Miramar Show (Day-2) Status Report ……..HELP WANTED….

Well there is a Good, Bad and Ugly to Report

But first I totally underestimated the amount of work required to install 5 radios and a packet station into an RV from Scratch…But more on that later…

We need another Work Party to help finish the installations on Thursday .. Email or Phone Me if you can help

The Good

Don KG6QGQ RV is a substantial improvement over the Red Cross Vehicle it is much larger inside and has a refrigerator and modern things… However it only has one radio… and I guess I was spoiled with the Red Cross Vehicle which came equipped with multiple radios.  So as I said, I totally underestimated the labor involved in putting together a multi station system into the RV that is designed as a living space and not a Communications Command Center…   [Plug to the New Logistics and Mobile Command Post committee… Please get us one for next year]

We got our Golf Cart.. and it is chained up so it should not disappear..and we arranged for easy drop off on Sunday

Don KG6NDX, Mitch K6BK and especially Mike N6IEF helped construct the stations in the RV… Mike climbed the roof  and installed 5 new antennas on it..  We pulled Coax and tested all antennas and radios… Radios are installed.  Packet System is working. We have 61 responders signed up to help with 42 actually going to be on scene… and ARES Membership will pass 250 when the latest new applicants are posted.

The Bad

Shore Power that was supposed to be there today (2 x 30 A Circuits) was not there.  I did find Ed the base facilities electrician and he agreed to make sure that we have shore power working on Thursday… Unfortunately without Power… we could only test radios from DC but not from the Power Supplies… Which means that we could not finish the DC wiring… and that Means another Work Party Thursday … HELP WANTED….  There is DC wiring to finish and we need to clean up the installations so that it is safe for people to be in the RV

The Ugly

Base Station Headsets are a disaster right now…. HRO delivered the wrong Yaesu to Heil Traveler interface for the TR-8800 they lent us… My Icom interface only works with the Heil Traveler not with foot switch and Heil Proset…  With 5 or 6 channels going at the same time… it is going to be chaos in there unless I figure out the head set problems…  As all the equipment is borrowed … except for the packet radio and my IC-2720 … I could not get cables until the radios actually arrived on base….but I should have just bought one of every type of adaptor to save time….

I will be at HRO in the AM to take a collection of headset interfaces  to try to figure out something that may work…  I do have 2 Heil Prosets and Foot Switches which is the preferred way to operate… and I have Pat’s Headset interface boxes that may simplify the mess …. HELP WANTED….  

Food:

Tom KG6RCW is bringing a BBQ Saturday… and both Tom and Pat WA6MHZ wanted to cook… Dan KD6QYF is making the Costco Food run… Dan KG6VVN is supplying a small BBQ for Friday and some tables…

Overall:            HELP WANTED….

We are much further ahead this year than we were last year at this time.   Our RV facilities are substantially superior..  We have better radios.. We have more radios.. We have many more responders volunteering to be on base.. We have a golf cart to transport our staff….

And Finally…..

Take a look at Today’s Pictures