Re: [Amps] Emergency communication

["Carl" <km1h@jeremy.qozzy.com>]

The USN had battery powered tube gear well into the 70's and maybe later, 
for emergency HF communications. These werent car battery sizes either and 
there were several of them for the 12V required for the dynamotor.
There were backup diesel generators when ships power failed and if the 
backups also failed or ran out of fuel the 25W of CW was the last resort 
which was plenty over sea water
These days there are several ways to reach help including satphones but they 
dont have to rely on the CB like bedlam on ham SSB to be heard.
Carl


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Hays" <chris@chrishays.com>
To: <amps@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2017 12:53 PM
Subject: [Amps] Emergency communication


> Humor aside, one thing that phone transmitters require is power. The fact
> that you can copy a CW signal at a far lower signal level than a phone
> signal means that lower power can be effective.
>
> There was a story from one of the operators at the KPH coast station. 
> They
> were monitoring for CW traffic and as was typical of recent times, there 
> was
> pretty much nothing there. Then a weak Morse signal was heard. It was a
> distress call from a ship off the coast of Alaska.  They had fire in their
> engine room.  They had extinguished it but the damage had left them adrift
> and without any power to run any equipment.  But what they did have was a
> battery-powered emergency Morse radio, and someone who knew how to use it.
> Because this technology is "obsolete," all the coast stations that could
> copy such a message are gone now.
>
> Speaking of obsolete technologies, I read that the coast guard is trying 
> to
> get funding to restore a version of Loran C which was shut down in the 
> 90's.
> It seems the military has discovered how easy it is for the enemy to jam 
> GPS
> and make it useless over quite a large area. They decided they needed a
> backup system and realized they used to have one but they shut it down.
>
> Then there was the wonderful transit system that Los Angeles had that was
> removed because cars were the "thing."  Now congestion has required them 
> to
> rebuild it a great cost.
>
> I hope you are seeing a "theme" here!
>
> Chris, AB6QK
>
> ------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
>
> On Wed, 26 Apr 2017 23:34:44 -0400, K8RI wrote:
>
> > > > CW is the most basic
> > > > form of communication. It is the easiest mode to construct an an
> > > > emergency transmitter out of a few parts.
> REPLY:
>
> I'm picturing you way out in the boonies, far from cell phone range,
> and you come across a terrible auto accident.
>
> You say to the survivors "Wait a minute, I've got a kit of parts right
> here".  "Now where do I plug in my soldering iron?".
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
>
>
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