# My Portable Emengency Communications Kit



## jerrwhy (Jan 12, 2010)

This is a post I did on another message board that I'm cutting and pasting for you guys. I got my Amateur Radio License mainly for communications in the event of a disaster of some type. My wife and I are surrounded by about 650,000 acres of North Florida Pine and Southern Georgia Swamp. We wanted to have the ability to communicate with people or emergency services should the need arise without having to rely on the existing infrastructure. Anyway here goes:


I wanted to consolidate my Yaesu VX-7R HT into an easy grab and go kit that would be suitable for emergency communications as well as just plain screwing around. This kit is still a work in progress and by no means complete. However, it is a healthy start into my first ecomm foray, this is what Iâve come up with so far:










The bag is a Maxpedition Neatfreak organizer capable of storing almost everything I need it to. The big blue tube contains a 10 watt flexible solar panel and 8 amp hour rechargeable battery. 










The interior contents of the Neatfreak organizer; everything has a place and everything in its place. This bag can be used alone if Iâm just screwing around on my property or I can easily stuff it inside another larger bag such as a BOB. 










The centerpiece of the kit is a Yaesu VX-7R. Itâs a billed a tri-band radio however, itâs really a quad band. Its capable of transmitting on 6 meters, 2 meters, 1.25 meters, and 70 centimeters. In addition it can dual scan as well as dual receive, it has wideband receive, and ample enough memory for my needs. 










Since a radio is only as good as its antenna I decided to purchase a Slim Jim antenna off of E-bay. I couldnât build this antenna for the price so it was cheaper to purchase it. The antenna is a great performer. The local repeater is about 20 miles from my house and I can hit it easily. More importantly I can also hit it on lower power and save on my battery. Iâve also been able to hit several repeaters in Jacksonville, of which the furthest away was about 50 miles as the crow flies. 

You can find the Slim Jim antenna here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/VHF-UHF-Slim-Ji...in_0?hash=item3354cacb6b&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

The Slim Jim antenna comes with 16 feet of coax cable so Iâve got a 50 foot hank of para-cord and a 4 ounce fishing weight to get it up in a tree. Iâve also got the 6 meter antenna extension just in case I need or want to get on that band.

To connect the Slim Jim antenna to my radio I bought an associated ARC109 SO-239 to SMA cable assembly. This little adapter cable allows me to easily connect the antenna without stressing the circuit board in my HT. You can find the cable here:
http://www.universal-radio.com/CATALOG/hamantht/4513.html










The speaker mic is an old Radio Shack model that Iâve had for some time. However, I find it easier to use the HT with the speaker mic especially when Iâm using the roll up antenna. I have to use CT-91 microphone adapter to make it work. However, the microphone adapter also allows me to connect my HT to my computer thru the sound card. So I get a few extra benefits with it. 

I also put the repeater directory in the bag just in case we have to relocate. The resource could come in handy especially if we need to seek local knowledge. 










Having the ability to recharge my HT independent of an electrical outlet greatly expands the usefulness of this little radio. The flexable solar panels are a left over from our sailboat. We decided to keep them just in case and Iâm glad we did. We got them at a steal of a price and ended up buying several. Each blue container holds two 10 watt panels. Theyâre plug and play so I can connect as many as I need to together and increase the output. Or, I can assign each panel or two to recharge/power a device as necessary. 










Iâve got several of the 8 amp hour batteries. I primarily use them for the fishfinder in my fishing kayaks. However, they easily power that little HT for long periods and arenât terribly heavy. I can fit the battery into the bottom of the organizer if necessary. However, I currently have one stored in the blue solar panel container. 










I wouldnât be able to charge squat without the right cords. I decided to use Anderson Power Poles and take a modular approach to powering and charging everything. In this way I can use the power cord for the radio and connect it to the battery, or the solar panel if the situation dictates. I also bought the 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter to power the radio from a vehicle if necessary.

This kit is by no means complete I mostly used what I had lying around in old bins and Iâd like to make several changes and additions to it. Iâd like to change out the solar panel. It works perfectly fine, however, even rolled up itâs a bit bulkier than Iâd like it to be. Iâd like to replace with the 6 or 12 watt Sunlinq models or something similar. This would allow me to fit the panel into the organizer. Iâd also like to replace the speaker mic that I currently have. Yaesu make a waterproof one that I think would be better suited for my needs and lifestyle.

Lastly, Iâd like to add a second Li-Ion radio battery and the rapid charger. This would alloy me to use one battery while charging another. In addition I could get rid of the bigger 8-amp battery.

