Licking County ARES/CERT LIAISON PAGE
09/12/2013 Latest Update
On the air Training
ARES usually has training nets on the first and third Wednesday of each month. You CERT members that are now licensed are always welcome to check into those nets at 9:00 PM local time even without ARES membership. They are held on the local Horns Hill VHF repeater which is 146.880 RX ( -.600 MHz TX ) and no tones. If you are too shy to check in, just listen in to become familiar with the procedures used. This net also activates during any severe weather event and check ins with bad weather reports are always welcome.
W5UHQ will also be starting a CERT on the Air Training net on the second and third Wednesday at the same time. We will run this net via the UHF local repeater which is 444.500 RX ( + 5.00 MHz TX ) and it needs a CTSS tone of 141.3 Hz to key up the repeater. This tone can be easily programmed into the standard CERT radio described above. T We will also monitor the CERT Tac1 frequency to check out and compare simplex coverage to various localities in Licking County. The primary purpose of this net is to get beyond being mike shy and learn some practical operational skills with the radios as well as check out coverage.
All ARES and CERT members are welcome to join these training nets.
The September training sessions will use this material.
In October, we will move on to ICS-213 message formats and practice sending, relaying, an delivering ICS messages.
09/01/2013
A draft copy of our new Licking County CERT Radio Plan is available for review.
Please forward comments to W5UHQ or KD8TNS.
LICKING COUNTY CERT RADIO PROCEDURES
9/12/2013
Hints and Kinks for Programming the UV5-R + and a revisions. Nov 27, 2012
The + and a and e models appear to be the same electrically with only a slightly different case.
The version of firmware is critical to determine which programming software to use.Click Communications Tab. To check what version of firmware you have by holding down 3 button while powering up unit. The firmware version will flash by fast BFB xxx so watch for it carefully. XXX was 293 for both the a and + units we recently purchased. There was a major firmware change at 291 so look for units greater or equal than 291 on used market.
I have been having some problems getting the Baofeng USB interfaces to work with Windows 7 64 bit machines. They seem to work fine with XP and Vista but several of us continue to have problems despite following all the work arounds on the internet. If someone has success let me know the driver link and process for Windows 7. For now I am sticking with good old XP solid as a rock ( even with proflific cloned chips)
I found this link the best starting point for answering general questions about the radios and programming.
http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/ read through this site including all their links and attachments. The one on blind ham use is especially interesting since it contains a lots of hints that apply to sighted persons as well.
I found some advantages to using VIP Program. Steve Katz had good luck with Chirp which is a general purpose software which changes almost every day so I am somewhat reluctant to use it until a stable version supports the new Baofeng firmware revs. Both use the same driver so that problem has to be solved on your computer before either one works. VIP does have a few Radio specific programming options that the current Chirp version does not support.
The other irritation is that windows decides to change com ports at times when you unplug the USB plug and then plug it back in ( even to the same slot) . This can happen when you unplug the radio to test it as well since you can not hear the speaker when programming cable is inserted.
In programming multiple units or the same one after testing it, I found the following steps insure reliable communications and stable com port assignments when doing a batch of radios which requires unplugging the USB cable. Some may not be required, but at this stage at least this sequence worked for me.
C:\Program Files\UV_SR_VIP\ directory before you run VIP ( no need to repeat this each time)
Radio Shack Carries external SMA to SO-239 adapters with short jumper of RG-316 cable.
11-26-2012
Model: 278-012 | Catalog #: 278-012
$18.29
You may have to order it, but this kind of adapter makes it easier to attach a mobile antenna. Note the UV5-R will not mate with male SMA connectors without a female to female adatper.
