July 30 B-17 "City of Savannah" Work

Spent some time at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today to start documenting some of the power distribution wiring and such on the B-17.  We plan to have a manual that shows the installation of all of our equipment and the power up and operating procedures of the compartment.  I'll be writing a "preflight checklist" as well.  Folks will need to be checked out on how to bring everything up and how to operate the radios.  This is gonna be fun.

We also have recieved and installed an original FT-154 shock mount for the BC-348 reciever that is on the radio operators table.  They are alot more rare than the actual radios themselves.  Thanks to Tommy Garcia who found, purchased, and donated it to the project. 

I also talked with Jerry and Dave about our next couple of operating events.  We plan to operate on Sept 17 to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the US Air Force and again on Nov 11 and 12 for Veterans Day. 

Terminal block in radio compartment for 12vdc and 24vdc power distribution

Terminal block under radio operators table

Temporary power distribution switch panel to left of pilot in cockpit

Power distribution switch panel.  Original panel is out being restored.

Closeup of power distribution panel.  Note 12vdc for amateur radio equipment and 24vdc for original radio equipment.

RF Antenna Switch to allow new radio and original radio to share a common antenna.  Also note the BC-348 receiver to the right sitting in it's new FT-154 shock mount.

First Official Transmission From the B-17 "City of Savannah"

Guy-K4GTM at the radio operator table

The first official transmission from the B-17 "City of Savannah" station WW2COS was a great success!  All of the radio gear performed very well.  We made brief contact early on with the Shreveport Amateur Radio Association team who were setup in front of thier B-17 "Miss Liberty" at the Eighth Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB, LA.  Band conditions on 40 and 20 fell off in that direction thru the afternoon but we were able to go on and made another 25 or so contacts across the country as well as our first DX contact to Dieter-DK4XW in Germany. 

We had media coverage from 3 local television stations and a local radio station!  Great job by the museum for thier coordination. 

What a team effort it has been to bring the project to this point.  I really love the "City of Savannah" Restoration Team and the staff at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum!  I know I speak on behalf of all of the HAMs in the Coastal Amateur Radio Society when I say that we consider it a great privilege and honor to be a part of this project!

Here are a couple links to the media coverage.

For WSAV video click HERE

For WTOC video click HERE

For WTKS Radio interview with Bill Edwards click HERE

Guy-K4GTM tuning in a station on the BC-348 Receiver

"City of Savannah" Radio Compartment

The Shreveport Amateur Radio Association in front of "Miss Liberty" at Barksdale AFB

Finally "ON AIR"

B-17 Radio Room Workday July 9, 2011

Wow, we had a great workday out at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Saturday.  I was joined by fellow HAMs Steve -K4SDJ, Kevin-KW4B, Bill-K4WP, Mark-KA4CID, Bob-N1HNR, and John-KJ4WBF to get us a little bit closer to our goal of finally transmitting from the radio compartment of our B-17 "City of Savannah" this upcoming week.  We had quite a few things we wanted to accomplish so we split up into teams.  Steve, Bill, and Mark installed the connectors on the antenna feedline and got everything in our lighting arrestor junction box in order and tested.  Kevin and I teamed up to install our antenna pulley system on two tall light posts in the Memorial Garden with the aid of an incredible man-lift, crane, tractor, machine sort of thing.  Wow that beast made easy work of getting up to the top of the posts to work.  Thanks to Bruce Johnson at the museum for getting that for us!  Not only was it useful, it was downright fun!  Bob Hearn-N1HNR acted as our spotter and runner for the day.  What a great team effort by the radio group!

Once the pulleys were complete we all raised the G5RV multiband antenna.  It's up in a flat top configuration at about 20 feet or so with the broadside East/West.  We plan to add other antennas in the future but this will get us on the air for now.  Kevin and Bill tested the antenna with the analyzer and then we connected the feed line to the lightning arrestor in the junction box. 

Throughout the course of the day I worked with Rocky and Jeff to finish up the electrical distribution of the 12v and 24v from the aircraft battery system to the radio compartment.  These guys are great to work with.  Of course we were all in the military and speak the same "language".  Well, Jeff was in the Navy so he has a slightly different dialect than Rocky and I! 