Peace
Jerry


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## Nature Man (Nov 5, 2009)

Your portable communications operation looks great and functional. Your VX-7R is a better choice for comms than my Yaesu FT-60 and you have the solar recharging system for extended power outages.

Bill


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Nice communitcation outfit. Love the roll out solar charger-
good brand hand held - the hand helds sure have become small from when they first came out.

I need to get active, even if only 2M. 

Angie


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## mldollins (Jun 21, 2008)

I have an ft-60r with mods. It has more bang for the buck. Each morning going to work, I grab my ft-60r. I have an antenna on my car, a duck, and 17 inch whip. I have extra batteries for back up. My wife has an ft-60r hooked to an outside j-pole antenna. Simplex we can get around 12 miles. Some local repeaters have emergency power so I could at least 30 miles as the crow flies temporarily till I could establish a simplex frequency. Though ham is a hobby, it will be used to communicate with my wife till I'm home.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Here is one of my comm kits. Icom 706 with an AT-180 tuner. 
Antenna is a military mast system and dipole to allow either an NVIS 3 mast antenna or a 40ft single mast dipole.


>


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Have you thought about getting one of the smallest ammo cans, to store all of the electronics in? Just in case of an EMP. I don't know whether solar panels would get fried or not... but pretty sure the radio would be toast. IF an emp hit, you could take the entire Neatfreak out and good to go.

If you're going to get that prepared, go the extra ~7 bucks and get an ammo can, which would be better than nothing for a makeshift faraday cage.

Otherwise, I'd trade you for a goat! Maybe two!


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## MSMH (Sep 8, 2009)

texican said:


> ....
> If you're going to get that prepared, go the extra ~7 bucks and get an ammo can, which would be better than nothing for a makeshift faraday cage....


Please explain how an ammo can protects electronics. Do the electronics have to be "on" during the emf disturbance/attack in order to get "fried?" 

Thanks!


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

MSMH said:


> Please explain how an ammo can protects electronics. Do the electronics have to be "on" during the emf disturbance/attack in order to get "fried?"
> 
> Thanks!


It is my understanding, that any device that has transistors, resistors, and other electronics in them, will be affected, whether the power is on or off. Something about the strength of the pulse wave overwhelming the circuits, rendering them forever dead. Anything not in a faraday cage would be affected. Imho, an ammo can is pretty close to a complete metal cage... anything put inside should be insulated from the metal walls of the cage... and preferably with a ground wire to a ground rod.

I've got some of the larger cans recently... now trying to find some foam grape crates (grocery stores have tons of them when I don't need them!), for insulating the side walls. I'll put all of my extra electronics inside, as well as an older laptop. The HD is dead, but I have linux on usb that'll run the computer, and allow me to access information on cd's and dvd's.


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## MSMH (Sep 8, 2009)

texican said:


> It is my understanding, that any device that has transistors, resistors, and other electronics in them, will be affected, whether the power is on or off. Something about the strength of the pulse wave overwhelming the circuits, rendering them forever dead. Anything not in a faraday cage would be affected. Imho, an ammo can is pretty close to a complete metal cage... anything put inside should be insulated from the metal walls of the cage... and preferably with a ground wire to a ground rod.
> 
> I've got some of the larger cans recently... now trying to find some foam grape crates (grocery stores have tons of them when I don't need them!), for insulating the side walls. I'll put all of my extra electronics inside, as well as an older laptop. The HD is dead, but I have linux on usb that'll run the computer, and allow me to access information on cd's and dvd's.


Thank you for explaining it.


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## jerrwhy (Jan 12, 2010)

texican said:


> Have you thought about getting one of the smallest ammo cans, to store all of the electronics in? Just in case of an EMP. I don't know whether solar panels would get fried or not... but pretty sure the radio would be toast. IF an emp hit, you could take the entire Neatfreak out and good to go.
> 
> If you're going to get that prepared, go the extra ~7 bucks and get an ammo can, which would be better than nothing for a makeshift faraday cage.
> 
> Otherwise, I'd trade you for a goat! Maybe two!


I'm not convinced that an ammo can would make a adequate faraday cage. I'm also not convinced that it wouldn't make one either. I haven't seen anything reliable on the viability of using an ammo can for a faraday cage, there's a lot of conflicting information out there. 

