Grid Down Communications.

I am posting this because some may find it interesting and useful.

Nomad.
aka Ron, N1AHH
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Every January, 400 or so Hams (Amateur Radio Operators) gather for 8 days in the Arizona desert to teach each other and swap gear. This year I will be presenting a week long seminar titled GRID DOWN COMMS. It will focus on establishing a local communications system for use during an extended Grid Down Communications failure.

The seminar will include the creation and operation of several VHF/UHF remote controlled repeaters which the participants will use throughout the week to study selective calling techniques, radiation patterns, sophisticated scanning methods and to increase their personal skill set.

To supplement the seminar I will be publishing GridDownComms.pdf which provides some suggestions about preparing for a Grid Down event as well as in depth technical presentations on various associated subjects.

Part of the process of authoring GridDownComms.pdf is the creation of a blog that will contain all of the information as I create it. The blog will be used as a sort of peer review for the eventual publication.

Much of the blog is a bit technical as it is meant for Hams, but there will be several very basic sections like "What is Radio?" which gives a very simple explanation of how radio works, a section on tone encoding and several other basic concepts.

There will be a section on non-Ham communication systems like GMRS Repeaters, MURS, FRS, Cell Phone, mesh networking and other technologies.

There is a detailed section on creating a Communications Plan (ComPlan) and a section on Communication Conditions (ComCon) which helps to define when to do what.

All are welcome to participate in the review process and the finished product will be available sometime in December. Until then, the Blog will be presenting the topics for review.

Here is a tinyurl that will take you to the Welcome page.
http://tinyurl.com/GDC-Welcome

In the tradition of Amateur Radio, the Blog, the published GridDownComms.pdf and the QuartzFest Gathering are all free and non-commerical.


The gathering is called QuartzFest and it has been going on for about 20 years or so. It is an open and free gathering, but you must be self sufficient as there are NO FACILITIES OF ANY KIND at the desert site. Information about Quartzfest is linked on the blog.

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I Welcome comments and suggestions.
Nomad.

Excellent! Hats off to you. Fascinating, too: I'm looking forward to your report.

Cannot wait too... Fantastic!.

Nomad... if asked several times, but could you inquire of your fellow enthusiasts about the utility of the "walking staff antennas"... particularly the Gulo Gulo and any advantage for a typical cell phone as opposed to amateur 2m operator... thanks

http://walkingstickantenna.com/

Looking forward to it Nomad!

RE: Walking stick antenna.
I have no information about this antenna, but I have emailed the maker for more information. Looks interesting.

We will be demo'ing a j-pole antenna inside of PVC tube that would work in a similar way, although not robust enough for a walking stick. I will have an article about it and its use on the blog eventually.

You can follow the blog by putting your email address in the box provided on the top right of each page. The system will then send you each new post.

I will post any information I receive about the walking stick antenna.

Nomad
aka Ron, N1AHH.

Many thanks Nomad. I am forwarding this to my HAM friends.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Nomad - let me make a constructive suggestion.
In the event that the "grid" really does go down for America, or some part of America, there is going to be a LOT of confusion and anxiety out there. Not to mention very wild rumors (mostly wrong), and people thinking "apocalypse". The public reaction could be an over-reaction, to put it mildly.

It would be trmendously helpful for you short wave guys to figure out how you can transmit some basic news. A lot of people will be listening. A lot. So any news that you send out could go a long way. But emphasize to people the absolute necessity of only communicating the most basic well-established facts ... and absolutely no speculations or conspiracy theories.

In short - you guys could do a lot of good.
Or a lot of harm.
It could cut either way.

No offense to you personally - you've probably already thought about this a bit. It would be very helpful to know what the basic frequencies of transmission will be for your broadcasts.

Pete2

It's illegal for amateur radio operators to send broadcasts aimed at non-amateur listeners. What we do during communications emergencies is provide communications services for the authorities. This is provided most commonly by local RACES/ARES groups (http://www.arrl.org/chapter-4-ares-and-races), often associated with a local sheriff. I belong to such a group. A less common way amateurs can help is with local and long-distance message relays, using the National Traffic System (http://www.arrl.org/chapter-one-national-traffic-system).