It was a great moment to apply the 12v power and watch the amateur radio equipment come on.  It was even greater to throw the 24v switch(s) and see the WW2 era BC-348 Receiver come to life!  The wonderful sound of the internal dynamotor spinning at 4500 rpm delivering 220vac to those vacumn tubes was sweet.  It was a thrill for the electrical team and the radio team to achieve this common goal.

Now that we had things powered up it was time to hook up that antenna and actually see if we could here anything.  We started with the new Kenwood HF transceiver and were pleased when we began to hear lots of HAM radio operator activity all across the frequency spectrum.  Things are looking good.  Next we went ahead and connected the antenna to the WW2 era BC-348 Receiver that one of our team members has meticulously restored inside and out over the last year.  Carroll Baker-WX4Y is an electronics engineer by trade and did a marvelous job of rebuilding this reciever on his own time and with his own money in order to donate it to the project.  Well done Carroll!

This 60+ year old radio is working just fine and we were hearing lots of HAM activity on sideband as well as shortwave stations on AM.  Once we were satisfied that everything was working as planned we went ahead and shut things down and I spent the next hour or so re-routing some cables and dressing things up a bit under the radio operators table.  We've already started documenting and diagramming our installation so that we have a record of how things are wired and routed, etc.

So with all the work we did on Saturday, we are very well positioned to attempt our first official transmission from the compartment using our newly assigned callsign of WW2COS.  We plan to do this on Wed, July 13th around 4:00pm.  This first transmission will be very special indeed as we will be communicating with another group of HAMs from the Shreveport Amateur Radio Association who will be setup to operate from outside the B-17 "Miss Liberty" at the Eighth Air Force Museum on Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.  Thier B-17 is also undergoing a restoration and the two museums have forged a partnership to collaborate on the two projects.  Let's hope HF propagation conditions cooperate on Wed so that we can have a successful event. 

Here are several pictures of the various work that was done on Saturday.  What an honor and a privilege to be involved with such a great project!  Will certainly post another update after the event on Wednesday..........de K4GTM

Kevin-KW4B and Guy-K4GTM up on the lift to install the pulley system for the antenna

The incredible man-lift

Guy-K4GTM up on the lift

Kevin-KW4B, Bob-N1HNR, and Bill-K4WP testing the antenna

Bill-K4WP trying to explain to Jerry, the project manager what the heck it is that us crazy radio guys are doing!

Steve-K4SDJ and Mark-KA4CID with our antenna lightning arrestor junction box

The view from up on the lift

Rocky admiring his electrical work as we powered up the radios

Kevin-KW4B testing the Kenwood HF amateur radio

I told you it was a monster lift!

Guy-K4GTM tuning the WW2 era BC-348 receiver in the radio compartment

The BC-348 receiver that Carrol-WX4Y restored and donated to the project

2010 ARES Simulated Emergency Test Results

2010 Simulated Emergency Test (SET) results are in. Georgia came in #1 in the nation. Chatham County came in #4 in the State of Georgia! Way to go team!  See complete details at the ARRL website.

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Public%2520Service/SET%25202010%2520Results%2520QST%2520article.pdf

Getting Closer To Transmitting from "The City of Savannah"

Did a few more things today to get ready for our first official transmission from the radio compartment of the B-17.  Spent some more time with Jeff Hoopes who is installing all of the electrical distribution which makes it's way from the battery system under the cockpit through various switches, relays, and fuse panels back to our terminal strip in the radio compartment.  Got sidetracked talking with Jeff about both of our military time in the 80's flying into places like the Azores and Iceland.  Turns out we both spent time at both places right about the same time.  Ahh, the good ol Cold War days.  He was Navy but I forgive him.

I got the coax feedline routed to the amateur radio gear and secured to the bulkhead.  Will finish up the power distribution tomorrow.

Spent some time with Bruce the Facilities Manager of the museum learning how to operate the lift that he got for us to use.  This big piece of equipment is awesome.  Hope I can remember all of the controls tomorrow when we use it to reach the top of the light posts where we will install our antenna supports and pulleys. 

