DIY Portable Power Pack

I found this article today on eHam.net: Time For a New Portable Power Pack? It's a rather nifty homebrewed portable battery system for powering radios and other electronics.

Swisstool Follow Up

I took the Swisstool RS out back and tested out the knife and saw blades. Both cut well. I managed to slice some skin off the tip of my right index finger while cleaning the knife blade and didn't notice it until I saw something funny on the blade. It's sharp!

I posted my review to a few places aside from this blog and got some good feedback. Over on Arfcom's Survival Forum, "nightfighter4d" posted from Iraq:

I've been saying once you get a Swiss tool the Gerber / Leatherman debate becomes moot. I love my Swiss Tool. I will once again say that the Swiss Tool is BOMB proof. I know from experience. Many happy years of use.

You forgot two tools Dave
The Pry Bar.
With the pliers out I hve used them to pry open more than one ammo crate.
The hammer.
I have driven nails with it closed up. As long as you use the side of the handle you are fine. A lil hard to control.

Once Again BOMB proof

And on the Yahoogroups Backwoodsman list, Chuck M. noted:

I can concur with everything Dave says here and more. I bought mine almost 5 or 6 years ago and it has been great. I paid under $40 back then, but at 60 or 70, it is still a deal. I actually bought 2, the second one went to a friend just before he traveled to Afghanistan as a contractor. This guy is a retired SEAL. He appreciated the gift somewhat when I gave it to him, but he really fell in love when they hit the ground in A-stan. You see, they had pallets filled with crates of equipment, weapons and ammo and stuff, but no one, anywhere, had a tool to open things up. They were alone on a deserted dirt runway in the middle of nowhere with no weapons, tools, ammo, etc. Then he remembered my gift n his belt and used it to get at their stuff. Boy, did I get a nice "thank you!" the next time we were able to communicate.

It still gets used regularly as he has pretty much been "over there" (Afghanistan and Iraq) constantly for 4 or 5 years now, God bless him...

Victorinox Swisstool RS Multitool

I just got a Victorinox Swisstool RS multitool.

I've had a couple of Gerber Multipliers that have served me well but kept reading how good the Swisstools are, so I ordered one from Amazon last week. My initial impression is, "WOW!" The Swisstool is really well made and finished. It feels considerably more solid than the Gerbers I have, or the Leatherman tools I've handled. I shouldn't be too surprised, since I have four other Victorinox Swiss Army Knives: a Cybertool 41, and three Pioneers, one of which I've gone back to my everyday carry knife, having bought it in the early 1980s. (I keep one Pioneer in each of our vehicles for emergency use.)

The Swisstool RS includes the following tools:

* Pliers
* Screwdriver (2mm)
* Screwdriver (3mm)
* Wire cutter (for wire up to a hardness of 40 hrc)
* Screwdriver (5mm)
* Bottle opener
* Screwdriver (7.5 mm)
* Large blade
* Scissors
* Belt cutter
* Wood saw
* Reamer/punch
* Phillips screwdriver
* Chisel/scraper
* Strong crate opener
* Wire bender
* Wire stripper
* Wire scraper
* Wire crimper
* Can opener
* Ruler (9 inches)
* Ruler (230mm)
* Hard wire cutter

Except for the pliers, the individual tools can be accessed without opening the tool. Each tool locks in place, so you don't have to be concerned with them closing on your fingers. The handle is contoured so that it doesn't dig into your hand when you squeeze down on the pliers. The knife blade, belt cutter, and reamer are very sharp. The seat belt cutter is a serrated, curved blade with a round point. The cutting edge is on the inside of the curve. I could this being useful on boats when you need to cut something but don't want to risk using a pointy knife. The scissors are slightly larger than those on my Cybertool 41, with which I've cut a fair amount of CAT5. The scissors are nice and sharp.

A well-constructed black nylon belt sheath with a snap closure was included. The sheath is designed to stay open so that you can easily re-sheath the multitool with one hand.

