Category: EmComm

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.

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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

Open Field Antenna Mast Mount

In two previous blog posts (Drive-on,  Trailer-Hitch), I shared my heavy duty drive-on, and trailer-hitch antenna mast mount creations. In this post, I want to share a third option, my “Open-Field” mast mount.

There are times when you need to put up a tall antenna mast away from a vehicle. This may be in a park for a POTA activation, or in a remote field as an EMCOMM operator.

Many Hams will stand up a tall antenna mast using long guy wires, connected about 1/2 way up the mast. This setup usually requires two people to put in place. Deploying high/long guy wires is cumbersome, and takes up a lot of space. In most cases, it is not necessary.

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Introducing the XT-60

In my previous Post – I went on a rant about PowerPoles (PP). It’s true, I do not use them anymore. What am I using instead? The connector that is used in the radio controlled aircraft universe – the XT60.

Electric RC aircraft gobble up huge amounts of current. Andthe con-nection between the motors and the power source must be reliable.

Similar to the universal use of Power Poles in Ham radio, XT60’s are THE connector used in RC models.

There are 3 reasons for this:

    1.  They can handle huge amounts of current
      Although they are rated for 30 amps. These connectors can easily handle twice that amount. In fact, I have seen YouTube videos that show these connectors can handle well over 100 amps for 10 seconds or more.
    2. They are highly resistant to vibration
      This may not be an important requirement for Hams, but it is good to know these connectors are not going to come loose.
    3.  They are more resistant to weather.
       Nobody is going to claim the XT60’s are waterproof. But they have more protection against the elements than a fully exposed PP.

Continue reading “Introducing the XT-60”

I Ditched PowerPole Connectors

A “Golden Rule” of Ham radio operations is the premise that all electrical connections are made with PowerPole (PP) connectors. This makes all our equipment so-called “interoperable”.

It is considered blaphemous to question their use in the Ham culture. Well, I gotta tell ya’ll, I have ditched the use of PP’s.

Just to be clear. I have no beef with PowerWerx, the leading retailer in the PP universe. I have ordered lots of stuff from them over the years. Their customer service, packaging, shipping, and product quality is first class. They are a great company.

There are 6 reasons I no longer use them:

    1. You must be properly trained on how to wire them up.
    2. Getting consistent, and robust connections is challenging.
    3. They are not weather-resistant.
    4. They get loose/sloppy after lots of use.
    5.  The market is overrun with cheap Chinese knock-offs that are horrible.
    6.  They are way too expensive.

Continue reading “I Ditched PowerPole Connectors”

Digirig – VARA – Winlink “How-To”

I have completed the testing of my HT’s on 2M with Winlink/VARA/Digirig. They are all capable of sending Emails over the air.

I wrote a detailed document on how to get all the pieces working together.
How-To_Winlink_VARA_Digirig

I hope this saves other Ham’s some time and reduces the frustration level for non-tech’s.

N1SPW