Also talked with one of the amateur radio operators in Shreveport who is going to set up a radio station in front of the B-17 at the Eighth Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB next Wed.  We plan to make contact with them for our first official transmission.  The two museums have formed a relationship as they both have B-17 restoration projects in the works and they both highlight the great legacy of the Eighth Air Force.  The Shreveport Amateur Radio Association are really excited about making contact with us.  I'll be coordinating times and frequencies with Mike Hawkins, KF5FCY as we get closer to the event next Wed.  We can't thank these guys enough for stepping up to give us a hand with this project. 

Will post another update after tomorrows work.

Coaxial cable antenna feedline routed from inside left wing up through radio room floor to under radio operators table

Another view of coax

July 6th, 2011 B-17 Radio Work

Had another productive day at the Mighty Eighth.  Still trying to tie all the ends together for our first official radio transmission from the compartment next Wed afternoon.  Bruce now has a route planned to exit the building for our antenna feedline.  John Finch is building a bracket and installing our lightning arrestors in a weather proof box to be mounted on the side of the building.  Once that's done we can install the connectors on the other end of the coax and hook up our external antennas which we hope to do on Saturday. 

Another big event occured today when one of our radio team, Carroll Baker, WX4Y formally donated a fully restored BC-348 Reciever to the project!  Jerry McLaughlin was only too pleased to accept!  Carroll purchased this radio almost a year ago and has been meticulously restoring it to it's original condition both electronically and cosmetically.  It looks great and Carroll assures us that it sounds great as well.  This will definitely be our flagship component in the radio compartment.  We hope to be installing and testing it in the compartment on Saturday and actually operating with it next Wed. 

We'll back out on Saturday to finish the electrical wiring, terminate the antenna feedline, install our antenna, install the BC-348 and test everything.

Carroll, WX4Y with the newly restored BC-348 Receiver

Jerry McLaughlin accepting the newly restored BC-348 Reciever from Carrol Baker

Carroll has spent the last year restoring this BC-348 to original operating condition

July 2, 2011 B-17 Radio Work

Went out to the museum after breakfast this morning and got a few more things done in the radio compartment of the B-17.  Steve, K4SDJ and Bill, K4WP finished up the connectors on the coax then tested and labled each run.  I installed and routed the power cables for the amateur radio gear which is now nicely mounted underneath the radio operators table.

While we were there Rocky, Jeff, and others on the Saturday crew installed the three 12v batteries that will power our compartment as well as other equipment throught the aircraft.  Once they have all of thier wiring completed we'll be able to test the 12v and 24v distribution in the radio compartment.  One step closer to powering things up.

left to right.....Kenwood TS-480SAT HF radio, Kenwood TM-D710A VHF/UHF radio, RR4005C Rig Runner Power Panel

Underneath the Radio Operators table looking toward the left

Underneath the Radio Operators table looking forward

Handing a box of wire up to Rocky thru the crew entry chute

Rocky up in the forward belly of the plane installing battery system

One battery to give us 12v for amateur radio gear and two batteries in series to give us 24v for the original radio gear

Simple sketch of power distribution plan in the radio compartment

Group Photo of "City of Savannah" Restoration Team

Another Piece of Original Equipment For The B-17 Radio Compartment

We got a nice surprise today at the Mighty Eighth when John Finch showed me the BC-306-A Antenna Tuning Unit that he found and brought back from his recent trip over to Barksdale AFB to work with the restoration team of the "Yankee Doodle II". This is an item that we've had on our wish list for the last year. John's eagle eye spotted it and the guys there told him that they have two of them so they gave one of them to us. This will be mounted right above the Liason Transmitter on the bulkhead behind the radio operator.  Sweet!

B-17 Radio Compartment Progress

Spent a couple hours at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum this afternoon working on the radio compartment of our B-17.  Got the two new Kenwood amateur radios and the 12v power distribution panel installed under the radio operators table.  Thanks to Bob MacDonald for his help in getting everything mounted.  Once Jeff and Rocky get the 12v and 24v power terminal strips and the battery system is installed, we'll be ready to power up the radios.  We also hope to install and power up the BC-348 Reciever in the next week or so. 

Steve, K4SDJ and Bill, K4WP installed the PL-259 connectors on the antenna feedline coax.  The coax is now run from the radio compartment out through the left wing where it will exit and be run through the external wall of the building.  We plan to go back out to the museum on Saturday and solder the connectors.