So far, I've used the bottle opener, to open a bottle of Yuengling Lager. Works great. :-) I also tested the scissors on some heavy corrugated cardboard and they worked well.

The Swisstool comes with a lifetime guaranty from Victorinox against defects in materials and workmanship.

MSRP is $100 but many places online sell it for much less. I paid about two-thirds of that at Amazon.

If you're in the market for a good multitool, the Swisstools from Victorinox are definitely worth looking at.

REI Basecamp 6 Tent

A couple weeks ago while REI was running a sale, I bought one of their Basecamp 6 tents for family camping and bug out use. It's a six person dome with aluminum, shock corded poles, and a separate rain fly. (My family is four people but I wanted a bit more space than a 4 person tent.) It's self-supporting but has loops to stake it down if it's windy. The floor is 10'5" x 8'4". This afternoon I finally had a confluence of good weather and free time, so I got to set it up in the backyard.

Here's how it looks without the rain fly:


And here it is with the fly:


Closeup of the vestibule, which'll be handy for gear storage:


In the last two pictures, you can see one of the two vents in the fly. These are held open with Velcro-encased plastic rods, that you access through zippers in the roof of the tent. Unless rain blows into them they should be weather-resistant. They can be closed if you really need to batten down the hatches.

I have several more pictures of the tent here.

Inside, there are several loops and mesh pouches sewn to the tent wall, along with a mesh gear loft up top, for stowing small items. If you don't use the loft there's a sturdy loop sewn to the center of the roof, from which you can hang a lantern. I am very pleased with both the workmanship and design of the tent, and I'm really looking forward to taking it out into the woods this summer.

Quicksilver Radio PanelRelief(TM)

Hmm, haven't posted here in awhile.

Last night I installed a Quicksilver Radio PanelRelief(TM) bulkhead in my ham shack/office/laundry room (can I multi-task or what?!). The PanelRelief is an adjustable two-piece Lexan panel that sits in a window, and has two M-M connectors. The one I ordered has two SO-239 connectors. This allows me to run my antenna cable into my shack through the window without having it open to the elements.

Along with the PanelRelief, I got a 3-foot antenna patch cable to connect the inside connector to my FT-7800R, a roll of Coaxseal, and a single PowerPole to dual PowerPole splitter cable.

I tested the new setup by getting on last night's MARC net. Everything sounded good to me and apparently my signal was getting out fine.

Around 1700 tonight I heard thunder so I ran into the office and disconnected the patch cord from the PanelRelief. The easy ability to do this was another reason I got it.

How to Practice Law in a Barn

New Orleans attorney Jack Deverin wrote an interesting article in December that I just ran across. "How to Practice Law in a Barn" describes how he continued his law practice in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In it, he provides valuable information on business continuity in the the wake of disaster. Check it out.

Henley's Twentieth Century Book of Recipes, Formulas and Processes

I found this book today via Jerry Pournelle's site.

It's the sort of reference you'd want around after a TEOTWAWKI event. Or just to learn how to mix up stuff in the garage sure to piss off the Feds. ;-)

The PDF version is a facsimile of the c.1914 original. It's rather large at over 800 pages and 116 MB but whoever created the PDF also OCRed the file, so it's searchable. If you have a slower connection or an older computer you'll probably be better off with the .txt version, which is only 3.5MB.

I may print it out, two pages to a sheet, and stick it in a binder.

Post-Storm Lessons Learned

It's been too long since I posted anything here.

This past week we got a major snow and ice storm in Pennsylvania. My area didn't get too much snow, but we did get a few inches of sleet which shortly compacted into an ice crust. Thankfully, I was able to work from home so didn't have to try venturing out into it, even though my employer was open.

