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Winter 2004 Issue |
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A
Broadcast-Quality Earphone |
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A Red Cross communications vehicle
assisting during the southern California |
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During the southern California firestorms ham radio operation at 20 simultaneous evacuation shelters quickly revealed who was listening and who was not. “When I place a call to a shelter communicator, I expect that operator to be listening continuously to his handheld. If it takes more than three calls to that specific shelter operator, I will find a replacement,” commented Stan Lord, KA6NMB, an ARES control operator. “Now I realize that big evacuation shelters such as the Norton Air Force Base all-steel hangar may be a communications challenge, but the well-prepared ham operating his or her handheld transceiver must not miss incoming radio traffic for the station,” added Lord, a veteran emergency communicator who insists on good radio monitoring techniques during “real” events. At the Norton hangar shelter, which housed 500 evacuees, the signal strength from the base station within the hangar to personnel within the facility with HTs was not the cause of missed calls. The radio operator walking among the evacuees simply may not have heard the call come over his or her handheld or speaker/microphone. What does and does not make for good reception? Something as simple as where you have your handheld can make a major difference. For example, holding the handheld so the rubber-duck antenna is clear of your body will create dramatically improved reception. Conversely, wearing the handheld on your belt usually leads to calls that don’t make it through to the antenna resting up against your mid-section. Locating your handheld chest-high will improve reception, especially if you swap out the small rubber duck with the very long, flexible single-band or dual-band whips. “Speaker microphones may help get the incoming signals up to earshot of the operator when the speaker/mic is worn on a shoulder epaulet,” added Lord. “But down among the sleeping clients in the middle of the night, any audio out of any type of speaker is not acceptable, because it will disturb the weary evacuees, who are trying to get some sleep.” The obvious answer to good audio is the traditional earphone. You can buy them just about anywhere, for almost all ham radio handhelds, and just about any programmable scanner will accept one of three common earphone plug configurations. The most common is the 3.5-mm mono earphone plug. Kenwood handhelds use a 2.5-mm earphone plug, and Yaesu handhelds use a 3.5-mm stereo earphone plug.
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