Why I Buy Yaesu Radios

Those that know me are quite aware I prefer Yaesu radios. Let me tell you why. (I own a FT-991A, FT-891, FT-450D, FT-817ND, 3 – VX-6’s, and a FT-60).

I recently purchased the FT-450D at the Big Bear HamEscape swap meet. The radio appeared to be in prime shape – but you never know. The seller told me the radio was gently used and spent most if its life in an EOC, in a drawer.

When I got home, I determined the radio worked just great. Really nice unit. The only thing I noticed, was the headphone jack volume appeared to be a little low.

The Yaesu North America repair center is in Orange County (Cypress), CA where I live. Since the FT-450D was such a bargain, I dropped the radio off at the repair facility for a “Health-Check.”

About a week later, I got a call from the Yaesu technician. He told me he analyzed the radio and confirmed it was in fine shape. He said the radio was within factory specs, including both the speaker and headphone jack volumes.

I told him I would pick the unit up at “Will-Call”, and asked him how much I owed him. He said, “There is no charge mate, if we do not have to repair it.” He also said he would be glad to ship the unit to the house at no charge to save me the trip back to Cypress.

Wow!

I had a similar experience about three years ago. At a local club swap meet, I purchased a VX-6 H/T. It looked “well-used” and the battery was dead. I could not power it on to test it. The seller told me the unit worked fine.

When I got home and plugged the H/T in to a charger, to my horror, I discovered the LCD display was scrambled eggs. Buyer beware.

I took the H/T to Yaesu to get a repair estimate. The H/T has a manufacture date of 2015 – so it is pretty old. Yaesu replaced the LCD, updated the firmware, and ensured the unit was operating within factory specs. Repair cost? Less than $40 USD. I installed a new battery, and added the H/T to my EmComm inventory. It works great.

This level of service is mighty rare in our modern world. Especially in the tech industry. It is important to note, however, this commitment to customer service pays off in customer loyalty.

After the above two experiences, do you think the next time I decide to purchase a radio I would consider any other?

Cheers to you Yaesu!

73,
N1SPW

Baker To Vegas Communications

In a previous post, I talked about the experience of being on a comms support team for the Orange PD in the 2025 Baker-To-Vegas (B2V) Challenge Cup Relay. In this post, let’s take a look at how we implemented a new comms methodology.

A B2V support team provides the following functions:
1) Communications command center – Usually a hotel room in Pahrump or Las Vegas.
2) Follow vehicle (FV) – This vehicle follows the runners across the desert.
3) Leap-Frog (LF) vehicle – This vehicle supports the runner transition at each checkpoint.
4) Catcher – This is an individual in the LF vehicle that manages the runner transition at each checkpoint.
5) Shuttle vehicles (SV) – Vehicles that move support personnel around the race course.

One of the great challenges in the B2V race is meeting the communications requirements of each support function. There are seven comm requirements:
1) Communications base to all support personnel.
2) FV to LF and command center.
3) LF to FV and catcher.
4) Catcher to LF.
5) SV to FV, LF, and command center.
6) Internet access for everyone.
7) Mobile phone comms for everyone.

Continue reading “Baker To Vegas Communications”

Big Bear HamEscape 2025

I attended the 2025 Big Bear HamEscape last weekend.

It was a three day event. Friday’s schedule included an all day HF University and ARES bootcamp. I drove up early on Saturday (26th) morning and stayed overnight. The event was held at the same hotel as last year; Holiday Inn at Big Bear Village. The event schedule is here.

Attendance this year was @5oo registrants (Last year had @150). It did not seem that crowded. Continental breakfast was provided on Saturday morning of donuts, pastries, muffins, fruit plates, and coffee.

Here is my review of the event.

    •  There were five – 1 hour breakout time-slots on Saturday. This year, they separated the breakouts with a 30 minute break. This was great. Last year they did not do this and it was quite chaotic changing presenters.
    • You had a choice of several breakout sessions during each timeslot. It is  always tough to decide, since there are multiple presentations you want to attend occuring at the same time.

