I encountered this
fellow, Tim Eldridge KF6TIM, at the Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association
emergency preparedness fair, in Pasadena CA.
He is a relatively new ham, licensed about six years ago, who now holds
his Extra class license. He is involved
with the Altadena Local Emergency Radio Team (ALERT) and CERT. What he was doing at the event opened my mind
up to myriad possibilities applicable to ARES, NTS and other emergency
communications applications.
With a laptop in
one hand and a Kenwood TH-D72A handheld transceiver in the other, connected
with a USB cable, he is basically a pedestrian mobile packet WL2K station. This radio has an on-board 1200/9600-baud
TNC, along with GPS, APRS and other features.
With an
after-market antenna on the Kenwood, he was able to connect solidly on 5
Watts, with the 2-meter packet WL2K
gateway KF6TIM-10, located 3.0 miles away, as long as he stayed away from the
trees. With a mobile or small base
antenna, he certainly could have done better.
Imagine the
possibilities!