Any HAM radio operators in the club?

Zach Hill · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14 am

Bowie has asked that I poll and see if we have any HAM radio operators in the club. We may need assistance from those who are in the upcoming Road Rally on Nov 2nd. If you are a HAM radio operator, please contact Bowie at bowiegray@myglnc.com.

Thanks!

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:38 pm

I am (KS8ZEB), but I'm unavailable for the same reason I'm unavailable nearly every weekend...kid travel baseball. *sigh*

--Donnie

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:15 pm

We all have cellphones, what do we need with radios? :-)

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:20 pm

I am not an operator, but I did email Bowie to ask why he is looking for one. He hasn't replied to me yet, but does anyone know? I used to do some TSD a number of years ago (different club) and the best I can come up with is that we would use shortwave radio to listen to WWV broadcast so everyone could synchronize our clocks/watches before the start. Events in a TSD are not just relative (average speed), but specific to a standard time. Everyone (including those at the hidden checkpoints) need to operate on the exact same standard. I was wondering if maybe he was looking for someone that had a shortwave receiver for WWV, but that wouldn't actually require an amateur radio operator. Just someone with the right shortwave receiver (emergency radio?). And also... there are modern alternatives to shortwave WWV including online resources (time.gov), etc. I wouldn't trust cell networks as who is to say if each network is slightly off from the other. I know my Android/T-mobile phone is not accurate enough (i.e. doesn't match NIST/WWV).

Richard

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:34 pm

GPS clock, ntp app, etc. The issue with cell networks (i.e. phones) is they only sync once at power up, or periodically with insane times (eg. once a week.)

I would assume timing is being down with the club's rally timing equipment -- that hasn't been used in decades???

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:57 pm

RickyBeam wrote:

GPS clock

I was just testing my GPS app on my phone to see if it displayed time, but couldn't get strong enough signals even near the window in my office. But that also is a top contender if that is the problem to be solved.

Richard

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:40 pm

Cell networks require stratum 1 (GPS) timing to function properly which means every tower has insanely accurate time. Barring some kind of weird misconfiguration everyone's cell phone should be within a ms or two of each other.

If a bunch of people need to talk we can do a google hangout or something with everyone in it. Not exactly sure what reception is like out there but SMS/Hangouts doesn't take much.

Also I volunteered and have no idea how to do useful things. I can do anything from help with the rally timing to helping with the cooking and be perfectly happy.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:14 am

I did get a reply from Bowie. It sounds like he is already set on the WWV front. I think the radio operator request was for communication between checkpoints. I think he is looking for some type of "party line" communication with the checkpoints.

Richard

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:30 am

Richard Casto wrote:

I did get a reply from Bowie. It sounds like he is already set on the WWV front. I think the radio operator request was for communication between checkpoints. I think he is looking for some type of "party line" communication with the checkpoints.

Richard

I think a text to the check point workers would suffice....

Charlie Guthrie · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 8:14 pm **Posts:** 832

Rodney, it's good you are working with Pete and I; neither of us get text. My company IPhone is not set up to text....corporate policy. I think that in the early days of text a few folks ran up huge tabs using text and that killed it.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

I seem to recall that Ron Spencer was into Ham radio, so check with him. Please make sure he's aware of the party, since he's an ex-prez, and did an enormous amount of good things for the club (not to mention letting us store the old full size school bus in his driveway).

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:25 am

Charlie Guthrie wrote:

Rodney, it's good you are working with Pete and I; neither of us get text. My company IPhone is not set up to text....corporate policy. I think that in the early days of text a few folks ran up huge tabs using text and that killed it.

I think I've done an about face on that. Pam has agreed to be the navigator, so looks like I'll be driving this one!

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:30 pm

Richard Casto wrote:

I think the radio operator request was for communication between checkpoints. I think he is looking for some type of "party line" communication with the checkpoints.

If it's less than a dozen people, I can (maybe) setup a conference on our PBX. Or as someone else mentioned, a Google Hangout; or for that matter, a thread here on the forum.

(I'll assume everyone has access to some sort of mobile data?)

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:55 pm

RickyBeam wrote:

Richard Casto wrote:

I think the radio operator request was for communication between checkpoints. I think he is looking for some type of "party line" communication with the checkpoints.

If it's less than a dozen people, I can (maybe) setup a conference on our PBX. Or as someone else mentioned, a Google Hangout; or for that matter, a thread here on the forum.

(I'll assume everyone has access to some sort of mobile data?)

I would check with Bowie (email above). He may have already worked out a solution, or might still be looking for one. I think he is also a HAM so that might be why he was looking to go that route. That is likely what was done in the past as well.

Richard

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:21 pm

Those cheap Chinese radios has piqued my interest again. If it's useful at all I'll likely be able to listen in to whatever frequency is being used. Not enough time to get a license though.

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