I attended the below presentations on Saturday:
Breakout-1 “What’s Up With the ARRL?”  – Bob Turner (W6RHK) ARRL Orange Section Manager.
Breakout-2 “San Bernardino Office of Emergency Services” – Anjila Lebsock, Assistant Director of Emergency Management.
Breakout-3 “Summits on the Air” – Mark Knight (KD7DTS)
Breakout-4 “All about Starlink and Ham Radio” – Aaron Scullin (K6AMS)
Breakout-5 “P-A-C-E Planning & Preparation” – Rick Schirmer (KK6CTT)

I attended the below presentation on Sunday:
Breakout-1  “Report from ARRL National” – Dick Norton (N6AA), ARRL Southwestern Director.

Continue reading “Big Bear HamEscape 2025”

Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay

Every year in late April, law enforcement officers run a relay race (B2V) from Baker, CA to Las Vegas, NV. 20 legs. 120miles.

Lots of cops. (This is a friendly term in the B2V vocabulary).

241 teams x 20 legs = 4,820 cops.

Hosted and operated by the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club (LAPRAAC), the B2V race dates back to the early 1980’s.

The race route starts 24 miles North of Baker High School, runs North on Hwy 127 to Shoshone,CA. It then winds NE to Pahrump,NV on Hwy 178/372. It then rolls through the mountains SE on Hwy 160 into Las Vegas. The finish line is inside the Rio Hotel.

In one sentence: The cops run across the Mojave desert, up over a mountain, and finsih at the Rio Hotel in Vegas. Brutal.
Continue reading “Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay”

2025 Tsunami Exercise Experience

In my last post, I encouraged participation in a very realistic EmComm drill hosted by our friends at LAXNortheast. I participated in this event and thought it would be a good idea to share my experience.

This Tsunami scenario is very real for me. I live in Southern Orange County, CA. My city of San Clemente is the closest municipal area to the no longer operating San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). At this site are a large number of underground “casks” that store spent, but active, nuclear material. This is a very dangerous situation considering the plant is in a Tsunami zone AND along the San Andreas fault line.

During the exercise, I set up a portable EmComm station at a campsite in the San Onofre State Park, less than 1/4 mile from SONGS.  I simulated that I was coordinating with the state park rangers to provide EmComm services as needed.

In this scenario, the focus was on Winlink. There were seven (7) tasks that each participant was asked to perform:
1) Maintain a ICS-214 activity log for all activities performed.
2) Send a Winlink ‘Did-you-feel-it’ (DYFI) report to the USGS.
3) Send a Winlink Check-In form.
4) Send a Welfare Bulletin message.
5) Send an ICS-213 General message.
6) Send a Winlink Check-Out form.
7) Send the completed ICS-214 form.

At face value, this looks like a straighforward series of steps that should be completed fairly quickly. What I found, however, was this is not as easy as it appears, especially if you are in the field.

I set a goal to complete the seven steps in less than 30 minutes. In reality, it took me more than 90 minutes to complete.

Continue reading “2025 Tsunami Exercise Experience”

Winlink Practice Exercise

There are two important responsibilities for EmComm practitioners:
1) Your “Go-Kit” gear must be complete and fully functional.
2) Your skills must be finely tuned and current.

Keeping your skills current requires practice. ‘If you don’t use it  – you lose it.’ This is especially true in Ham radio. There are lots of moving parts.

Our friends at LAXNORTHEAST are conducting a global Winlink practice exercise on Saturday, March 29, 2025. Titled ‘Tsunami’, this exercise simulates a worldwide coastal tsunami, or major flood event for those not near an ocean. This is a terrific opportunity for you and/or your club to participate in a “realistic” practice drill.

Event Overview Video

This event is much more that simply sending a Winlink checkin form. There are a series of messages you are asked to send. You can also report your location using APRS. If HF is your thing, you are also encouraged to participate.

There is a near real-time dashboard that allows you track all the exercise activity.

If you are tired of exercise drills that are too simplistic, this one is the real deal. I encourage you to check it out and participate. You will be a better operator if you do.

Thank you Oliver Dully (K6OLI) and your Team for putting this together!

73,
N1SPW

Winlink–VARA-Digirig-Baofeng BF-F8HP ‘How-To’

I will say it right up front. In this post, I will not engage in any discussion about the ‘value’ of cheap inexpensive imported H/T radios from the other side of the world.  I will say, though, almost every Ham I know will admit they have one (or more) of these radios in their shack.

