Kommifornia at it again, now Ham radio

What country is that? :confused:
 
Wow... "the State would no longer allow them to operate repeaters on public land", Can these simply be relocated to private property?
 
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Wow... "the State would no longer allow them to operate repeaters on public land", Can these simply be relocated to private property?

but I am assuming if it goes to private property they will still need permits town ordinances and whatever else that state could possibly think of to allow it to go up. Think of Cary vs. angier or coats in regulations.

plus building towers is not easy and it sure ain't cheap (all depends on size)
 
but I am assuming if it goes to private property they will still need permits town ordinances and whatever else that state could possibly think of to allow it to go up. Think of Cary vs. angier or coats in regulations.

plus building towers is not easy and it sure ain't cheap (all depends on size)
I don’t have a clue whether it’s a wire in a tree or closer to a TV/radio station antenna.
 
I don’t have a clue whether it’s a wire in a tree or closer to a TV/radio station antenna.
Most repeaters operate on the VHF and UHF portions of the band spectrum. These frequencies are pretty much line of sight and go slightly past the visible horizon. In this regard they’re like TV transmitter antennas where height is king.

This really is a boneheaded move by CA as it has been proven on multiple occasions that the official communications, despite being redundant on multiple frequencies and modes, can fail during an emergency. According to our county emergency manager it is common for at least one of their official means to not function for one reason or another (not necessarily equipment failure) during an emergency.

There is a reason AUXCOM exists and is incorporated into the NIMS structure.

P.S @Pink_Vapor the county is going to be putting a ham repeater on a tower in your area in a few years when they build out their expanded emergency services building(s).
 
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I just moved two repeaters to a county owned tower in my area, currently working on a third. NC Emergency Management is VERY ham friendly, it's hard to beat field programmable, analog FM radios and AUXCOMM has saved the rear ends of a few county's in recent events.

This move will defiantly hurt the amateur radio community in CA. VHF/UHF repeaters are the gateway drug into the world of amateur comms.
 
plus building towers is not easy and it sure ain't cheap (all depends on size)

I'm going to wager to say there will be a number of cell tower sites that will be for sale in the coming years, that is provided that 5g takes off and they start mounting antennas everywhere within the reach of a bucket truck like I've seen. This could open up a world of opportunities to amateur radio clubs provided they had members that were competent climbers and could maintain the sights

Only draw back would be maintaining the lighting systems and antennas 250-300' up.
 
I'm going to wager to say there will be a number of cell tower sites that will be for sale in the coming years, that is provided that 5g takes off and they start mounting antennas everywhere within the reach of a bucket truck like I've seen. This could open up a world of opportunities to amateur radio clubs provided they had members that were competent climbers and could maintain the sights

Only draw back would be maintaining the lighting systems and antennas 250-300' up.


my father in law climbs towers for a living, like the big ones 2k feet high plus antenna's.

He is out in cali right now doing work on stuff. Its insanse the time it takes just to climb one to change a light bulb. Much less haul antenna's the size of vw bugs up and install them.
 
Yeah, the could use a lesson from some of the hurricane struck regions. Charley in 2004 wiped out comms in FL I understand and the one last year striking PR.

When all else fails being able to throw some wire in the air, hook up a battery powered radio and communicate over thousands of miles is priceless.

He is out in cali right now doing work on stuff. Its insanse the time it takes just to climb one to change a light bulb. Much less haul antenna's the size of vw bugs up and install them.
Let alone running feed line from the ground to the antenna.
 
Yeah, the could use a lesson from some of the hurricane struck regions. Charley in 2004 wiped out comms in FL I understand and the one last year striking PR.

When all else fails being able to throw some wire in the air, hook up a battery powered radio and communicate over thousands of miles is priceless.


Let alone running feed line from the ground to the antenna.

He owns his own business, you should see the size of the hoist's and gin poles and the sheer size of the spools of cable they use. Its unreal. He has been up on a tower for nearly 2 days before.

Most people don't realize the 2k ft towers are big enough there are sketchy elevators that take you up about 800-1000 feet depending them you climb the rest of the way.


The old style hoist's used a big band like a drum brake to slow the cables down. At the end of the day they would all hook up under each other and the hoist operator would let them FREEFALL for 3/4 the way and then slowly slow them down to the ground........i am not afraid of heights but the idiots I call my friends I wouldn't trust them to keep me from going splat.
 
The article mentions the fire in Healdsburg, CA. I used to spend summers there at my grandparents ranch. I just learned when my uncle caught a 12mm NVA round, the family wasn’t informed of anything. A ham radio operator in Vietnam contacted someone local who then called my grandfather (a Lt. colonel at the time) to let them know his son was wounded and alive.
 
Cell phone networks are the first thing to get overloaded during a real disaster.
Same sort of thing happens with the official govt communication channels, like VIPER, too. Everyone starts trying to key down and talk at once and the system says, NOPE.
 
Cell phone networks are the first thing to get overloaded during a real disaster.


I was living in Redwood City during the '89 earthquake. The POTS telephone system was overloaded for days and it was nearly impossible to make calls. I also heard the emergency broadcast system fail every time they tried to fire it up. Heard the tones, then heard two guys talking to each other "Is it working? I don't think it's working. Well it shows we're broadcasting...? It's not working."
 
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