As Chaosmagnet said, it is illegal for us to "broadcast" things to the general public. That said, Amateur radio is one of the few remaining communications mediums that is not encrypted (also illegal for us). The most useful place to listen would be in the VHF and UHF amateur bands. You would probably hear lots of us describing what we are seeing and experiencing locally.

We are no more privy to special knowledge than anyone else. And having been in many disasters as well as more than a few riots, it is next to impossible to actually know what is going on.

Your interests in the short term will be local. How bad is it? Where is the damage? Where are events taking place? That much we can tell and we do communicate it to each other.

However part of what I am doing will be trying to get hams to interface with the non-ham population. There are many options like the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) which is licensed but with no test. This service permits repeaters and licensed the whole family. Many hams (myself included) have GMRS licenses with the intent of providing a service to the general population.

There are other services as well. Rather than getting into all that here, I suggest you follow along with the blog.

Oh, getting a ham license is not all that difficult and then you can not only listen, but you can participate. Become part of the conversation, and part of the solution.

Blog link:

http://tinyurl.com/GDC-Welcome

Nomad.
aka Ron, N1AHH

PS. You asked what frequencies and I replied with GeekSpeak about bands. If you have a scanner, try between 145-148 Mhz. for starters. There are a number of smartphone scanner apps. You can tune in on various repeaters all over the world and listen to their local conversations. I have not messed with that for a few years so I am not up to date on the best ones. Mostly you will hear boring chit-chat. But after you get used to the software you will be able to link to repeaters in areas where something is going on. Like the recent fires, or Boston after the recent unpleasantness.

Just thinking thru the 'overhearing the hams' scenario- if hams are on the HF bands then they are most likely using SSB for voice.

I expect that most 'prepper grade' SW receivers don't receive SSB.(haven't done the survey - just a hunch)

Might be worth considering switching to AM mode for nets for just that reason. Won't help the band crowding but would certainly make it easier for the non-ham public to listen.

(Dang! I've been licensed 42 years now! )

Sony ICF-SW7600GR AM/FM Shortwave World Band Receiver


I have a version of this radio that I bought in 1987. Excellent receiver.

Nomad,

Do you have a website that does a great job of discussiong the pros and cons of the J-pole antenna?

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Re: J-pole antenna.

One expert in J-poles is Dr. Edison Fong of USC Berkley (I think). He teaches graduate level electronics and has his students make (and sell) a very good J-pole dual band antenna. Cost in the neighborhood of $20-29...don't remember. Profit goes to his students for additional projects.

He has published several very good articles on J-poles. Most j-poles made by folks are not very good. it is a complex antenna and the materials are integral to the tuning. There is a great deal of variability in those materials. If not compensated for, the results are poor.

I was talking with him yesterday in reference to my seminar and he told me about the research he has done in his quest for a good J-pole.

I suggest you google his name and track down the article. I think most are in QST (an amateur journal) but available on the net.

If you are interested in obtaining one, you can either "bid" on e-bay, but I don't know how it is posted, or contact him at his email edison_fong at hotmail dot com

He makes several versions. One that is designed to fit inside of a certain RF transparent PVC pipe (not all pipes will work) for self supporting applications and another that rolls up.

Electrically they are somewhat different. He will also tune to specific frequencies if needed. I have two, one on the amateur frequencies and one on MURS-GMRS.

In the article, pay particular attention to the gain figures. it is not a gain antenna, although it will certainly out perform a rubber flex antenna.

If you get one, I suggest also getting the extension coax. Really, you can not beat the price and each one is tested by is grad students.

If you want a J-pole I obviously recommend his.

I have spent the last few days writing a section about antennas and antenna gain vs coax length. How high a mast is high enough and what are the trade off's between height, coax loss and antenna gain. It is a complex subject.

Probably more than you wanted to know....

Nomad
aka Ron, N1AHH
http://tinyurl/GDC-/welcome

"Probably more than you wanted to know"
No, but it depresses me to think of the coursework I'll have to master before that's more than goblin speech.

If you're referring to the posting above-

Like most things you'll find that if you just focus your attention a little, it's not nearly as difficult as it looks at first.

You're giving up far too easily for someone in a survival forum.


(I can't see the dissertation link. Blocked at work.)

I watched a drama called 'Blackout' on the Telebox last night, very entertaining and completely dismisses the idea that in the event of an 'Grid Down Emergency' the British will not panic, make a nice cup of tea or Horlicks, go to bed and assess the situation in the morning.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/blackout/4od

The London unprepared Prepper also needed to get himself a new more grateful family.