When it came time to clear my sidewalks and driveway I ran into trouble. My snowblower had been sitting since last year and both tires were flat, and unseated from the rims. I wasn't able to get them back on myself. (I know about the starting fluid + a match trick, but didn't want to blow myself up.) Luckily, my neighbor bailed me out and cleared off my sidewalk with his snowblower. I could have shoveled it, but this stuff was heavy and the whole reason I bought a snowblower was to save my back.

This morning I took my snowblower out of the shed and took the wheels off, then brought them up to the service station at the end of my block, where the mechanic was able to get the tires seated on the rims and inflated. I wasn't the first person to do so since Wednesday. Now it's all back together with a block of wood underneath the center, keeping the wheels off the ground while it's in storage. Annoying but now I know better.

Hopefully more people will take away some lessons from the I-78 SNAFU which makes my little inconvenience a trifling matter. As you're probably aware, many motorists got stranded on I-78 in Berks County, many of whom had to sit in a 50 mile traffic jam through a blizzard. PennDOT could've done better, but if you're traveling in winter it's foolish to go unprepared for getting stuck, even if you plan to take only major highways. At a minimum, dress appropriately, make sure your car has water and food for at least 24 hours, a candle lantern and matches or a lighter*, blankets or sleeping bags for each person, and a charger for your cell phone. A CB radio is a very handy thing to have when on the highway.



* Aside from light, a candle can warm the interior of a stranded vehicle. Many of the folks stuck ran their cars for heat until they were out of gas.

DIY Soda Can Lantern

I got this idea from the DIY Vietnam Lantern post in the Arfcom Survival Forum. It cost nothing and the only tool I used was the blade on my Swiss Army knife.

You need two soda cans. Cut away most of one side of the first can. Next, cut the bottom off of a second can about 3/8" above where the wall and the base meet. Put the cut off bottom inside the first can and place a tea light in the center recess.



And a second shot with the lights out:



The silver inside of the soda can maximizes the limited amount of light you get from a candle or tea light and shields it from drafts. Note that the can does get hot so be careful if you pick it up. I wouldn't walk around with this, since if you trip you'll be dropping a lit candle and could start a fire. But for emergency use in a power outage, or placed on the dashboard of a snowbound car, it would be handy. (Make sure you crack a window if you're using it in a car.)

Will your phone work with the power out?

Will your phone work with the power out?

Old fashioned line-powered phones don't need an external power source. They get their operating power right from the phone line.

However, most of us have cordless phones with a base station and one or more handsets. Many of us use VOIP phones, such as Vonage, which use our Internet connection. No line power there.

The easiest way to ensure you have a working telephone during a power outage, if your phones are not line powered but you still have regular phone service, is to keep a line powered phone around. You can pick them up cheap at Lowe's or Home Despot for around $10 each. If you have VOIP service which depends on an Internet connection*, then you need a battery backup, AKA uninterruptible power supply.

You can buy UPSes meant for computers and networking gear at places like Staples, Office Depot, Microcenter, or CompUSA. Well known, reputable brands include Belkin, American Power Conversion (APC), and Tripplite. Prices will range from a low of around $30 to enough to melt your Master Card.

UPS capacity is measured in Volt Amps (VA). The more the VA, the longer you'll have power available. How long it'll last depends on what you have connected to the UPS. E.g., if you keep surfing the web on battery backup it's going to kill your battery sooner than if you have only your Vonage router and cable modem connected.

Note that some equipment will continue to draw power even if the power switch is off. E.g., most recent PCs have a power switch on the front of the case and a second one on the power supply in back. If you leave the PC connected to the UPS, it'll continue to draw a little bit of power unless you unplug it or turn off the switch on the power supply in the back of the case. I also recommend against plugging printers and scanners into a UPS because of the potential for draining the power, especially if the printer/scanner is on and the power goes offline when you're not home. Plug printers and scanners into surge protectors, which are plugged into mains power.

If a power outage lasts more than a day or two it's likely that the UPS will run out of juice. But if most power outages you experience are short term, a UPS is a worthwhile investment to keep your primary means of communication open.