Starter Radios for CERT - Revised 11/23/2012
Assuming that most of the new CERT licensees are primarily interested in CERT communications, your first radio may be different than the average hobbyist. Our CERT communication objectives are fairly straight forward and would be met by any FM HT radio that has UHF ( 70cm or 400-450 MHz ) coverage. Once we pick our standard CERT simplex frequencies or channels ( we will be announcing them soon) you will be able to inter- communicate tactically with your CERT team on your missions with very little chance for interference ( 2-5 mile range ) and for the most part be able to contact the EOC radio desk which will have a radio on those UHF channels as well as VHF and other EMCOM frequencies. A VHF two meter capable radio is also nice to have but it should be secondary to the primary UHF capability and will allow you to train and chit chat with all the 2 meter local hams. The reason for this is that eventually we want to set up a cross band repeater link from a pod of UHF CERT radios to a cross band repeater ( in the EMA mobile command post or the new CERT trailer). It will allow a capability to talk both within the pod of UHF radios on the scene and back to HQ via a cross band link on 2 meters only when necessary. In addition, UHF is highly under utilized here in Licking County including a repeater on 444.500 - 449.500 that is hardly ever used. That band may be in danger someday of loss to other services if we do not find ways to utilize it better..
The arrival of low cost VHF/UHF dual band radios from our friends in China has made the choice easy. Up until the past year or so, these dual band radios have been very expensive. Even if you already have a VHF only HT, we urge you to get UHF capability with these dual band radios. This is the radio I am recommending. Your mentor may have additional ideas but you really should have UHF capability first and foremost for your CERT assignments. And due to the price, you might as well go with dual band instead of UHF only.
Make sure you get the plus or a model which is the most value for your money and it has many features the UV-5R basic does not have. We already have several CERT members that purchased the UV-5R Plus* UV 5R
You also may wish to purchase some key accessories:
I purchased all the above for around $40.00 ( as of 9/1/2013) from Amazon.
At some point you may want to be able to increase the range of your HT beyond what can be done with the built in rubber duck antenna. HTs are great out in the open, but need to have an external antenna for better range when inside a building or a vehicle.
This requires an antenna connection adapter from many places including Universal Radio in Reynoldsburg
0856 |
![]() |
SMA F-SO239 | SMA female to SO-239 (UHF) adapter V | Z-1586 | $4.69 |
Be careful when plugging a stiff cable into the radio. Some hams choose to make a short jumper out of flexible coax instead of the rigid adapter shown above. They both do the same thing electrically, but the flexible jumper would be better if you intend to use it a lot in a vehicle where it would be easy to over stress the antenna / radio interface driving down the road.
You will also need an external antenna of your choice that will plug into the SO-239.
This is the small Dual band Magnetic Mount Antenna demonstrated by K8NQ in class. He uses it both to augment indoor communications and putting it on the roof of a vehicle and has found it works well on both bands. Note: The Diamond antenna is available also with a SMA connector, but that will limit your ability to use many other antennas that will only mate with the SO-239. The Diamond MR77 2M/440 Mobile Antenna Magnetic Mount PL259 ( mates to SO-239) is available from Universal for $34.95.
You might also have to invest in a short piece of low loss extension coax cable if you intend to mount your antenna much further than 8 feet from the radio. Contact your Elmer or sales rep at Universal, they may be able to help you rig up another type of antenna/ adapter using parts out of their junk boxes.
Again, these are only suggestions not requirements. The only requirement I see is the ability of the radio you choose to operate on UHF 70 cm band and these external antennas are usually not required at the short ranges you would need on a tactical exercise. Hams always have them in their Go-Kits since you never know when you will need the extra range.
Programming your UV-5R Plus* UV 5R Radios
For those of you that already have your UV-5R+ radios. I will have my PC and remote programming cable at the next COOKEN meeting ( Dec 8 or Dec 15 has not been nailed down yet). We can program your radios for you or show you how to do it on your own PC. We will program in all the key local frequencies and standardize on channel numbers to make them most useful during a CERT mission.
For those with other kinds of radios that may need help setting them up for the local frequencies and tones, bring them to meeting ( with your manuals) and hopefully we will have experts there that can help you setting up the critical channels.
