Page 1 TECEQPT Version 1. 3 3/1/92 EQUIPMENT [Category: TEC] EQUIPMENT LIABILITY 1. QUESTION: WHAT RECOURSE DO I HAVE IF ANY OF MY EQUIPMENT IS DAMAGED OR LOST ON A RACES MISSION? ANSWER: An official answer to this question is pending from the Director of State OES. To date, it has been understood and accepted that the volunteer is solely responsible for his property used when his volunteer services are accepted by a local government or the C.A.P. The volunteer may seek relief through his insurance company and/or a casualty loss in his tax returns filed with the IRS. Any volunteer seeking relief for an out-of-pocket expense or loss should address their concerns to the local government agency to which they are a part. If they are concerned in this area they should probably obtain their local government's policy or position in this matter before continuing as a volunteer. 2. QUESTION: What if a local government commandeers a volunteer's equipment or property, such as appropriating a private vehicle? ANSWER: Submit a claim to that government. 3. QUESTION: If I don't get satisfaction from my government, can I go to the next highest jurisdiction? ANSWER: No. If you are with a city RACES, for example, you are serving only that city jurisdiction--even if city, county and/or State RACES may be involved with the same mission. Volunteers cannot serve more than one jurisdiction at any given time. This latter point may be the least understood by many volunteers and should be emphasized by all State, county and city OES personnel--both paid and volunteer staff. (RB 87-1) EQUIPMENT FOR EMERGENCY RESPONDERS There are some items that should be carried in the field or out to a highway if an incident takes place and we are called out to provide communications. There are certain items that need to be carried at all times on one's person and other items that should be immediately available. Our state safety orders require anyone working on or near a highway wear a safety vest, hard hat, safety glasses, and shoes or boots of sturdy design. The footwear should have traction type soles for solid footing on slick, uneven surfaces such as mud, snow, grass, and pine needles. One trade name, for example, is "Vibram", sometimes called "waffle stompers". OTHER ITEMS TO CARRY OR WEAR: Clothing to suit the weather or climate. If you wear eyeglasses be sure to carry an extra pair. Wear an accurate, rugged, and easy to read wrist watch. If you have a handheld transceiver carry a battery pack that will hold double A alkaline batteries. Nicad battery packs need charging often and usually take hours and require 110 volts AC. Double A alkaline batteries are usually readily available and only take a few minutes to change. Keep your nicad pack with you for backup. Keep it in a container by itself or cover its terminals with tape; if they short out it can burn or explode. Carry a speaker mike that can be clipped to your clothing where it can be easily heard and reached. Boom mikes work well if you like them but never, NEVER use VOX. If you are in a noisy environment they can key your transmitter and you may not know it. This could cripple communications and be potentially embarrassing. Carry a police whistle. These are good attention getters and could be used in many ways. The handiest place for it is on a chain around your neck and placed under your shirt or blouse out of the way. Carry a note book and pencil. Keeping a log or diary of events is very important. It makes interesting reading after an event and if you must write a report it is a great help to have the dates and times of important happenings. If the incident lasts for many days, as they have in the past, the days seem to run together and to recall from memory might prove difficult. If you must handle written messages, use a different notebook for this chore. I carry a small three inch by five inch personal notebook for the diary and a regular size note book for the written messages. Carry a small flashlight. I use the Mini-Maglite type that use double A alkaline batteries. These flashlights are very rugged and have a spare lamp in their base. If the spare lamp is needed make sure you replace it as soon as possible. If you are on medication be sure to have an ample supply. Carry more than you think you will need. Inform the person or persons in charge if you have a health problem and if you require special medication. You may want to carry a camera. I carry a small 35 mm camera. It has a sliding lens cover that locks the shutter, a built in electronic flash and another feature that should prove invaluable: a clock that will stamp the day, month and year or the time of day on the negative so that it will appear on the prints. You may wonder how big your pockets will have to be to carry these things. I use a fanny pack or, as some people call it, a belly pack. It is basically a belt with a pouch attached and made of nylon. Mine has three compartments -- a large central compartment that will hold my camera, speaker mike, boom mike, spare rubber duck antenna, and other miscellaneous items. It has outer compartment, which is smaller that the central compartment, I use