* ISPs have their equipment on massive battery backups and/or backup generators, so they often stay online during power outages. ASSuming that the cables haven't been knocked down, you can usually get online if you have backup power.

Thoughts on Selecting .22 Rimfire Ammunition

Most preparedness-minded people will have a least one .22 around. They are excellent for small game hunting, target practice, plinking, training new shooters, vermin control, and can be pressed into use for defense. However, many people fail to properly select the best ammunition for their .22s, focusing instead on price alone. In this post I'll discuss some criteria for selecting the best .22 ammo, focusing on .22 Long Rifle.

Rifles and pistols chambered for .22 Long Rifle can safely chamber and fire the following cartridges:

• .22 BB Cap (mostly unavailable)
• .22 CB Cap (available in both Short and Long cases)
• .22 Short
• .22 Long (No longer very common)
• .22 Long Rifle in both standard velocity (subsonic) and high-speed.
• .22 LR Shot (I haven't tried these so won't comment further.)
  

There are "hyper velocity" .22 LRs like CCI Stingers and Velocitors, and Remington Yellow Jackets and Vipers. Conversely, there are standard velocity rounds intended for hunting, e.g., CCI Subsonic HPs and Aguila Sniper Subsonics. The latter is a .22 LR length round, but loaded with a heavy 60 grain bullet in a .22 Short case.

Most .22 LR semiautos will function only with Long Rifles. The other rounds won't have enough power to function the action. The Remington Model 572 is a notable exception, being designed to function with Shorts, Longs, or Long Rifles. Sometimes, manually operated repeaters won't function with anything other than LRs either. However, they'll work as a single shot if you load the round directly into the chamber.

Standard velocity rounds, especially hollowpoints or solids which have been flatnosed, work well for small game hunting with good shot placement. They are quieter than high speed loads and often are more accurate.

For controlling vermin larger than rats, high speed or hyper velocity hollowpoints work better than standard velocity loads, except for the Aguila Sniper Subsonics. .22 LR can be used on varmints up to the size of woodchucks and racoons, but shot placement is key. I've seen a rabid raccoon that weighed about 15 lbs absorb over a half dozen high speed hollowpoints PLUS 5 standard velocity solids without expiring. These were all hits in the chest cavity from no more than 10 - 15 yards. A shot through the brain was required to finally kill it.

Small vermin such as rats can be taken care of with standard velocity loads, .22 Shorts, or even CB Caps. I have a couple of boxes of CCI .22 CB Longs that I keep around in case this is necessary. Fired from a rifle, they are about as noisy as an airgun. In other words, pretty darn quiet.

While it's better than nothing, a .22 is not a good choice for defense against people. It simply doesn't have enough bullet mass to reliably stop an aggressor. See my comments about the rabid raccoon above. The light weight, relatively low velocity bullets don't pack enough punch to reliabily penetrate to an attacker's vitals and cause enough damage to force him to stop. That said, high velocity solids would be my choice if I needed to use a .22 for defense; the specific load I'd want would be CCI Mini Mag solids for both its relatively good penetration and CCI's high quality. The only time I'd recommend a .22 for a defensive gun would be for someone who can't handle anything bigger. But, if push came to shove in a worst case scenario, and a child needed to help defend the homestead, then something like a 10/22 with a full load of Mini Mags beats a sharp stick.

The best accuracy will almost always be obtained with some kind of .22 LR ammo. When fired in a LR chamber, bullets from .22 Shorts have a long jump from the case to the rifling, which hurts accuracy. The rounds that a given gun will shoot the most accurately can only be determined by trying a variety of ammo. I recommend buying a 50 round box or two of several kinds of ammo and shooting them at a paper target from a bench, to see what the gun likes best. Shoot at least a couple of targets, at least one of them at 50 yards, to see how individual loads work at a distance.

