Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Unit Director Roundtable

This years Unit Director Roundtable was held at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, GA.  What a beautiful piece of property we have in the North Georgia Mountains.  And this time of year is absolutely gorgeous with the leaves beginning to change and the daytime temps staying in the 60's. 
I left Savannah around midday on Thursday and arrived in Toccoa just before 6:00pm.  Checked in at the conference center then went back to town to grab some dinner.  Got back to the room in time for Game 2 of the World Series then remembered that there are no televisions in the rooms at the center.  Tried to find a radio statioin that was carrying the game with no luck.  So I used the "TuneIn Radio" app on my phone to listen to the game.  Cell coverage isn't that great up there but I managed to hold a connection for the whole game.

Joined the group for breakfast in the dining hall on Friday morning.  Met up with the other three communications guys, Felton, Horace, and Ed and caught up on what we've been up to since we met last year at the conference center in Norman Park, GA.  Great group of guys.

After breakfast all of the unit directors began the roundtable with our State Director, Stuart Lang.  Stuart provided an update on all of the activities that the ministry has been involved in over this last year.  Wow, it's been a busy year providing disaster relief services for a number of weather related events all across the country.  Many people accepted Christ through thier interaction with disaster relief volunteers.  This ministry's purpose is  "Serving Christ in Crisis" and meets the physical needs of disaster victims.  The Holy Spirit does the rest.

You can see more details about this awesome ministry at the Georgia Baptist Convention website.

After the main session, each ministry area (Cleanup and Recovery, Feeding, Childcare, Chaplaincy, Communications) held individual breakout sessions.  In the Communication Session we discussed our activities of this last year, activities for the coming year, the need to add more radio operators to the team, specific needs of our comm units, etc.  I gave a report of the fine work that our team in the Warner Robbins area did with Unit 5C over the last several months. 

After lunch everyone convened together again to give reports from the breakout sessions.  Felton gave our report and did a fine job.  After all of the unit reports, Stuart provided an overview of the Incident Command Structure (ICS) and how it matches up with our current command structure.  ICS provides a common system and language for all agencies involved in a relief effort.  Most of us that are part of ARES understand this system and have recieved training on it so nothing really new for most of the communications team.

We had a little bit of free time after the session so I walked around the grounds and marveled at the beautiful facility nestled in the Georgia Mountains.  There is a nice lake at the center and I took some pictures as I wandered around.  So quiet and peaceful.

Around 5:00 we all met in the rotunda for a volunteer appreciation dinner.  We had an awesome dinner and we got to hear a young lady from Alamo, GA sing a song that she wrote that will be the soundtrack for an upcoming video about the Disaster Relief Ministry.  After dinner we heard from our guest speaker, Charlie English, who is the Director for Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA).  He gave a very inspiring talk about GEMA and the relationship with the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Ministry.

After dinner I went back to the room and caught up on email and Facebook and did some reading.  Remember...no television.  So I listened to a local high school football game on the radio!  It was nice to slow down for a couple of days.

Up early on Saturday for breakfast and to checkout.  Since it was early I decided to look around Toccoa before heading back to Savannah.  What a great idea that was.  More about that in my next post.

I owe a special thanks to my church, Southside Baptist for thier support in this ministry.

Entrance to the Conference Center

My seat at the table, representing Communications Unit 5C

GEMA Director Charlie English

Successful 2011 ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET)

We had a very successful SET yesterday morning here in Chatham and surrounding counties.  Many of us gathered for breakfast ot 0700 like we normally do then afterward we went into exercise mode.  Following the statewide scenario, we practiced setting up a communications network without the benefit of most of our local repeaters and HF stations.  Kevin-KW4B took a crew and deployed to the top of the parking deck at Candler Hospital to rapidly put up an HF and VHF station including antennas.  Kevin and Jeff-KJ3FFD operated on the tailgates of thier truck and on generator power.  Kevin handled voice and Jeff handled digital.

