas on all the buildings as high as you can practically get them, you should be able to talk to all the other stations without the need for a repeater.

A Handheld Transceiver/Handi-Talkie (HT in ham parlance) would be good addition, and a good start for you as an individual, but it is not likely going to have the power and range to handle the task you are describing unless Amateur repeaters are on the air and available. I try not to design in the necessity for others to be available when I put together a station.

The cost of such a set up can be done for under $500 with judicious shopping and home brewing, and easily under $1000.00 for all new equipment, which should be well within the budget of any agency serious about this. Especially when you consider that a Public Safety 800MHz hand-held such as used by police and fire can run $3-5,000 each, and you don't want to talk about what a base station costs.

As you move forward with this, I will be happy to answer questions and make suggestions.

Not to toot my own horn, but I do have some experience on this:
Former Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) County Emergency Coordinator
Former Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) Radio Officer
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Official Emergency Station,
And I literally helped write the book (contributor to the ARRL Level 1 Emergency Communications Course development)

[randy]

QUESTION 2b: Is there such a unit that could take a charge from one of those tarp-like solar sheets you can buy online? No power means no power, and eventually batteries will run dry. The one thing we have here aplenty is strong, uninterrupted sun nearly year-round.

The majority of portable solar arrays such as you mention will not be able to provide enough power for a radio directly. What you do is hook the radio to a battery, and then charge the battery from whatever (solar, wind, generator, etc).

My home station has an 18 Amp Hour battery that is continuously trickle charged by a West Mountain Power Gate hooked to my power supply that switches over to the battery when power goes out (basically a UPS for radios).

That size battery should run my VHF station (with prudent power management) for several days. I do have plans to get a larger battery as I find a good deal. (The one I have is salvaged from a jump start pack). While car batteries will work, they are not designed for this kind of operation. Better types are Gell Cell or AGM batteries such as found in UPSs, emergency lighting, etc.

Incidentally, this is why a good, high external antenna is a good idea. The better your antenna system, the less power you will need as a rule and the longer you battery lasts.

[Rumpshot]

Randy forgot to mention that Ham Radio can easily be as addicting AND as expensive as shooting.

With that said, Randy pretty well covered the subject matter that was brought up. Get a copy of the questions. Read through them two or three times and you probably can pass the test, especially if they teach a "prep" class before giving the test.

You might be surprised at who some of the local folks are that are Hams. You will find retired military, quite often SENIOR military, and lots of other interesting folk.

[TabascoKid]

http://www.eham.net/exams/

+5 to using ehams. A ham in my state guard unit told me to just start taking the ehams tech quiz until I could score a 95% or better at least 10 times. Worked for me.

[randy]

OK, couldn't let it rest. I've worked up a basic station such as you might want at each building.

I picked quality stuff that I'm personally familiar with and will give good long term service. I also looked at pure plug and play. Radio gear is like guns and cars, everyone has their favorites and their reasons. This is the stuff I'd buy if it was for me or an organization I'm supporting. Local conditions may dictate other choices (for instance all the local hospitals standardized on one brand and model of radio, so any Op from any location would know the gear)

Several of these items could be home brewed quickly and cheaply by most hams interested in emergency communications. For instance, all the power cables and adapters I could make up with stuff I carry in my vehicle kit (wire and power pole connectors in bulk, and a good quality crimping tool). The ham group you're in contact with could probably help on that.

I mostly quoted prices from Amateur Electronic Supply, as they have a SoCal location, and I know they work with .gov/PO type agencies. They're who we purchased the gear for the local EMA from. You could probably work a deal for a bulk purchase (say gear for all locations at once). You might possibly have local Ham stores.


Radio: Basic 2 meter mobile. Icom IC-2200H

Power:

Astron RS-35A Power supply$159.99

West Mountain Radio Power Gate $119.00 The heart of making a battery and power supply a UPS for the radio

SLA battery I’d recommend at least the 28 AH ($79.99), but get the biggest you can budget. You can probably find a local source and save shipping

Power adapter cables. Adapter, battery to Power Gate$9.99
Power Pole to OEM adapter $14.99 These are items that local hams might be able to rig up for under a dollar or two each.

Antenna:
Comet GP-6 Dual Band Antenna. $159.99 at AES. I picked a dual band (144MHz/440MHZ) to provide flexibility and for future expansion.

Coax cable from the Antenna to the radio.Figure 100 feet (easier to shorten than to lengthen) RG-8U/9913 $0.60 per foot. $60.00 for 100 Ft, Connectors (coax to antenna, and coax to radio): $5.00.

Station total: $778.94.

TBD are requirements for antenna mast (there might be something already existing such a tower, unused TV antenna vent pipe or chimney) and mounting hardware. Easy to get at most good hardware stores and any ham radio store.

Again, once you get to know local hams, you might find sources for used or donated gear (although for a installation such as this I recommend new gear). Check the local EMA and see if there is any grant funding available.

You could also go with a dual band radio. This gives you more flexibility. I picked the Kenwood TM-D710 ($549.99) as it allows you to monitor 2 frequencies at a time, and gives you a digital (text, weather, position tracking through APRS) capability and much more. You can get cheaper, but not by much and it gives you a lot of options.

Going dual band brings the station cost up to $1,148.94.

If you get your license and are interested in a home station, I can provide you with a LOT cheaper options, but I've found administrator types don't trust "non-professional" installations and it's actually easier to get this type of installation approved than one pieced together from used and home brew gear.

[randy]

Randy forgot to mention that Ham Radio can easily be as addicting AND as expensive as shooting.

However, I'm not throwing a quarter and on up down the range every time I pull the trigger (push the talk switch) on one of my radios.

One advantage of Ham Radio is that once you've got your gear, it doesn't really cost any thing to actually use. And you can buy a lot of the gear used, and home brew a lot of things, especially antennas, from cheap components or even scrap.

But, you can spend up to everything in your bank account if you want to very easily.

[workinwifdakids]

You guys are awesome! Thanks so much!

I'll let you know how this proceeds. Looks like they are quite serious about spending what it takes to get a station going. I'm enrolled for the test on the 27th.