Shooting for accuracy out to 50 yards is especially important with the Aguila Sniper Subsonics. The heavy 60 grain bullets pack a wallop but are often unstable in .22 rifles with the standard 1-in-16" rifling twist. Since they are somewhat expensive, it's a good idea to test a box to see if they'll shoot acceptably in your gun before acquiring a substantial quantity.

In my experience, the most uniformly accurate and high quality .22 LR ammo (other than specialty target loads like Eley Tenex) is made by CCI. I used to favor Winchester PowerPoints, but had several duds in one brick. I've never had a CCI .22 fail to go off. CCI Mini Mags and Subsonic Hollowpoints function well and shoot accurately in all of the .22s in which I've tried them, including a Ruger 10/22. Savage Mark IIGL, S&W Model 18, Ruger Single Six, and a Winchester 9422.

I recommend storing rimfire ammo in an airtight ammo can, either a GI surplus can or something like an MTM Sportsman's Dry Box. Rimfire ammo is not as well sealed against moisture penetration as centerfire ammo, and if the ammo gets wet or is exposed to humidity for a long time it may go bad.

Hopefully this post has given you some food for thought regarding .22 rimfire ammunition selection. Please share your insights in the comments.

Got another Ruger Mini-14

(Cross-posted from Blog O'Stuff.)
It was cold and windy today so I didn't feel like hitting the range. I did however, go up to Surplus City with a couple of guns which I haven't shot in quite awhile, and did some trading. In exchange for my EMF/Rossi Hartford Model 1892 and my Ruger GP-100, plus some boot, I picked up a used stainless steel Ruger Mini-14 GB. It's a 186-series piece. It came with one Ruger factory mag (stainless, no less) and I bought two more Ruger factory mags, both used. (I figure I should get as many evil high capacity magazines as I can while the getting is still good.)

The GB or Government Model differs from the standard Mini-14 with the addition of a flash suppressor screwed onto the muzzle, and a winged front sight several inches back. The front sight block also has a bayonet lug, and the gun will accept standard M-16 bayonets. (Raspberries to Senator Feinstein and her partners in crime.) The GBs were never intended to be sold directly to the public by Ruger, but a fair number of them have become available as police or prison guard trade-ins, as many departments "upgrade" by replacing their Mini-14s with AR-15s.

I really like Mini-14s. They are not as accurate at AR-15s (at least without serious tuning) but they are very simple, ergonomic, and reliable little rifles. Mini-14s are accurate enough for their intended purposes -- potting varmints around a farm or as a social carbine out to a couple of hundred yards.

Getting back to the reliability aspect -- Mini-14s are much less finicky when it comes to maintenance or quality ammo than AR-15s. For example, Wolf .223 doesn't run well in my Colt AR-15A3, but runs just fine in my 182-series Mini-14. I expect it to work fine in the GB. A couple of features which help the Mini-14's reliability are (a) the fact that it taps more than enough gas from the barrel to work the action, and (b) fouling stays out of the action. IOW, it doesn't have the "shits where it eats" problem of the AR-15. Note that the AR-15's direct-impingement (DI) gas system can be reliable, but it demands more cleaning, and that more recent military rifle designs all use pistons, not DI.

One of my online friends used a stainless Mini-14 in Alaska for many years, taking a large number of deer and other game with it. It stood up to harsh conditions well and he still has the rifle, now that he's retired to WV. .223 isn't really a deer caliber but it will do if you take your time and place the bullets right. Perhaps surprisingly to guys in the lower 48, but the Mini-14 is one of the most popular bush guns in AK. It and it's ammo are light. It's reliable and easy to maintain, and has minimal recoil, so a lot of Alaskan natives like it. A stainless Mini-14 in a plastic stock would be a heck of a good choice as a defensive carbine, especially if you need one to keep on a boat.