W5UHQ will also be happy to program your UV5_R radios, just contact him at eldon@softpro.cc
On the air Training
ARES usually has training nets on the first and third Wednesday of each month. You CERT members that are now licensed are always welcome to check into those nets at 9:00 PM local time even without ARES membership. They are held on the local Horns Hill VHF repeater which is 146.880 RX ( -.600 MHz TX ) and no tones. If you are too shy to check in, just listen in to become familiar with the procedures used. This net also activates during any severe weather event and check ins with bad weather reports are always welcome.
W5UHQ will also be starting a CERT on the Air Training net on the second and third Wednesday in January at the same time. We will run this net via the UHF local repeater which is 444.500 RX ( + 5.00 MHz TX ) and it needs a CTSS tone of 141.3 Hz to key up the repeater. This tone can be easily programmed into the standard CERT radio described above. This repeater is located east of Hebron and is a little harder to hit here in Newark but easier from some locations. We will also monitor the CERT TAC1 frequency to check out and compare simplex coverage to various localities in Licking County. The primary purpose of this net is to get beyond being mike shy and learn some practical operational skills with the radios as well as check out coverage.
Advanced training for EMCOM.
See the training tab on this ARES website for more advanced communications training also applicable to ( but not required )of CERT members.
General and Extra Upgrade Elmering
As stated in the Technician class. Your Technician license gives you the FCC ticket to perform almost all of any EMCOM assignments expected of you in CERT. However several of you have asked for assistance in training for the General and Extra Class licenses. This would allow you full High Frequency Band privileges and ability to communicate around the world. Those of you that took the test for General should recognize that the technical level of those exams requires much more in-depth understanding of electronics and radio technology. COOKEN per it's by-laws already has a group of volunteers that will stick around after monthly meetings and go over questions you may have as you study for FCC upgrades. This is typically done on meeting days when we do not have that long a program. Another approach is getting with your Elmer and working out some kind of tutoring schedule or studying with a buddy. Going to the General and beyond also requires some hands on experience and should be spread out over several months while you are already enjoying your Technician privileges. This is why we recommend COOKEN membership so you can participate in all the on the air activities we have each year.
New CERT Hams Now have their call signs.
We have eleven CERT members who earned their Technician Amateur License on November 16th. Congratulations to the following new CERT hams and we at Cooken look forward to working closely with them as CERT members and also as members of this club. This brings to fifteen the total hams that are Licking County CERT members.
NAME | CALL SIGN |
Anderson, Todd | KD8TNR |
Dixon, Lori | KD8OLM |
Eichar, Charity | KD8TNJ |
Eichas, Lucas | KD8PPJ |
Haynes, Tim | KD8TNM |
Henning, Christine | KD8TNU |
Keck, Teresa | KD8TNK |
Lane, Bruce | KD8TNO |
Mayo, Jeremy | KD8TNQ |
Milkos, Elinor | KD8OLN |
Neal, Mike | WD8JLP |
Peterson, Eldon | W5UHQ |
Pugh, Laura | KD8TNI |
Rothweiler, Alan | KD8TNS |
Wolf, Jeff | KD8TNH |
ARES EMCOM Presentation by Weldon Mathews
The Power Point File we used in class can be downloaded or viewed from.
http://www.cooken.org/cert/powerpoint.pps
Text used in FCC Class : ARRL License Manual, Second Edition
VEC Exam Sessions:
http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session
Take a look around some of the local and national ham radio websites to gain more familiarity with the fraternity.
www.cooken.org Cooken Ham Club ( Licking County)
http://nara.eqth.info/ Newark Amateur Radio Association ( Manages the Horn's Hill VHF/UHF repeater system )
www.arrl.org The National Organization which most hams belong to
www.licking-ares.org Webpage of the Licking County Amateur Radio Emergency Service.
RF Safety Calculator: http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=11352
Calculate the safety of your antenna.
http://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/ This site selects random questions from each section of the pool for practice exam study. Use this to augment a study schedule , not as the only source.