Steve-K4SDJ took a crew and setup in one of the Chatham EMA EOCs using callsign N4CEM.  We have a nice station there and a great relationship with CEMA.

Ted-KJ4EGZ deployed to the Savannah Red Cross facility where we also have a nice station K3SRC.

I deployed to Memorial Medical Center and ran the K4MUM station that we have located there.  I was also equiped for D-Star operation.

Things went real well as we simulated primary and secondary ARES repeater failure.  We convened a local net on 146.550, established HF contact with the GA ARES Net and the GA Digital Net, established comm with the South Carolina ARES Net, the Beaufort County EOC, Liberty County EOC, and Bulloch County EOC.  We also practiced the use of tactical callsigns at the served agencies.

We also leveraged the local D-Star system in Pembroke but could not get it connected to the reflector for the statewide net.  I thought that the guys in Atlanta were going to make the connection.  Casey tried but no luck.  The repeater function did work properly and we used it to stay in touch with the Bulloch County team and with Russ-KJ4VIG in Evans County.

We also took the opportunity to move some traffic between the two hospitals on 2 meter simplex using NBEMS.  We sent traffic back and forth using ARRL Radiogram and ICS 213 formats.  What a great mode and we plan to use it alot more.

Of particular note was the fact that the Liberty County team and the Bulloch County team ran thier own exercises this year.  Great job to Casey-KF4BSC who is the EC for Bulloch and to the Hinesville Amateur Radio Emergency Society for doing a great job in thier respective counties!  Casey and his team manned the EOC, Red Cross, and East GA Regional Hospital.  HARES manned thier local EOC. 

We managed to achieve most of our objectives and should have a decent score on our SET Report. 

Thanks to everyone who participated this year.

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District

Getting some fuel for the exercise



Jeff-KJ3FFD operating his digital station at the Candler Parking Deck



Jeff-KJ3FFD tail gating



Kevin-KW4B AEC for Chatham County operating the hospital go kit at the Candler Parking Deck




The Candler Hospital Team at our designated command center



Memorial Medical Center station K4MUM

The very nice Memorial Medical Center station K4MUM

Chatham County EMA EOC station N4CEM

New WW2COS QSL Card

With all of the amateur radio special events that we have planned for the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" we thought we better get some QSL cards.  Jane at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum took care of it for us!  Thanks Jane!



Front of QSL card



Back of QSL card

Heart of Savannah 5K Communications Support

Had a great time this morning helping provide communications support with other members of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society for the "Heart of Savannah 5K" race coordinated by the Savannah YMCA.  We met for breakfast at the SunnySide Up this morning like we do every saturday except a little bit earlier.  We arrived downtown around 0730 to get in place along the race route.  Steve Jonas-K4SDJ setup as our Net Control Station at the Start/Finish line at Forsyth Park.  I walked the few short blocks east on Bull Street to my position at Madison Square. 

The 'kids race' started at about 0800 and then the 5k got underway shortly thereafter.  We had amateur radio operators at various places along the race route to report the position of the lead runner.  We also kept our eyes open to report any injuries and such in case EMS needed to be dispatched.  Happy to say that there were no injuries today.  The race is not very long and the last runner crossed the finish line around 0930.  Wish I had remembered to take more pictures.

Steve did a great job as net control and the newly revived 147.210 repeater on the Talmadge Bridge performed extremely well allowing great coverage for the route and enabling us to use lowest power settings on our handhelds to extend battery life.  Not that battery life was an issue for a two hour exercise but it's good practice.

Thanks to the following operators for volunteering thier time, talents, and equipment to help make our contribution to the race a success.  Great to have several "new" folks helping out this year!

Steve Jonas - K4SDJ
Guy McDonald - K4GTM
Mac McCormick - AF4KL
Irene McCormick - KF4RFF
Don Oberline - KK4AMD
Bob Hearn - N1HNR
Christine Hale - KK4ANA

Race route and operator positions

Where I was positioned for the race

Pledge of Allegiance

"On your mark, get set........"