FCC Drops Morse Code Requirment for Ham Radio

The FCC is finally dropping the Morse code (AKA "CW") requirement for all classes of amateur radio license. The official license is here (PDF document). The international governing body for amateur radio dropped the requirement several years ago, and several countries had already followed suit, e.g., Germany and Italy, IIRC.

IMHO, this is a good thing. CW is a mode of operation, not a guarantee that someone isn't a schmuck. Yes, CW is useful and I'm glad that portions of the bands are still reserved for CW. But not everyone is interested in it, and many people just cannot learn it even with a lot of study. I've spoken with several General Class hams who've not used it since getting their license. Operators will still need to pass the written exams on radio technology and proper operating procedures before getting a licence.

One reason many hams didn't want the code requirement dropped is because CW can get through poor conditions better than voice on AM or Single Side Band. However, there are new operating modes, such as PSK-31, which use as little bandwidth as CW, perhaps even less, so they work as well in adverse conditions as CW. (I'm especially interested in PSK-31 since it's a way to bridge my interests in computers and radio.)

Time for me to start studying for the Element 3 exam.

In Praise of the Non-Tactical Pocketknife

For most of the past 10 years my pocketknife has been a "tactical" folder. First, it was a Spyderco Delica. When I lost the Delica (found it 3 months later) a few years ago, I replaced it with a Benchmade Griptilian. I've been very happy with both knives. They are well made, hold a nice edge, lock securely, and need only one hand to open.

Last weekend I dug out my old Victorinox Pioneer Swiss Army Knife (SWAK). I've had this since sometime in the early '80s. Unlike the current production silver-colored Pioneers the aluminum handle scales on mine have a red oxide finish. It has a spear point blade, bottle opener, can opener, large and small screwdriver blades, a wire stripper notch on the bottle opener, a reamer/awl, and a key ring. It's the same as the real issue SWAK or "Soldier," with the exception of the key ring. Picking up the Pioneer felt like getting reacquainted with an old friend.

I carried my SWAK for years. It accompanied me on a six week trip to Europe in 1984, following me behind the Iron Curtain into Hungary and Yugoslavia and back. I've used it to cut stuff, tighten and loosen screws, pop open sodas and beers, and poke holes in things with the reamer. In other words, it can do a lot more than a knife with only a blade.

My job is in an office pushing bits and bytes around. Dress is business casual. I'd look goofy with a multitool on my belt. Like it or not, fashion can influence knife choice. (And I'm hardly a fashion plate.) And as for tacticality, the closest I have to training in knfe fighting is a semester of fencing in college, close to 20 years ago.

So, Sunday I checked the edge (still shaving sharp after a few years languishing in the handlebar bag on my mountain bike, out in a shed) and sprayed out some dust with some Superlube dry teflon lubricant from a can, and since then I've been carrying the Pioneer instead of my Benchmade. It fits nicely in my pocket like it belongs there and offers more functionality than the Griptilian. The only real advantage the latter has is one-hand opening.

I'm liking having my old friend with me once again. I may even order another one or two to stash away for the future or in an emergency kit.

Power Failure

Getting my ham radio setup with a battery backup came not a moment too soon. Friday night, the power went out.

Last Friday we had a cold front come through, bringing with it high winds. About 2030, the wind blew one of the trees in our yard into the power line feeding us from the pole. Sparks, pops, and groaning noises followed and the power went out.

Out came the flashlights, candles, and my D-cell powered Coleman flourescent lantern.

My wife called PECO and reported the outage. We use Vonage for our phone service and my home LAN is on two APC UPSes so we had phone service and cable modem Internet access until I shut them off to conserve power. In the meantime, we had our cell phones if we had needed to call anyone.

At about 2200 - 2230 we got some power back. A couple of the circuits came back but we had no power upstairs in our bedrooms, nor for the heater (natural gas but the blower requires electric). If things had gone on longer than they did we could still use our gas fireplace, however. Fortuitously, the refrigerator was on a circuit with power.