for my spare batteries and battery pack. The inner compartment is next to the belt and is ideal for your diary or small note book. All compartments have zippers. They can be bought for less than ten dollars. Always have drinking water available with a reserve supply in your vehicle or other storage area at your site. THINGS TO HAVE AVAILABLE: Always carry a warm jacket in your vehicle. Even in the summertime it can get quite cool at higher elevations. Carry plenty of clothing. A good rule is to carry twice as many changes of clothing as you think you will need. Carry a blanket or, better yet, a sleeping bag. Carry food that does not need refrigeration. I carry granola bars and canned pork and beans. Be sure to have a can opener. Carry matches. I don't smoke and have been caught out needing a campfire, only to find I didn't have any matches. A muzzle loading pistol was used to start a fire to dry my wet clothes and cold body on one of my outings. I carry a tool kit with a supply of connectors and terminals. If you use cables to connect any of your gear you should have spare cabling or the parts and equipment to make field repairs. I carry some solder and a propane powered soldering iron. This has saved the day on several disasters. I am sure that you can add to my list. The intention of this article is to give you suggestions and make you think of things you will need when you respond to an incident. You can be called on to supply mutual aid communications for other agencies. Be flexible. To borrow a concept from the Boy Scouts, "Be Prepared." (By Les Ballinger, WA6EQQ, and concluded with this part.) RB 174-91 to 177-91 (About the author: Les is a veteran emergency services responder in planning, setting up, and operating temporary communications in the field for emergency services, forestry, the Red Cross and other agencies. He is a recognized expert in field response and all facets of Amateur Radio communications. He is employed by the California Department of Transportation and is the State OES HQ Auxiliary Radio Services station manager. ) EMP DEVICES FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has available two four-page pamphlets that should be of interest to technical communications and electronics people. These are available from your FEMA regional office. CPC (Civil Preparedness Circular) 88-3. Subject: Electromagnetic Pulse Protection Grounding Recommendations. Synopsis: Provides recommendations for EMP grounding systems. The recommendations provide a trade-off between the cost to achieve a very low resistance and the result minimum EMP grounding required. Grounding is critical in the protection of communications and electronic equipment. CPC 88-4. Subject: Coaxial Type EMP Protection Devices. Synopsis: The widespread use of solid state electronic communications equipment in recent years, with their inherent weakness to damaging transient electrical pulses, has stimulated the electronics industry to develop and market a large variety of improved transient protection devices. These devices provide full protection of communications equipment from damaging voltage and current transients generated by lightning and electromagnetic pulses. The suitability of these new devices for low cost protection of communications equipment is reviewed. RB65-89 PORTABLE REPEATERS Question raised at a recent RACES seminar was "Is it advisable to develop portable repeaters?" The answer is "Of course!" Transportable repeaters can be used to replace damaged repeaters or, more frequently, used to augment existing repeaters by filling in back country or remote areas not now served by repeaters. Particularly to support hand-held radios. High power is not important in transportable repeaters. Even two to five watts power output is adequate. The cavities required to separate the receive and transmit frequencies are usually the most expensive item. RB 86-16. RUBBER DUCK ANTENNAS Rubber duck antennas on hand-held radios are a severe compromise on efficiency. On the plus side is their short size and flexible forgiveness to brutish handling. On the negative side is their terrible radiation inefficiency, probably worse than many of you expected. When did you last replace your helical spring antenna we call the rubber duck? On testing a hundred or so portable radios that had been out on the fire lines for a few weeks we found a typical 60 percent failure rate. Most of the antennas looked fine. The only way you can detect an invisible rubber duck failure is by measuring the microvolts per meter with a calibrated receiver over a measured range under controlled conditions, such as done routinely by the Boise Interagency Fire Center. Since this is difficult for most to do, it might not be a bad idea to replace rubber ducks as a matter or course when they show signs of wear or if they are a year old. You might want to consider using a telescopic antenna under non-violent conditions to vastly improve the range of your hand-held. The National Bureau of Standards ran some tests that proved what we had long suspected. The efficiency of a hand-held is dependent upon how much antenna it has and how good the ground