I'll bet it's just that the skill set to master the complexities of a J-pole antenna (which I wouldn't know from a K-pole) are a long ways from those required to build a fire in the pouring rain and gnaw on a roasted rat.

I sympathize, because I am more of the "Me, Igor. Me build fire" type..

But that is precisely what is valuable about this forum.

Actually the similarities are more than you might think.

There's no need to actually "master" the Jpole for survival. That's kind of like debating the virtues of fatwood vs. vaseline cotton balls for friction firestarting when the 90% solution is to carry a Bic and some waterproof matches in a matchsafe and your supply of TP in a ziplock.

Knowing to put a chunk of wire up high and in the clear is most of it. Tuning the antenna with simple instruments is almost all the rest of it.

Be glad for those who are fascinated with whatever it is because they will improve the product and give the rest of us a simple formula (eventually, if we can persuade them to speak English when they explain) that the rest of us can just apply as needed.

Just don't be too put off by what you need to know to apply as needed. Children have taken the highest level ham tests and passed - even in the days of 20 words per minute Morse code.

There is a major difference between the two subjects.
If you did not master the skills of building a fire in wet conditions, you wont have a fire and have to eat the rat raw. Maybe you wont even have the rat to roast if you did not master trapping one.
A J-pole antenna can be build for a few bucks from simple materials and all the skill you need is soldering. It may lack some gain but it´s still going to work. I built one in less than 30 minutes. It allowed me to get connections at about 60 miles with good rapports. The antenna and the feeding cable roll up to a nice package that fit into my pants pocket.
If you are interested go ahead and try. You can improve later.

I am quite a few questions from the non-amateur community here on the Equipped web site as well as on other sites on which I have posted this information. So let me share my concept for an ideal community Grid Down preperation.

I welcome comments especially from those who have no or little communications experience. Would something like the community system I describe here be of value to you? If there was a community GMRS repeater available, would you spend $80 for a 3 year license that covers your entire family? Good radios are now available in the $35 to $60 for handhelds and in the $200 for 50 watt mobiles. All plug and play with no technical skills required.

GMRS is available in many communities and many are open, allowing any licensed operator to use them.One particular set of frequencies is set aside (by convention,not law) for travelers.

There are not many open access repeaters compared to the amateur world, but most metro areas have at least one and many rural areas have pretty good coverage. Perhaps there is already one in your area. I can help you find out if you ask.

So, please read this an let me know what you think. It is not very well expanded so there will likely be many questions. Have a read....

A Community Communications System.

There are 4 different communications arenas that need to be considered. They are, in brief, the following.

FRS: Family Radio Service. This service regulates those bubble pack radios that have become so common. No license, no control and very short range.

MURS: Multiple Use Radio Service. Like FRS, unlicensed. However the frequency used and the power levels provide much better range. Detachable antennas are allowed and with proper selection, this can be used to advantage. They can not be connected to any other service.

GMRS: General Mobile Radio Service. A lisenced service that allows repeaters and 50 watt radios. The license covers the whole family and community repeaters are common.

There are a number of significant aspects that make this service attractive to our needs. It shares some frequencies with FRS and GMRS licensees can use 5 watt radios with gain antennas when communicating with FRS users. I will discuss this in detail later.

Amateur Radio (Ham); A bewildering assortment of technologies and regulations. Basically we can do anything that is non-commercial, not encrypted and within very broad regulation. Most of which makes sense in terms of good engineering practice.

In the Ham world, one of my interests are relatively short range communications (meaning 400 miles radius or so). I use special techniques to bounce signals so that they fill that circle with a very solid and strong signal using relatively little power and simple technology.


So how can these services be used?

My situation can be used as an example. I winter in a remote desert area. Look at a map of Arizona. About 130 miles or so west of Tucson (follow route 86 west) you will see a north south road (route 85). I live near that intersection.

Zoom out a bit. With the exception of the small town of Ajo, 10 miles north and Sells, 60 miles east, there is pretty much nothing. The nearest metropolitan areas are Tucson (120 miles), Phoenix (130) and Yuma (130). I said it was remote.