Meanwhile, I spent some time on the radio and caught the tail end of a Skywarn net. The PowerGate/gel cell setup worked perfectly. I'd done a test run on battery power last Thursday night when I checked into the MARC club net, and got good signal reports.

Saturday morning at about 0930 PECO tech came out. He went and looked at the pole and saw a mass of vegetation which had grown up along it, and that the insulators separating the three feed lines were broken. Due to the vegetation he needed to call for a crew to come out, climb the pole, and defoliate, then fix the connection. (A crew was out over the Summer clearing vegetation away from the wires and pole in my neighbor's yard but apparently they didn't get enough.)

The reason we had some power was that we were getting 110V into the house, not the full 220V. He jumpered the live 110V part to the other part, so we at least had 110V throughout the house, enough to run our heater.

An hour and a half later the crew showed up. They ended up replacing the line from the pole to our house, but I'll need to have an electrician replace the feeder line from the head to the service. (Good thing I have a close friend who's a master electrician.) However, they had to shut power back off for a few hours while they worked. We were back to status quo ante around 1500 Saturday.

Yesterday I went and pruned the tree which had swayed into the line. I'm hoping the reduced wind load will make it steadier. If it does sway or fall it shouldn't take out the power, however, since the PECO crew Saturday rerouted the line. It will drop the currently-unused Verizon phone line, and the heavily-used Comcast cable line, so I do want the tree removed fairly soon.

WMR PowerGate 40 Backup Power System

A major reason I got my ham ticket was because I wanted emergency communications. I have a pretty good home setup for VHF/UHF in the form of a Yaesu FT-7800R hooked up to a Comet GP-3 antenna on my roof. What I haven't had, up until now, is some form of powering the radio if the power goes out.

Early last week I placed an order with West Mountain Radio for a few items:

• A PWRGate PG40 backup power system.
• An MK brand 73 amp hour gel cell.
  
• Cables to connect the PowerGate to my Yaesu power supply and to the gel cel, along with my FT-7800R and VX-5RS HT.

The PG40 and cables came the next day but the gel cel didn't arrive today; it's dropped shipped from the manufacturer's warehouse.

The PWRGate has three power connectors:

• Power in from a DC power supply, which in turn is plugged into mains power.
• Power out to the radio.
  
• Power to the battery for a trickle charge. This port also accepts power in from the battery.

The connectors are Anderson Power Poles.

During normal operation with mains power, the PWRGate provides a trickle charge to the gel cel and DC to the radio. If the battery drains down it could take a few days to recharge once mains power returns, so at some point I'll get a separate battery charger.

If the mains power goes out then the PWRGate's internal switch reconfigures the unit to take power from the battery and provide it to the radio. The power source transfer is seamless, requiring no user intervention, and when I tried it out I didn't notice any difference in the audio I was listening.

The reasons for using a gel cel are that (a) they're safer than lead acid batteries that you need to worry about keeping equalized since they are maintenance free, and (b) they are rated as spill-proof and don't give off fumes. Being a deep cycle battery, it can safely be discharged down to a low level without harm.

Here's a pic of my setup:




The PWRGate is the finned black thing sitting on top of another black box, which is my DC power supply. The leftmost cord plugged into the top is the power input, the middle is power to the radio, and the right hand one goes to the gel cel. The black square on the red cable to the cel's positive lead is a fuse holder. (I have a temporary cover over the gel cel as a protective measure so nobody accidentally shocks himself.)

Future refinements to this system will include a battery box to protect the gel cel and anybody who get a bit careless, a battery charger, and a cable with Anderson Power Poles on one end and a cigarette lighter receptacle on the other so I can power 12V devices including charging cell phones.

Backup Radio Power

The major thing missing from my ham radio setup has been a backup power source. With Winter just around the corner I decided that it was time to remedy this. Today I placed an order with West Mountain Radio for several items:

• PWRgate 40 package
• 73 ah gel cell
• Cable for my VX-5RS
• Cable for my FT-7800R
  

The cables have an Andersen Power Pole connector on one end, for plugging into the PWRgate, and the appropriate connector on the other end for plugging into the radio.