Finish Line

"Eat more Chickin"

Add caption



One of the beautiful squares in Savannah



Radio Station WW2COS onboard the B-17 "City of Savannah"

Sept 17 Special Event Station WW2COS

The radio team from the Coastal Amateur Radio Society had a very successful special event today at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. The plan was to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the US Air Force becoming it’s own branch of the service by operating the amateur radio station onboard the B-17 "City of Savannah" and making contact with other radio operators across the country. We arrived at the museum around 0830 and connected our outdoor antenna and powered up the radio compartment. By 0930 we were communicating with other HAMs across the country. Throughout the day we had a total of 15 radio operators and 10 family members onsite. We managed to make over 70 contacts mostly in the southeast and up and down the east coast. Some states included GA, AL, FL, SC, NC, VA, KY, OH, TN. Everyone was very excited to learn about the B-17 restoration. The amateur radio station and the WWII Reciever perfomed extremely well today. We had a great time explaining the project to museum visitors as well. We also set up a live video feed from inside the compartment and streamed across the Internet to my blog site. This really added another dimension to the event!

It was great to have some family members come out today and walk thru the airplane.  I even managed to get my wife, Lorie to come see what I do when I'm out at the museum!

We also got some news coverage when a cameraman from WTOC showed up to document the event.
http://www.wtoc.com/story/15488383/us-air-force-celebrates-its-64th-birthday

We wrapped things up around 1700 and buttoned everything up, shut down aircraft power, disconnected battery charger, disconnected our antennas, closed the aft hatch and moved the stairs back.

We're planning to do this again on Nov. 11th and 12th to commemorate Veterans Day.

Paul-KI4MNR operating the WW2COS Radio Station

Some of the crew at the information table

More members of the radio team

Having fun talking about radio and airplanes

Philip-KA4KOE operating the station

Webcam providing the live streaming video feed



Good view of the external battery charging cart



Shane, Colby, Charles, Franklin (or is that Franklin, Charles?)



More activity near the information station

Looking from the radio compartment, thru the bomb bay, into the cockpit

Paul-KI4MNR and Guy-K4GTM

Guy-K4GTM at the radio operator station and Nicholas in the bomb bay

Our beloved B-17

Nicholas, son of Mark-KA4CID had a great time exploring the B-17



Sept 10, 2011 B-17 Radio Work

Got a chance to spend some time working in the B-17 this afternoon to finish up a few things in time for next weekends special event station that we'll be operating from the radio compartment.  I met Kevin-KW4B at the museum around noon.  We got a quick brief from Rocky and Jeff on the new external aircraft power switch that they installed behind an access panel in the left wing inboard leading edge.  This was a great idea as it gives us an external shut off switch to kill aircraft power if needed without the need to climb back up in the aircraft.  See picture below.  I showed Kevin where the 12v and 24v batteries and power switches are in the cockpit and walked him thru the aircraft power application procedure.

We were pleased to see that Jeff Hoopes had installed two station lights and a dome light in the radio compartment.  One station light is over the radio operators table and the other is over the Lianson transmitter.  Jeff put in a nice toggle switch panel on the bulkhead to control each light which are run on the 12vdc circuit.  Again, forgot to take a picture but will next time. 

One of the tasks today was to install and test the new LDG KT-100 external antenna tuner.  As you'll see in the picture, we mounted this right on the Kenwood TS480 transceiver under the radio operators table.  This tuner will allow us to better match the radio to the external HF antenna on all of the amateur radio bands.  The Kenwood TS-480 internal tuner wasn't quite getting it done on a couple of the bands.  This KT-100 is designed to work with the TS-480 using the included control cable so that you don't have to physically press the tune button on the tuner.  You simply press the tune on the TS-480 and it tells the LDG to tune automatically.  Worked great the first time and we were able to tune beautifully on all bands (except 160 of course).  We even went ahead and made a few contacts and everything worked fine. 