Just for fun, I decided to see if I could get a Baofeng BF-F8HP H/T to send a Winlink message. This is not ground breaking research – lots of Hams have already done this.

When I figured out how to configure VARA and a Digirig correctly (See my other ‘How-To’s‘), the rest was a snap.

For those of you that want to try it, I have published a detailed ‘How-To’ document on how I got it all working. You can find it here.

It is a real hoot to see these radios send a Winlink message.

73,
N1SPW

Winlink-Vara-DigiRig ‘How-To’

I have received very positive feedback about my Windows 10/11 Digirig ‘How-To’ series. Windows is a beast, and getting everything configured right is tough, especially for non-tech types.

As a follow-up, I published a Winlink-Vara-Digirig ‘How-To’ today. It walks through the process of sending a Winlink message using VARA and Winlink Express. This document has the same level of detail as my previous ‘How-To’s’  including lots of screen-shots.

Hope you find it useful.

73,
N1SPW

Ham Radio EmComm in Transition

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future.”*
John F. Kennedy

I loathe the idea of telling other Ham operators what or how to think. Despite this, there is a current phenomenon ‘flying‘ into the Ham universe, that is about to change everything. And we need to talk about it. Particularly, those of us that focus on EmComm.

That thing is called Starlink.

I do not need to explain what Starlink is. Everyone knows about it. It is here – and it is now affordable for EmComm field use. And it is something special.

If you are a half-empty type, you are probably thinking, Starlink is going to make Ham radio go the way of the buggy whip. Obsolete and no longer needed.

If you are like me, you are thinking, Starlink is the greatest thing to ever happen to the emergency communications ether. And it does not mean the end of Ham radio. It means we are now able to do what we do – much better.

I purchased a Starlink Mini last fall for around $700 USD. Not quite affordable to many, but the price will come down over time. It costs $50 a month for 50GB of Internet data. Data overage costs $1/GB. You can suspend/resume your service anytime you want. When your account is dormant, there are no other fees.

My device will be used for EmComm, special events, and training. It will be dormant most of the time.

Setup was a breeze. A phone App walks you through the process. I pointed my device at the sky, made a few positional adjustments recommended by the App, and was online. The first thing I did was a SpeedTest. Throughput was just under 150Mb/s. Wow.

The advantages to us EmCommer’s is glaringly obvious. 150Mbs+ Internet access most anywhere in North America. And it runs on 12V dc. The device is nothing other than a WiFi access point with the default gateway to the Internet being a satellite.

              “Starlink requires we change the way we think about Ham radio                                                     operations during EmComm events.”

Many of the traditional Ham EmComm tools, processes, procedures, and training are no longer necessary. For example, is there really a need to send Emails via Winlink at 1200 Baud when there is a Starlink in your Go kit?

As painful as it is, this also forces us to re-evaluate investment in wireless mesh networks like AREDEN.  Heck, my interest in mesh networking got me into Ham radio in the first place.

Starlink will take some time to change the way we operate. But it is happening fast, and to me, it is an amazing technology that will make us better at what we do.

If you think Starlink is the final death strike to Ham radio, please reread the quote at the top of this blog entry.

“Change rarely requires Either / Or choices. It is a friend of And.”

Let’s embrace the futuristic tools that allow us to serve the public better as EmComm professionals. Traditional Ham radio is not going away anytime soon. We must adapt and re-evaluate how Ham radio fits in this new era of satellite technology.

73,
N1SPW

Field Computers

I am often asked: “What kind of computer(s) do you take in the field for digital work?” Here I share what I take in the field – and why.

Over the last several years, I have tried many different field computer configurations. This includes:

    • Cheap laptops
    • Expensive laptops
    • Raspberry Pi’s (3 & 4)
    • Chromebooks
    • Ipad tablet
    • Samsumg tablet
    • Micro computers

Some setups worked better than others.  For field use, Here are my 6 requirements for a viable field computing solution (No particular order).

