To all of our members:
Emergency Use Repeater Coordination
With the recent natural disasters that hit the greater NY, NJ, Long Island area, it has become clear that a procedure for communications interoperability be made available to all amateur radio operators. Our plan is to authorize portable/mobile emergency repeaters to be used during such times of emergency. We are setting aside two pairs of frequencies solely for this use, one on 2 meters, one on 70cm. Our plan is to encourage the building of these hand carried stations by groups and clubs, which we envision as being capable of operation on A/C or 12volt DC power with portable antennas and mounts, such as TV type tripods that can be folded and easily carried and set up in minutes with a piece of TV antenna pipe and 5-6db antenna for UHF, or a unity to 3db gain antenna for 2 meters. The repeater should fit inside of a “Pelican” or similar type of waterproof case, with a long A/C cord for connection to a Genset, and a long DC power cable to allow for connection to a vehicles power source. Add a roll of flexible coaxial cable with connectors attached, and it will complete the station. We will ask all groups to publicize this imitative and urge all hams to add these channels to their portable radios.
This plan is being introduced across the country. It is already in place in California, Nevada and surrounding areas, and will be promoted by ARCC in Pennsylvania, and TMARC in it’s area. We hope to bring CSMA (ct), SERA ( Maryland and South) and UNYREPCO (upstate NY) on board soon.
We will coordinate these stations with limited data, as no fixed location is permitted. The stations may not be used for “normal” ham radio use, there are plenty of fixed repeaters already on the air for that. We propose that UHF stations operate with a maximum power output of 30 watts, and 2 meter stations operate with a maximum of 15 watts output. We will require a COMMON PL tone for ALL such stations, to assure instant interoperability at any location by all licensed hams. This PL tone is to be 167.9 Hz. ( Motorola 6Z)
As these stations are to be used as temporary/itinerant use only, no co channel protection will be available.
Your comments are wanted!
Lance Alfieri
President
email: Alfieri.Lance@Gmail.com