Our small community hangs on a single fiber for communications and a pretty simple power grid. Actually there is no commercial power available even close to where I live. All of us are 100% solar powered.

If I install my GMRS repeater someplace that gives good coverage to the area, I believe others will get a license so that they can use it. There are a lot of great wild places around us and having good repeater coverage open to the community would be an asset.

So as each of the new GMRS repeater licensees become active on the repeater, I hope to convince them to also configure their radio to comply with the requirements to communicate with FRS users.

Likewise I intend to "sell" the GMRS advantages to other hams in the area. Not just the fact that any of their family members can use the repeater, but the community service aspects as well. Should be an easy sell.

So now we have a system that allows anyone access on various levels. my experience with community radio has convinced me that the interconnection of people strengthens the community bond and provides a real asset in situational awareness. See something, say something takes on new meaning when the "say something" goes to your peers in the community.

In the event of an emergency, we will be able to disseminate information quickly and with a fair amount of reliability.

Comments Appreciated.

Nomad.
aka Ron, N1AHH

On Baboquivari Peak? - I am being facetious. I am sure there would be considerable local opposition on religious grounds.

More seriously, how would you deal with undisciplined "Yak" usage as your group gets larger? Wouldn't the internet and cell phones work just about as well?

You must have spent some time in the area. You not only know about the peak, you can spell it.

As for the yak factor, well the size of the group will be self limiting. Not many people around here. And as for cell and Internet, this project is designed for grid down. And you probably know how fragile the infrastructure is out there.

The rest of the time, well there is always the OFF switch. Just because I build it does not mean I have to listen to it. I have done a number of other repeaters. It always seems to work itself out. The yakers soon run out of people to talk to.

I've lived in SoCal for the past twenty-five years or so, but at heart I am still an Arizonan. Good country and great people.

Babo? I can not only spell it, I have climbed it! (considerably more than once...)

I talked to Dr. Fong yesterday. He was very helpful and his price can not be beat.

Blake

Here is an article about how amateur radio is being used in the Colorado disaster. The article mentions two amateur drones, one helicopter, one fixed wing with amateur television that are being used to locate stranded people. They have a 5 hour flight time.

Also mentioned are amateur repeaters that are providing the only communications for several isolated mountain communities.

http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-provides-critical-communication-in-colorado-flooding-response

Nomad
aka Ron, N1AHH
http://tinyurl.com/GDC-Welcome

Thanks for the reference. I think drones are the coming thing in SAR, if they aren't here already. Maybe it's time to think seriously about a HAM license.....

Let me know if you need any pointers on where to get study material.

i have a old short wave radio and tune in once in awhile,winter nights seem best.i have the book for the HAM test and look around for a unit on Ebay when the thought hits me,but--thinking about it trying to use a HAM radio in a real "grid down" national emergency would be trying to drive north to what is in normal times a quiet camp ground.it would be full,full of everyone who has a radio,ticket or not trying to push thru to whoever to get info or give or take commands,you get the idea.there is no control of who uses the airwaves the radio with the most power wins that frequency.with millions trying to get on the air HAM would be a lost bet for most users.
also it would be a source of misinformation for folks like me who just have a receiver.you could never trust any info and how would you know if a official station was real.even a HAM who you had contact with in the past might say anything to keep you from a source of,say food and shelter when it would be in his best interest to tell you nothing..."gee bill i would stay in chicago things are really bad in minneapolis"

It's a valid question to pose, certainly, but I wonder if that's really the case. Maybe on the 2m repeater bands it's more of a wild west situation. But it seems to me that HAMs have been through many a dark crisis and have, as a community, maintained a broad base of respect. This is earned, not given.

I suspect HAMs regulate themselves individually and as a culture the same way we regulate ourselves individually/culturally in this forum. We do not have the right to do as we please; we have the privilege of participating. We give each other a kick under the table if we're pushing the boundary. And if we overstep, there is that giant Monty Python foot, poised to thin the herd.

My 2c.

Attracting the attention of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau seems to take a lot of concentrated foolishness. Those who have done so are best advised to cooperate fully. The fines leveled can be staggering, and they're far worse if you're uncooperative -- they call that "willful" violation.

Circling back to what happens on ham bands during an emergency, EMCOMM is one of the primary purposes of the Amateur Radio Service and most hams seem to remember that. Professionalism is highly valued. I suspect that as a group we're better at EMCOMM than many public safety agencies.