Bill, K4WP installing the PL-259 connectors on our antenna feedline

Underneath the radio operator table before HAM radio installation

Bob MacDonald preping the brakets for the HAM radio gear

Bob MacDonald installing the brakets for the HAM radio gear

New EC for Bulloch County

Welcome to the new ARES EC for Bulloch County, Casey Brown KF4BSC.

HAM Station for the B-17 "City of Savannah"

The equipment for the HAM radio station that we will install in the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" has been ordered.  Once the equipment arrives we will install it and run the coax feedline from the compartment thru the left wing and out of the museum to the external antennas.  We will also install the operational BC-348 Reciever and other equipment in preparation for the radio room grand opening on or around July 15th.  The plan is to operate an amateur radio special event from the aircraft and showcase the work that has been done so far.  We have secured the amateur radio callsign WW2COS (World War 2 City of Savannah) from the FCC.  Thing are coming together. 

May 19th ARES Support of Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise

ARES Support of Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise

May 19, 2011

On May 19, 2011 the Southeast Georgia District of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) activated to support the Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise. The ARES contribution to the exercise was to test the ability to provide a backup means of communications in the event that primary methods fail or are overwhelmed. By establishing radio communication using the amateur service frequency spectrum, ARES can provide continued communication when severe weather or other disasters render primary modes like telephony, cellular, broadband, etc unavailable or unusable. Our independence from communications and electrical infrastructure allow us to continue to function as a stand alone means of moving information.

ARES radio operators have been involved in the planning for this exercise and developed a plan to provide the appropriate support based on the exercise scenario. Jimmy Gordon was instrumental in including ARES in all planning sessions.

On the day of the exercise we had licensed amateur radio operators located at six hospitals, one health district office , and one emergency management agency, as well as numerous home based operators located throughout the region. Once onsite each radio operator established contact with the local hospital emergency coordinator and made them aware that they were in place and operational. An “emergency network” was established on the pre-determined ARES frequency and the Net Control Station was located at Memorial Medical Center. A backup Net Control Station was established at Candler Hospital in the event that the Memorial station were to fail for some reason. Once the “net” was established, all six hospitals, the health district office, and CEMA reported in to net control with their current status.

Throughout the exercise the emergency coordinators at each hospital provided the radio operators with messages to transmit to the Incident Command at Memorial. Each message was transmitted by the radio operator using either the ARRL Radiogram message format or the NIMS ICS 213 Message format. This gave us a great opportunity to practice with both formats. Each message that was transmitted from a hospital to Incident Command was delivered to Jimmy Gordon, who was acting as the Incident Commander.

In between transmitting status messages from the regional hospitals, the ARES team also took the opportunity to test a variety of different frequency bands and transmission modes. This can be important during an actual emergency as there are a variety of factors that affect various frequency ranges. Testing a variety of methods allows us to be prepared for any eventuality and therefore provide uninterrupted service to the hospitals. For the exercise we tested communications on VHF and UHF for regional coverage and HF for longer range coverage. We used several different area repeaters to communicate through including the digital voice D-Star System in Pembroke. We were also able to “relay” message traffic from one hospital to another and then on to Memorial demonstrating the value of the “emergency network”.

During the exercise an ARES radio operator was given the opportunity to provide communication status updates to the incident command team. This really helps to give the team an understanding of what ARES is able to provide to them as a resource.

After all of the messages had been transmitted and as the exercise drew to a close, the “emergency net” was terminated and all radio operators were released from the regional hospitals. The ARES team achieved all of the exercise objectives that we had set and we provided a final summary to the incident command team.

This is a list of the locations that participated and the radio operators that assisted.

Memorial Medical Center - Guy McDonald, K4GTM   Steve Jonas, K4SDJ

St. Joseph’s/Candler - Kevin Bell, KW4B

Effingham County - Ken Lanier, KI4TYO  Peter Levesque, KJ4FAW  Bob McKay, KB4GNX

Screven County - Robert Good, K4BG

Evans Memorial - Russ Dees, KJ4VIG   Eddie Oliver, KD4BWW

Candler County - Leon Curry, W4TYM

Coastal Health District - Gary Harley, K4KAH

Chatham EMA - Lester Lamhut, KF4JBQ






Guy McDonald, K4GTM
District Emergency Coordinator
Southeast District
Amateur Radio Emergency Service