- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 2 weeks, 2 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
All,
The recent Ross Fire in Palo Pinto and Jack counties burned roughly 90,000 acres, damaged property and infrastructure and forced evacuations across part of North Texas. Emergency responders also brought in satellite-backed cellular equipment, portable communications systems and generators to help keep communications operating.
https://tdem.texas.gov/press-release/9-3-26-fire
https://www.attbelieves.com/pages/disaster_relief/2026/ross-fire.html
At roughly the same time, the Hawk Fire near Reno, Nevada knocked multiple amateur and commercial repeaters off the air. Radiant heat apparently damaged the feedline serving the KA7ZAU 2-meter repeater, which supports ARES, SKYWARN and Red Cross-related communications.
https://www.arnewsline.org/news-text/2026/9/4/wildfire-damages-critical-repeater-in-nevada
That raises a very practical question:
If our local repeaters went down tonight, could we still communicate effectively?
RRVARC has actually explored that question before.
In November 2021, local ARES operators conducted a 2-meter simplex test to see how well stations around the area could communicate without relying on a repeater.
The results were encouraging. Stations using higher antennas and approximately 50 watts generally produced strong, often full-quieting signals. Lower-power stations had more difficulty, although even some mobile and lower-mounted antenna installations performed surprisingly well.
More importantly, the test demonstrated something we sometimes forget:
Every station does not necessarily have to hear every other station directly for a simplex emergency network to work.
If Station A can reach Station B, and Station B can reach Station C, traffic can still move across the county without depending upon a repeater, the internet or commercial communications infrastructure.
You can see the results from that 2021 test here:
https://www.rrvarc.org/forums/reply/48838/
The recent wildfire incidents are a good reminder of why we experimented with this in the first place.
Maybe it is time to do it again.
If our repeaters disappeared tonight, who could you reach directly — and who could you reach through another amateur acting as a relay?
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
At least from here in Delta County, I should be able to talk to quite a few folks on 2 meters as at 46′ high I have two each 2m M2 2M9FM 9 Element 15’ Boom Stacked Vertical Yagi’s for a total of 15 dB Gain, fed by my Flex with a transverter and 200 Watt amplifier. The Flex is all mode so it does FM quite well, does transmit tone and repeater offsets if needed. We should try it sometime.
I also have my toolbox repeater system, using a few toolboxes to make the system portable and somewhat weather resistant. It consist of 1) A UHF repeater with controller in one toolbox, a remote base radio that can operate on 10, 6, 2 and 1.25 meters plus 70 cm in another toolbox. Note the Remote Base radio does not currently have CTCSS capability so transmitting through other repeaters that use CTCSS will not work, works fine on repeaters that don’t use tone and simplex frequencies that aren’t using receive tone.
Of course the portable repeater will still need antennas to work.
How bout this next Monday we have the net on the repeater then afterwards repeat the net on 2 meters simplex?
Charles WA5VHU
Charles,
I tried to join in, but all I was able to copy was a bit of what I think was Mike Rice listing the stations he could hear. I was operating mobile from my truck up at my front gate and was otherwise unsuccessful.
Could you or Mike please post a brief after-action report with who participated and, as best you can determine, who was able to hear whom?
For what it is worth, I think we ought to do this quarterly — or perhaps even a little more often. The exercise was a good reminder that simplex coverage is something we really need to understand before we ever have to depend on it.
As we accumulate results, I would eventually like to build a simple graphic or map showing which stations can communicate directly with which others. Over time, that could give us a pretty useful picture of our actual county-wide simplex capability and where the weak spots are.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
Phillip,
I didn’t keep a list of who could talk to who. Mark was running the simplex net and may have a list.
I like the idea of a map.
Sometime I will point my antennas toward you to see if we can make the path. I was pointed towards the north to Paris.
I think Johnny was the strongest to me and I think I heard everyone else mostly copyable.
Charles WA5VHU
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.