plane. Most portables have very poor ground planes; the more metal the better. Also the more antenna the better. Hence the rubber duck is a woeful but often necessary compromise. But if a portable is not going to be subjected to the abuse of fireground or street cop utility, you should consider the telescopic quarter-wave antenna if range is important. Compare the figures and discussion that follows. Be aware that the telescopic antenna is nowhere as rugged as the rubber duck but it will talk circles around it. You might say that the quarter wave whip is to the rubber duck what a 106 inch CB quarter wave whip is to a 36 inch whip on a base loaded coil to compromise range for low garages. Our reference antenna in the Public Safety high band and 2-meter Amateur radio measurements below is a quarter-wave telescopic antenna, extended, and held at face level: One-quarter wavelength extended and at face level = 0 dB One-quarter wavelength collapsed and worn at belt level = -40dB Rubber duck held at face level = -5dB Rubber duck worn at belt level = -20dB Translated, this means that a 5-watt hand-held with a rubber duck worn on the belt has an effective radiated power not of 5 watts but only .05 watt. Held at face level the radio has an ERP of 1.6 watt. 15dB is quite a difference! In the previous two messages we gave you facts and figures of the quarter-wave telescopic versus the rubber duck for Public Safety VHF Highband and 2-Meter Amateur handhelds. The 40 dB down for the nested telescopic relates to those commercial models where the telescopic disappears within the radio. Such an antenna won't break when it's nested but it won't receive worth a whoop either. In those radios where the collapsed quarter wave is external to the radio they break very easily. For that reason we recommend the style that has a spring at the base. The spring makes it very forgiving of elbows and other bum raps. We have not researched or measured five-eighth wave antennas because they are too long for most public safety use and because they typically require too many telescopic sections. The more sections the more chance of troubles. Few people take the time to correctly telescope any hand-held antenna. They should never be whacked down with the palm of the hand on top and push. They should be pulled down with the thumb and first two fingers. If you are interested in the figures for 450 MHz, using the table in the last message, they are respectively 0dB, 30dB, 5dB, and 30dB. One more reference for the technically inclined--the loss of a telescopic antenna compared to half-wave dipole: VHF -5dBd and UHF -20 dBd. Telescopic antennas should be changed at least annually and whenever they become the slightest bit loose. Any looseness can mean a poor RF connection inside the antenna where you can't see it or fix it. Simply change it. RB 86 -23/25. GROUNDING SYSTEM Scientists working on a U.S. Army grounding analysis project have shown that grounding with the standard 6-foot metal rod, or even several rods, is often unsafe and more often inadequate for good low noise communications. They have found that a better ground can be established by stapling a 100-foot length of standard 1/8-inch stranded steel wire to the earth every 4 inches with 6-inch pegs. A 3 pound hammer (in lieu of the 10 pound sledgehammer sued on ground rods) should be sufficient to drive in the pegs. Tests at all sites in the country show the surface wire to be from 35% to 95% more efficient than the 6-foot grounding rod. (Courtesy of WORLDRADIO and the Sacramento Amateur Radio Club's "Mike and Key) RB 27-88 PHOTOCOPIERS A photocopiers bright light contains ultraviolet rays which can damatge the eyes retinas and perhaps cause cataracts. Also the rays may produce ozine, a lung irritant. Solution: keep the copier in a large, well-ventilated area. Close the radiation-proof cover when you use the copier. Shut your eyes and look away if the item you are copying is too big for the cover to close over it. (SGD) WILLIAM MURRAY, Radiation Section Chief, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio. RB 86-36 PORTABLE RADIO TIP Sometimes portable radios have to be placed on the floor, the seat or the dashboards of cars. Then they go scooting off turning corners. One method of retarding their unwanted movement is to take an old bicycle inner tube and cut off some one inch wide cross sections. Slip it around your radio or its carry case and the rubber will now greatly retard slipping and sliding. You may wish to put some paper between this oversized rubber band and your radio to prevent discoloration or the rubber migrating into the plastic. Never leave a portable on the dash or anywhere lying in the direct summer sun. Even professional portables can drift off frequency when subjected to such heat. RB 86-44 PORTABLE RADIO BATTERIES On protracted emergencies, such as wildfires or an earthquake, there may be no A-C power to recharge your portable radio nicad battery. Do you have a spare nicad battery and a D-C charger, or throw away battery packs for your portable radio? You will often be expected to use your portable where your mobile cannot go. RB 85-9 RB 85-9