One thing to keep in mind is that your average person probably doesn't have access to HAM equipment. It's not like cell phones or even CBs, where the equipment is highly prolific and easy to use/understand. Plus it's not like it's exactly popular or 'in vogue' right now.

Therefore, most of the people with the equipment and the know-how to use it are going to be licensed HAMs who wanted to be licensed HAMs. It represented a significant expenditure of time, effort, and money to them.

While there is always a few bad apples, most HAM operators understand how to operate and won't knowingly risk their license.

Many Cheap Portable dual band Transceivers (such as UHF and VHF Wouxun KG-UVD1P) HAM radios can be programmed to operate in FRS (USA channelized frequencies around 462 and 467 MHz) and PMR446 (UK Analog PMR446 covers band 446.0 - 446.1 MHz) but these unlicensed radio channels are limited to 500mW.

These portable HAM transceivers will broadcast at between 4000-5000 mW, enhancing range broadcast considerably.

How difficult would it be for the authorities to track down and locate these broadcasts let alone determine the broadcast power was illegal without some serious triangulation surveillance by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau let alone prove your handset was responsible especially in a grid down power outage?

Listening into HAMs on SW bands will rarely get you any useful information. I think I will concentrate on a 20W Satellite/PC notebook system powered from a 12V rechargeable Lithium battery.

In the USA those Part 90 radios may not be used to transmit at all on FRS, GMRS or MURS frequencies. The radios are not type-accepted for those services. That's not to say that people don't use them that way.



Most commonly it depends on whether there are a number of volunteer fox hunters who are looking for you. In general, if you're obnoxious on the air hams will start looking for you, and if you keep transmitting you will be found. The FCC Enforcement Bureau reportedly appreciates it when hams hand them violators on a platter.

There may be people out there who own those Part 90 radios with the idea of using them illegally during a communications outage, and there may be a subset of them who will find ways to be not just illegal but obnoxious, but as far as I know it's not happening on any kind of large scale in places that have had such emergencies.



Listening in to hams on SW will let you listen in on NTS nets, which may or may not be of any use. Quite likely not. Listening on VHF and UHF may get you more useful local information. My experience has been that if you're part of the local ham community you can figure out which operators are more likely to have useful information. In that respect it's like watching broadcast news; if you come at it cold without ever having watched before it will be harder to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.

I just did a quick calculation based on the frequency separation used on the FRS band where there are 14 frequencies. The nearest frequency band for amateurs is our 70cm band which runs from 420 mhz (million cycles per second) to 450 Mhz. a span of 30 Mhz.

Using the FRS frequency separation (frequency difference between channels) we have 2400 channels available.

Now figures lie because some of that is for amateur TV which uses much more width, and there is satellite work and many other wider band applications.

However this still leaves a big number of channels available. Also, at these frequencies, range is about 2-3 miles between hand held units. Add repeaters of course range goes up.

The point I am trying to make is that there is ample room for community wide communications. Congestion has never proven to be an issue. Even during events like the bombing in Boston or Hurricane Sandy, local communications was not impaired because of congestion.

On a regional or national level the situation is more complex. Operating a radio on the frequencies that provide regional, national or international coverage is complex and not just a matter of hooking an antenna to a radio and talking.

It is a carefully guarded secret but radios operate by using magic smoke inside the components. If you do things wrong, the magic smoke gets out and the radio does not work. <feeble humor attempt off>

That is part of the reason we suggest getting a license and learning how things work. Most folks take quite a while getting a long range (we call them HF for High Frequency) station together and operating. It is not very difficult, but it must be done right or the smoke gets out.

So far, even with the ability to communicate for thousands of miles, disasters like Haiti, the nuclear event in Japan and others have not been hampered by the problems speculated about in the posts above.

As to information reliability, this is a problem in the best of times. Ham radio is no different. You need to know your source and validate information from multiple sources. Can't even begin to do that without some sort of communications.

Nomad.
aka Ron, N1AHH
http://tinyurl.com/GDC-Welcome

all really good info here.i'm just using a old Hallicrafters S-38 to pick up what i can when i can.
i was thinking of a real big time TEOTWAWKI jam up on the airwaves and not local or national events that would be over in weeks and could be followed on TV or the web.