I don't know if you read the EMP comission's report concerning threat's to the US concerning an EMP attack. They had some interesting things to say regarding HAM radio. Interestingly enough they believe that small hand helds like mine probably wouldn't be affected because of their small antennas and that the best way to protect larger radios is through the use of lightning protection and good grounding. 

Radios are generally shielded/protected against spikes, surges, errant signals and the such because that's what they experience everyday. However, their biggest area of vulnerability is in their antennas, which make sense since they antennas serve to receive EM radiation. And receiving a lot of power in your antenna will harm the radio. If you have lightning protection installed on your antenna it "should" shunt the incoming EM radiation and redirect it to a ground and away from the radio. 

An EMP attack is pretty far down on my list of worries. However, solar flares and the such are higher up especially since the sun can put out a lot more power. My next radio project is to get a second base station and protect it in a faraday cage. 

I'm not sure about the solar panels, I guess it would depend on the level of power that hit. 

Goats of course would survive a solar flare or EMP hit. 


Peace
Jerry


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## jerrwhy (Jan 12, 2010)

MSMH said:


> Please explain how an ammo can protects electronics. Do the electronics have to be "on" during the emf disturbance/attack in order to get "fried?"
> 
> Thanks!


Nobody really knows what will happen. There have been a fair amount of experiments with mixed results. 

The Soviets did some experiments where they basically set up some generators, military equipments, cars, and the like and set off a nuke underground very close to the equipment. They found that most everything survived and was still running afterwards. However, we're talking Soviet technology. 

As I understand it cars will will suffer some affects but should continue to operate in some capacity (maybe no cruise control or AC). Auto manufactures shield the electrical systems of vehicles these days pretty well. Computers and similar electronic devices probably wouldn't survive as they tend to be a little more fragile. 

You vicinity to the detonation determines a lot as well. If you're in or very near to ground zero it might fry everything regardless of whether or not it's turned on. As you get further away front the detonation site then electronics that were turned on might be affected while those that were turned off might be fine. The energy dissipates pretty quickly as you move away from the blast point. 

In short nobody really knows what to expect. Everything is based on theory and conjecture as nobody has really set off a nuke that high up.


Peace
Jerry


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## MSMH (Sep 8, 2009)

jerrwhy said:


> Nobody really knows what will happen. There have been a fair amount of experiments with mixed results.
> 
> The Soviets did some experiments where they basically set up some generators, military equipments, cars, and the like and set off a nuke underground very close to the equipment. They found that most everything survived and was still running afterwards. However, we're talking Soviet technology.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your input.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

You may experience more damage to a radio from a lighting strike to an antenna system, than what may happen from an EMP event..

Semi-conductors have a voltage threshold of 0.7 VDC (from off to on). When a much higher DC Voltage is applied to the junction (above 3.0 VDC), then they tend to become fried!! I had a voltage regulator in a circuit go bad, and it took out several transistors and op-amps..

I have to disagree to the OP's claim that the antenna could not be built for less. 
Us amateur radio operators like to build and experiment with antennas. I use the 300 Ohm TV twin lead for my VHF/ UHF antennas, instead of the 450 Ohm ladderline. Even though I have rolls of the 450 ohm balanced ladder line handy, since that is what I use a lot of for feeding my HF antennas..

Here are some examples of home brewed antennas for 2 meters, that I have scrounged the parts for, or built from the attached directions..

antenna made from just coaxial cable










a close up of the dimensions for many ham bands..










the plans for the 300 Ohm roll up antenna, from our local radio club newsletter










a home brew 2 meter Quad, and a 2 meter co-linear J-Pole










A 2 meter co-linear beam that a friend and myself designed. The boom was CNC machined, and we used aluminum arrows as the elements. It collapses to a package less than 2 feet in lenght inside a nylon bag.










A close up of the machineing techniques used, in order to make each element 180 degrees out of phase from it's neighbor..










I may have to put one of these signs up, if I start running 1.5 KiloWatts on the VHF/ UHF frequencies while working EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) or weak signal CW/ SSB on 144 MHz or higher bands.. Gotta finish my home brew VHF Class AB linear amplifer 1st though!!










de KK6ZY


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

on the subject of emp proofing, stick a cell fone in the ammo can and call it, if you hear it ringing then RF gets through, lining it with AL foil might help reflect RF emissions, and grounding it may also help.

The government does extensive testing on various components and some of that testing is available to the public, some not of course. There is reasoning behind why the government puts copper nets over the sensitive equipment in a few places, cause it creates a faraday cage against RF and against EMP. whether it is feasable to do so at home or not, that is a whole nuther ball of wax.

William


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