    1.  Power efficiency and battery life
    2.  Size & weight
    3.  Ruggedness
    4.  Screen visibility in bright sunlight
    5.  Ability to tolerate high ambiant temperatures
    6.  Networking options (Wifi Access Point)

Of course, as always, I had to deal with the age-old choice of having to choose between Windows and Linux OS’s. Bluntly – I am not a Windows fan. Closed-source, predatory marketing behavior, ridiculous pricing, and privacy issues, made me switch to Linux as my everyday computing platform in 2016.

Like it or not, there are very important Ham applications that only run on Windows. Winlink Express and Vara come to mind, along with several very popular logging apps.

At the end of the day, I figured out a way to take both platforms in the field. Here is a photo of my field computing kit.

Here is a diagram of how it all fits together.

As you can see in the above diagram, the system is straighforward. Power is provided by one of my power boxes. It powers the radio with 12V dc, the MiniPC with 12V dc, and the Mini WiFi router with 5V dc via a USB cable.

The MiniPC connects to the WiFi router via Ethernet. This ensures there are no issues getting an IP address at boot time. The mini WiFi router provides a WAP for remote computers that want to connect to the MiniPC.

The Digirig connects to the MiniPC and your radio via the required cable. Once configured, you can run any of the digital mode apps you desire.

The important components in the above diagram are the MiniPC, the Digirig, and the portable WiFi router.

    1. MiniPC
      I take in the field two (2) GMKtec MiniPC’s. One running Windows and the other running Linux (Ubuntu 24.04).
    2. Digirig
      Every Han should own a Digirig. This is a sound card on steroids.
    3. Mini WiFi Router
      The MiniPC connects to a mini WiFi router via Ethernet, where it gets an IP address via DHCP. I like the GL.inet. My kit has two of these. I use both if I need both computers up and running. Computers that want to connect to the MiniPC, do so via this WAP.

MiniPC
I used a RaspberryPi in the field for quite some time. It meets all of the criteria for a good field computer. What I did not like about it was, 1) It’s slow, and 2) the SDCard limitations. I also ditched using a laptop because of battery life and versatility.

  1. During the Covid Pi shortage, I found the GMKtec miniPc’s, and          immediately bought one. They are terrific. Small, rugged, fan-cooled,             and plenty of power. They also run on 12V dc, which is a Ham                                 requirement for field work.

Digirig
Not much to say here. I own two,  and the cables for all my radios. As an experiment, I set out to send Winlink messages via 2M on every UHF radio I own. This includes a Yaesu FTM-300D, two Yaesu HT’s (Vx6, FT-60), an AnyTone D878UV Plus, and two Baofeng’s (TP-5, BF-F8HP).  I was able to send Winlink messages with all of them. If you do not own one – get one.

Mini WiFi Router
I has some trouble keeping the Linux MiniPC consistently running as a WiFi access point after reboots. On the Windows side, this was a nightmare. Windows allows you to create a “Hotspot”, but it is nearly impossible to configure it to run the hotspot at boot time.  (The PowerShell scripts touted on the Internet did not work for me).

I have found it much easier to use an inexpensive, lightweight, and low-power mini Wifi router. The MiniPC connects to the router via an Ethernet cable where it gets its IP address. This is super reliable. The remote connecting computer simply connects to the WiFi access point and then remotes to the MiniPC.  Elegant, affordable, and reliable.

Remote Connections
In order to use the MiniPC, you have to connect to it. I ditched VNC and all the other remote connection apps and highly prefer an application called No Machine.  It runs on anything (Pi included), is fast, reliable, versatile, and free for personal use.

You can connect to the MiniPC with any device that NoMachine runs on. I have used it on desktops, laptops, Chromebooks, Pi’s, and Ipad’s. This gives you a lot of flexibility when choosing field equipment.

Summary
If I need a computer in the field, my refined field kit has served me well. I can carry both Linux and Windows machines with me, plus a reliable WiFi access point setup, all in a small zipper pouch bag.

Footnote
If your eagle-eye noticed the two thing sticking out of the MiniPC’s in the photo above, those are HDMI dongles. Many computers will not provide a display to remotely connected computers if they do not have a monitor attached.  You can find them here. They are @$3 each and will save you a lot of hassles with display issues.