The other task today was to install and test the low power FM transmitter that will be used to carry the receiver audio out of the aircraft to be heard on any FM broadcast radio in the museum.  Simply plug the headset jack on the BC-348 into the audio jack on the FM transmitter and away we go.  This allows visitors to the museum to hear us operating the radio station without going in the aircraft.  This little transmitter puts out 500mw (that's half a watt) and can be heard across the entire museum and in the front parking lot.  Pretty good in a metal building with a half watt.  This idea was the brainchild of Carroll-WX4Y and it worked well when we had our first official broadcast from the compartment back in July.  We also experimented with inserting the Kenwood audio into the other audio jack on the FM transmitter so that you can here either radio that is selected.  That was Kevin's idea and it worked great.

Once we were happy that we had accomplished our objectives for the day, we cleaned everything up, powered down the station, turned off the 12vdc and 24vdc switches in the cockpit, turned off the external power switch then disconnected the external battery charger.  Once the aircraft was buttoned up we disconnected our external HF antenna at the junction box and called it a day.  A very productive day.

We are looking forward to next Saturday, Sept 17th when we'll be operating the station all day long to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force.  This will be the longest period of time so far that we'll operate the station (old gear and new) so we're anxious to see how everything performs.

Guy, K4GTM



Newly installed LDG Antenna Tuner and Low Power FM Transmitter under the Radio Operators Table

External aircraft power shut off switch

External battery charging system using the original external power generator connector



Hallicrafters S-53A Restoration



Hallicrafters S-53A Receiver

 Like I don't have enough projects at the moment.......I picked up a Hallicrafters S-53A Receiver from my good friend Tom Hoover and I've decided I'll go ahead and see if I can do a basic restoration on it.  This model was manufactured between 1951 and 1957.  I haven't searched by serial number to see if I can determine exactly which year yet.  Of course it was built in Chicago at Hallicrafters.  The retail price on these in 1951 was $89.50.

The radio is in pretty good shape considering it's age.  It's missing the band selector knob and the Standby/Receive toggle switch.  The toggle switch should be easy.  I'll have to find the band selector knob somewhere.  Hopefully original but will use a suitable substitute if necessary.  It has all eight tubes (one is broken) and they appear to be original as they have Hallicrafter printed on them.  Wow.  That makes them about 60 years old.  If they had been replaced some where along the way they would likely be RCA, Sylvania, etc.  I'll probably end up replacing some or all of the capacitors based on what I see when I open the bottom section.  The paper caps will certainly need to be replaced.  The case will need some cleaning on the inside and out but is in good condition.  They built stuff to last back then.

I was excited about the original tubes but was sure that they would be bad after all these years.  My plan was to borrow a tube tester from Carroll Baker, WX4Y.  The same one we use to test the tubes in the radios of the B-17 that we are restoring.  However, Ralph,W4REQ heard me talking about it and offered to lend me a Heathkit Tube Tester that he got from the estate of David Rosenthal, WD4FIH(SK).  Another HAM in town, Mark, KK4AMC was also in need of the tester and he went by picked it up from Ralph and decided to actually buy it.  So I borrowed it from Mark on Saturday and finally got the chance to test the tubes on Saturday night. 

I'm fairly familiar with tube testers from my time in the Air Force but I took a look at the intructions anyway and in a few minutes I was testing tubes.  I was pleasantly supprised to find all seven of the tubes working and passing all the tests!  I still need to replace the one broken tube and there seems to be an abundant supply of 5Y3GT rectifier tubes available via ebay.  My friend Jere, KT4ZB is going to check his old supply of tubes to see if he might have one for me. 

Six Bands



View of the back of the unit



Serial Number

Original paper lable

View looking down into the unit

Different angle

View of the hinged top cover

Hallicrafters 6K6GT Tube

In the Heathkit Tube Tester