Ham Radio and CERT working together as a team.
http://www.naem.com/connection/4/washington4.html
http://www.naem.com/connection/4/seminole4.html
http://n5fdl.com/davids-blog/2011/4/20/is-cert-the-future-of-ares-qst-article.html
CERT Communications Options A comparative study.
http://www.naem.com/connection/6/communications42.html
Hints and Kinks for Programming the UV5-R + and a revisions. Nov 27, 2012
The + and a models appear to be the same electrically only a slightly different case.
The version of firmware is critical to determine which programming software to use.Click Communications Tab.
We are having some problems getting the Baofeng USB interfaces to work with Windows 7 64 bit machines. They seem to work fine with XP and Vista but several of us continue to have problems despite following all the work arounds on the internet. If someone has success let me know. For now I am sticking with good old XP solid as a rock ( even with proflific cloned chips)
I found this link the best starting point for answering general questions about the radios.
I found some advantages to using VIP including easier setup of cross banding and dual watch. Steve Katz had good luck with Chirp which is a general purpose software which changes almost every day so I am somewhat reluctant to use it until a stable version supports the new firmware revs. Both use the same driver so that problem has to be solved on your computer before either one works.
The other irritation is that windows decides to change com ports at times when you unplug the USB plug and then plug it back in ( even to the same slot) . This can happen when you unplug the radio to test it as well since you can not hear the speaker when programming cable is inserted.
In programming multiple units or the same after testing it, I found the following steps insure reliable communications and stable com port assignments when doing a batch of radios.
I have also found that it is very critical to follow this sequence when programming multiple units.
Starter Radios for CERT - Revised 11/23/2012
Assuming that most of the new CERT licensees are primarily interested in CERT communications, your first radio may be different than the average hobbyist. Our CERT communication objectives are fairly straight forward and would be met by any FM HT radio that has UHF ( 70cm or 400-450 MHz ) coverage. Once we pick our standard CERT simplex frequencies or channels ( we will be announcing them soon) you will be able to inter- communicate tactically with your CERT team on your missions with very little chance for interference ( 2-5 mile range ) and for the most part be able to contact the EOC radio desk which will have a radio on those UHF channels as well as VHF and other EMCOM frequencies. A VHF two meter capable radio is also nice to have but it should be secondary to the primary UHF capability and will allow you to train and chit chat with all the 2 meter local hams. The reason for this is that eventually we want to set up a cross band repeater link from a pod of UHF CERT radios to a cross band repeater ( in the EMA mobile command post or the new CERT trailer). It will allow a capability to talk both within the pod of UHF radios on the scene and back to HQ via a cross band link on 2 meters only when necessary. In addition, UHF is highly under utilized here in Licking County including a repeater on 444.500 - 449.500 that is hardly ever used. That band may be in danger someday of loss to other services if we do not find ways to utilize it better..
The arrival of low cost VHF/UHF dual band radios from our friends in China has made the choice easy. Up until the past year or so, these dual band radios have been very expensive. Even if you already have a VHF only HT, we urge you to get UHF capability with these dual band radios. This is the radio I am recommending. Your mentor may have additional ideas but you really should have UHF capability first and foremost for your CERT assignments. And due to the price, you might as well go with dual band instead of UHF only.
Make sure you get the plus model which is the most value for your money and it has many features the UV-5R basic does not have. We already have several CERT members that purchased the UV-5R Plus* UV 5R
You also may wish to purchase some key accessories:
I purchased all the above for around $90.00 from Amazon.
At some point you may want to be able to increase the range of your HT beyond what can be done with the built in rubber duck antenna. HTs are great out in the open, but need to have an external antenna for better range when inside a building or a vehicle.
This requires an antenna connection adapter from many places including Universal Radio in Reynoldsburg
0856 |
![]() |
SMA F-SO239 | SMA female to SO-239 (UHF) adapter V | Z-1586 | $4.69 |
Be careful when plugging a stiff cable into the radio. Some hams choose to make a short jumper out of flexible coax instead of the rigid adapter shown above. They both do the same thing electrically, but the flexible jumper would be better if you intend to use it a lot in a vehicle where it would be easy to over stress the antenna / radio interface driving down the road.
