Back in the 1980s when I was in the civil Air patrol, my boss at work, Colonel
Harold Bartlett, W5KWA and I discussed building an airborne repeater for SAR.
So I went about putting a repeater together in a small aluminum chassis with a
home built COR circuit. With CAP having such a wide split around the 2-meter
ham band, a small mobile duplexer was usable. The antenna was a quarter wave
whip mounted on a round plate that replaced one on the bottom of the Cessna
therefore no FAA clearance was needed. Yeah we checked first just to be
sure..We called it HiBird... Built out of a Regency HR 312 of all radios...
Transmitter was a little dirty but a quick tune on the spectrum analyzer fix
that. Today they have suitcase versions of it.Successfully tested several times
and deployed. Later became the Beaumont civil Air patrol fixed repeater when
the old tube type rig died.As a former co-worker of mine used to say, now you
know the REST of the story. Chris WB5ITT Trustee W5APX Capt CAP 1983-1988Eagles
Nest 1109Sent via my Samsung Galaxy S10e, an AT&T 5G Evolution capable
smartphone..so there! 😂
-------- Original message --------From: Bruce via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org> Date:
2/5/25 8:46 PM (GMT-06:00) To: terry leatherland via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org>
Cc: Bruce <kk...@arrl.net> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Fw: Region 4 District
16-Houston RACES Airborne Mobile Exercise Reminder!! Tomorrow at 6 PM!
We did something similar to this in the
late 90's. My friend went up in a Cessna and FAA does not allow
external antennas installed unless they are approved. So he used
an Arrow dual band yagi inside the plane. He was in Ohio and I was
in the Houston. We talked for a while on one of the FM satellites
at the time. Thus Aeronautical Mobile to satellite to earth and
back.
It was a hoot.
73...bruce
On 2/5/2025 6:49 PM, terry leatherland via BVARC wrote:
This may have gone around,
but anyone with 440 communications tomorrow evening should
try to contact the airplane circling for the airborne
repeater test. I will not be able to make it myself. See
below
Good luck.
Terry Leatherland, K5PGF
281-455-8090
Sugar Land, Tx
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Laura McDonald
<bonnieclydera...@yahoo.com>
To: bonnieclydera...@yahoo.com
<bonnieclydera...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 05:42:56 PM
CST
Subject: Region 4 District 16-Houston RACES
Airborne Mobile Exercise Reminder!! Tomorrow at 6 PM!
*SECOND
ATTEMPT*
REGION
4, DISTRICT 16-HOUSTON
AIRBORNE
MOBILE EXERCISE
FEBRUARY
6, 2025
600
PM (1800) – 700PM (1900) LOCAL
Join us on 02-06-25,
6-7pm for an Airborne Mobile Exercise.
There will be a crossband repeater radio
set up in a Cessna 172 to conduct the Net.
Russ, NR5US, will be piloting the ship.
He will have alternate comms with NCS
during this exercise.
This exercise will be
based on an event that “takes out” all
standard forms of communications.
Therefore, critical information and
request for assistance CAN be communicated
through the airborne mobile. This is a
test to see how effective comms will be.
Operators
will only need to identify with their
call and county.
If you elect to
participate from your area –
1. NCS will be activated at
530pm local. NCS will broadcast on the
New Waverly 2- meter repeater at 147.18
+offset, with a 136.5 tone.
2. Participants should have
their UHF rigs set for SIMPLEX 434.450 and
a 131.8 tone.
3. NCS will announce that
this is an exercise using an airborne
mobile crossband repeat radio.
4. NCS, call sign W5SAM,
will start at 600pm and ask for county
check-ins in order from -
a. Chambers
b. Galveston
c. Brazoria
d. Matagorda
e. Harris
f. Austin
g. Colorado
h. Wharton
i. Ft. Bend
j. Liberty
k. Waller
l. Montgomery
m. Walker
5. The Net, with an
announcement, will conclude at 700pm
local.
6. Your after-action
thoughts, to include what you think was
good, bad, and needs improvement should be
directed to your respective DRO via a
winlink message. For those “wearing a
different hat”, please send AAR to W5SAM@
winlink.org.
7. Operators are to be
thanked for their participation.
8. ****THE
WEATHER IS PREDICTED FAVORABLE AT THIS
TIME. A NO GO DECISION PENDING
WEATHER OR OTHER PROHIBITIVE SITUATION
TO LAUNCH/PROCEED WITH EXERCISE WILL
BE POSTED ASAP!!!****
________________________________________________
Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club
BVARC mailing list
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http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
Publicly available archives are available here:
https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/
--
Bruce Paige, KK5DO
AMSAT Director Contests and Awards
AMSAT Board Member 2016-2026
ARRL Awards Field Checker (DXCC, WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE
Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0200z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT*
Also live streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com
Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes
Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News
http://www.arrl.org
AMSAT on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/amsat
________________________________________________
Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club
BVARC mailing list
BVARC@bvarc.org
http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
Publicly available archives are available here:
https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/