The PWRgate allows one to create an uninterruptable power supply for radios. Ugly ASCII diagram:

[A/C power] – [PWRgate] – [Gel cell]
              |
              |
            [Radio]

This provides the same basic functionality as a UPS intended for computers. If the mains power goes out an you're using the radio, it will automatically shift over to the gel cell. While the radio isn't being used, it will trickle charge the battery.

My Yaesu FT-7800R consumes only 0.5A in RX mode (squelched) and 8.5A when transmitting, so if I'm just monitoring during a power outage, the 73 ah gel cell should last quite awhile. My VX-5RS HT uses a max of 1.9A when transmitting, so it'll last even longer.

At some point I may invest in a generator but for now our power is sufficiently reliable that I don't feel the need yet.

Cross-platform encryption

I want to save digital copies of important documents on a USB stick, but want to secure them against unauthorized access if the drive gets into the wrong hands, because it would be an identity thief's wet dream. The stick will be part of my household emergency kit.

Today I discovered jFileCrypt, a cross-platform encryption/decryption tool written in Java, and which can run on any platform with Java 5. Aside from the fact that it's free (GPL) software, being platform-independent is what I really find attactive. JFileCrypt supports Blowfish so the resulting encrypted file should be secure.

Alternatives include Mac OS X's built-in ability to create encrypted disk images and GPG. Unfortunately, an ecrypted Mac disk image isn't cross platform, and GPG can be confusing, although I've been playing around with it and I'm getting a better understanding of it. For Windows and Linux users, TrueCrypt looks like a good alternative.

Ideally, I'd like to have an ~500 MB encrypted file or folder on a 1 GB USB drive. On the unencrypted portion I'll keep a copy of the encryption utility so that if necessary, I can decrypt the information even if I don't have access to one of my computers. The password I'll be using is long, non-obvious, and has zero significance to anyone other than me.

If any of my readers have suggestions for cross-platform encryption software that would be suitable for this application, please post them as a comment.

Good 2M Propagation Tonight

So I'm sitting here in Plymouth Mtg., PA scanning through the freqs on my radio and I picked up the Carbon County ARES net coming in loud and clear. Their repeater is located about 60 miles away in Jim Thorpe, PA. I checked in and introduced myself. Net control gave me a good signal report, even though I was transmitting with only 10W. According to him, there were some "scrambled eggs" in the background but I was totally intelligible.

Even though VHF FM is often said to require line of sight, there are a lot of hills between the repeater and me, so I think the knife edge effect is in play.

My rig is a Yaesu FT-7800R 2M/70cm dual bander, with a Comet GP-3 antenna on top of a 5 foot mast on the short chimney sticking out of my roof.

A few minutes later a station from Sussex County, DE checked in and reported that he too was hearing the repeater clearly. He noted that he also was able to bring in Martinsburg, WV shortly beforehand. Impressive!

Nice to know I can communicate out that far without much infrastructure (or will be, once I get a battery backup in place for my shack).

When the lights go out

Back in August I posted about coming shortfalls in reliable electrical power.

...

The [Electric Reliability Organization] projects that U.S. demand will increase by 141,000 megawatts (MW) over the next 10 years. Supply, however, will increase by only 57,000 MW, and that assumes that all currently proposed new facilities are approved and built.

The system will be operating below the marginal capacity needed to ensure supply reliability at all times. In other words, in peak periods like heat waves, there won’t be enough electricity to go around. Blackouts will inevitably result.

...

Read the rest of the article here. [H/T to InstaPundit.]

Now, it won't be the end of the world if this comes to pass. However, reliable electricity is something that most Americans have come to expect as a given, much as if it was air. It will take getting used to, and points to the value of implementing alternatives for when grid power is down.