© 2002 Virginia RACES, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The most common question among amateurs newly interested in emergency and public service is "what radio should I get?" I am hesitant to recommend specific rigs, but offer some thoughts based upon experience. It's very tempting to look for "one" rig, which has "everything all in one box," such as the IC706MkIIG or FT100D. They are neither the best 2-meter rigs nor the best HF rigs, but they do work. I don't favor this concept, but some do.

Rigs for EmCom should have been on the market long enough to have established a deserved reputation for reliability. For those who favor the "one rig does-all" approach, I'd lean towards the IC706 simply because it has been in production long enough to for them to get most of the "bugs" out of it. You see few used IC706s listed for sale considering that over a million of them have been sold worldwide. Many FT100s and FT817s are listed, which suggests that impulse buyers were less than satisfied. Don't change equipment very time a new rig comes out. Keep equipment that works and sell that which doesn't. Encourage other members of your unit to quasi-standardize on proven equipment.

Personally, I find neither the IC706 nor the FT100 very user-friendly. S mall displays, controls, layered menus and keystroke combinations defy anyone not familiar with it to use one effectively without the manual. Controls should be intuitive and easy to "figure out."

If your only rig fails, you have nothing. Multiple radios are better than one. You need to have equipment which is simple to use, rugged and reliable. Get a 2 meter or dual-band FM mobile first. A good mobile costs no more than an HT, but has far better simplex capability. If you don't drive or have impaired mobility, then get an HT first. An HT is still needed as a spare and for "walk and talk" operation, but most people should get it later. If you have a General license, an IC706 makes sense for your "go kit" instead of a 2-meter or dual-band mobile, if you can only afford one rig. In rural areas, a single-band 2-meter mobile is an entirely viable choice.

In suburban areas I recommend a dual-band mobile which also has DUAL RECEIVE. This is because in high RF urban environments 2 meters is sometimes not useable at all due to intermod or simply is less effective in the urban environment due to terrain or building blockage.

Emergency nets in urban areas require you to work from inside, out of and around steel-reinforced buildings where VHF simply doesn't work very well. However, UHF and 220 are more effective here. Every urban RACES or CERT team member should seek at least an HT, which works on either 220 or 440.

Any rig used for emergency communications should be frequency agile and capable of being programmed from the keypad IN THE FIELD, with no software required. It should have at least ten programmable memories and CTCSS encode. CTCSS decode and receive outside of the amateur bands is not a necessity. You shouldn't be listening to anything except your assigned net. Don't use a transceiver which may be needed for "comm" as a "scanner" because you may be distracted by other things going on or miss important traffic to you.

In 2-meter and dual-band mobiles, get something simple to operate and rugged with a large and easily read display. It should have at least 25w output per band, ten memories per band, and CTCSS encode. Intermod rejection is important but receiving outside the amateur bands is not. Many current amateur rigs which receive outside the amateur band fail miserably in intermod rejection, so carry a notch filter, such as the well proven one from Par Electronics.

An HT for RACES must be able to operate from three power sources: 1) its NiCd or NiMh battery pack, 2) from AA batteries using a battery case which fits the radio, and 3) from an external DC cord which can be connected to an external gel cell battery, auto cigarette lighter plug or regulated 13.8VDC power supply.

The 220 band has much to recommend it for EmCom. It enjoys a lower noise floor, much quieter signals, and fewer problems with intermod. "220" gets in, out and around buildings almost as well as UHF, but has better simplex range which is similar to 2 meters. If you must tie up a repeater or simplex frequency for an extended period you won't inconvenience many users. Another advantage of 220 is that most scanners don't receive it. The same is true of 2 meter SSB.

No amateur mode is "secure" in the national security sense. However, using amateur bands and modes not received on common consumer scanners is more "discreet" for traffic that your served agencies would rather not have the general public and the news media listening to.

For this reason we also highly recommend use of 2-meter SSB for and RACES. With modest output power of 25w, when using a suitable horizontally polarized antenna such as a loop, 2 meter SSB is highly reliable for portable and mobile units up to 100 miles, providing a good alternative to 75 meter SSB for "short path" during high SFI or solar storms when HF is unreliable for short paths beyond FM repeater coverage. For 2 meter SSB to work reliably for your organization, enough of your operators must have it. This weighs again in favor of the IC706, although I still prefer separate 2-meter all-mode and HF rigs, because they generally have superior individual performance and provide necessary redundancy for system reliability.