You will also need an external antenna of your choice that will plug into the SO-239.
This is the small Dual band Magnetic Mount Antenna demonstrated by K8NQ in class. He uses it both to augment indoor communications and putting it on the roof of a vehicle and has found it works well on both bands. Note: The Diamond antenna is available also with a SMA connector, but that will limit your ability to use many other antennas that will only mate with the SO-239. The Diamond MR77 2M/440 Mobile Antenna Magnetic Mount PL259 ( mates to SO-239) is available from Universal for $34.95.
You might also have to invest in a short piece of low loss extension coax cable if you intend to mount your antenna much further than 8 feet from the radio. Contact your Elmer or sales rep at Universal, they may be able to help you rig up another type of antenna/ adapter using parts out of their junk boxes.
Again, these are only suggestions not requirements. The only requirement I see is the ability of the radio you choose to operate on UHF 70 cm band and these external antennas are usually not required at the short ranges you would need on a tactical exercise. Hams always have them in their Go-Kits since you never know when you will need the extra range.
Programming your UV-5R Plus* UV 5R Radios
For those of you that already have your UV-5R+ radios. I will have my PC and remote programming cable at the next COOKEN meeting ( Dec 8 or Dec 15 has not been nailed down yet). We can program your radios for you or show you how to do it on your own PC. We will program in all the key local frequencies and standardize on channel numbers to make them most useful during a CERT mission.
For those with other kinds of radios that may need help setting them up for the local frequencies and tones, bring them to meeting ( with your manuals) and hopefully we will have experts there that can help you setting up the critical channels.
EMCOM Training Coming to Licking County Soon
If you are anxious to get a head start. ARRL has the book we will be using for the CORE subjects on their website. http://www.arrl.org/shop/Amateur-Radio-Public-Service-Handbook/ or you could sign up for the on-line version ( acceptable but not recommended).
General and Extra Upgrade Elmering
As stated in the Technician class. Your Technician license gives you the FCC ticket to perform almost all of any EMCOM assignments expected of you in CERT. However several of you have asked for assistance in training for the General and Extra Class licenses. This would allow you full High Frequency Band privileges and ability to communicate around the world. Those of you that took the test for General should recognize that the technical level of those exams requires much more in-depth understanding of electronics and radio technology. COOKEN per it's by-laws already has a group of volunteers that will stick around after monthly meetings and go over questions you may have as you study for FCC upgrades. This is typically done on meeting days when we do not have that long a program. Another approach is getting with your Elmer and working out some kind of tutoring schedule or studying with a buddy. Going to the General and beyond also requires some hands on experience and should be spread out over several months while you are already enjoying your Technician privileges. This is why we recommend COOKEN membership so you can participate in all the on the air activities we have each year.
ARES EMCOM Presentation by Weldon Mathews
The Power Point File we used in class can be downloaded or viewed from.
http://www.cooken.org/cert/powerpoint.pps
Text used in FCC Class : ARRL License Manual, Second Edition
VEC Exam Sessions:
http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session
Take a look around some of the local and national ham radio websites to gain more familiarity with the fraternity.
www.cooken.org Cooken Ham Club ( Licking County)
http://nara.eqth.info/ Newark Amateur Radio Association ( Manages the Horn's Hill VHF/UHF repeater system )
www.arrl.org The National Organization which most hams belong to
www.licking-ares.org Webpage of the Licking County Amateur Radio Emergency Service.
RF Safety Calculator: http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=11352
Calculate the safety of your antenna.
http://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/ This site selects random questions from each section of the pool for practice exam study. Use this to augment a study schedule , not as the only source.
Ham Radio and CERT working together as a team.
http://www.naem.com/connection/4/washington4.html
http://www.naem.com/connection/4/seminole4.html
http://n5fdl.com/davids-blog/2011/4/20/is-cert-the-future-of-ares-qst-article.html
CERT Communications Options A comparative study.
http://www.naem.com/connection/6/communications42.html