My HF rig is a Yaesu FT900CAT, equipped with a head set / boom mic and hand mic, connected to an MJ-89 mic switch which permits using either the hand mic or a boom mic with headset connected to a foot switch for use in high noise environments. This is mounted in a quick-detachable mobile mount in a Pelican box. If limited to ONE HF radio it would be the FT900, because its controls are intuitive, simple and straight-forward on the front panel. It has a large display, very loud audio, built-in antenna tuner, effective noise blanker works, sensitive receiver with IF shift and notch filters and you don't need a manual to use it if unfamiliar! The only thing it lacks which newer rigs have is Digital Signal Processing. I use the Am-Com Clear Speech DSP speaker for noise cancellation, which is very effective.

My portable field-deployable HF antenna consists of paired hamsticks on quick disconnects for 40 and 75m on quick disconnects, which can be used either on-the-go use on the vehicle ball mount, or mounted horizontally on a dipole adapter with 25 ft. of mast. I also carry extra hamsticks for 10 and 20 meters. If space is available I also carry end-fed wires, 32 ft. for 40m and 55 ft, for 75m which are readily connected to my mobile antenna mount. Crimp and solder 3/8 ring terminals on one end of the wire and bolt them onto Hamstick quick-disconnects. On the other end tie a "dogbone," 50 ft of nylon line and a 2-oz. Surf casting sinker which can be thrown up easily into the nearest tree to erect the wire as a low sloper,. This works much better than the hamstick dipole or mobile whip. I also carry a military mast kit, two BCI Group 27 deep cycle batteries (total 190ah capacity) and two Siemens SM20 solar panels for battery charging. The mobile rig in my vehicle is a Kenwood TM742A with 2m, 220 and 440 modules installed, using a tri-plexer to connect it to a tri-band mobile antenna. The head-set with boom mic for the TM255 all-mode also works on the TM742 tri-bander, if its multi-band receive is needed for a command post or net control. This rig is also in a quick-disconnect mount so that it can be readily removed from the car for portable use at a shelter or other fixed station. An older FT5100 dual-bander is mounted in a Pelican box with 17ah gel cell battery, 25 ft. of coax, dual-band mag-mount, extension cord and power supply which can be deployed quickly at a shelter or as a temporary cross-band repeater.

For portable auxiliary power I carry either a pair of BCI Group U1 AGM batteries in .50 cal. M2A1 ammunition cans, which together provide 64ah capacity, or a single Yuasa NP65-12 gel cell 65ah battery with retractable handles. I also carry a 20amp AC power supply, a Schumacher SE-600, 6A gel cell charger and 100 ft. heavy-duty UL-rated extension cord on a reel.

Good field deployable VHF / UHF antennas are the Diamond X50N or Cushcraft AR-270, which are compact and fit easily in a vehicle for transport. While dual-band for 2m and 440, either "works" for low power on 220, with acceptable VSWR as an expedient tri-band antenna. I carry a mobile antenna adapter with mast clamp and radial kit as an extra field antenna.

My primary dual-band HT is a Yaesu FT50R. For it I have three NiCd battery packs, a AA case, external DC power cord and 7ah gel cell battery. My "spare" HT which stays in my "go kit" is an older Standard C558A, which I actually like better for RACES applications better than the FT50R because it has dual receive.

In my go kit I keep three AA battery cases for the Standard HT, a Mirage BD35 dual-band brick amp, Comet CX722A dual-band half-wave rigid antenna with BNC, an extra CX72A flexible dual-band antenna, fused 20 ft. AWG10 gage power cord with battery clips for connecting the brick amp to a car battery, a KPC-3 TNC, laptop and a 17ah gel cell for portable operation.

My "Extra" loaner and spare HT is a converted GE M-PD public safety radio which is type accepted Class "C" for use outside the amateur bands. It has a total of 46 RACES, VHF-marine, CAP, ground-SAR, EMS, fire and local government frequencies pre-programmed for emergency use. The above doesn't provide "all" the answers, but I hope will provide your RACES or CERT team with some good "thought starters" for your emergency equipment and "go kit" planning. ?