Hams on Dominica Conduct “Preparedness” Field Day in Advance of Hurricane Season
Members of the Dominica Amateur Radio Club Incorporated (DARCI) held a second field-day-style emergency preparedness, awareness, and recruiting exercise on April 21...
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Members of the Dominica Amateur Radio Club Incorporated (DARCI) held a second field-day-style emergency preparedness, awareness, and recruiting exercise on April 21...
Amateur radio operators are much more than hobbyists; they provide extremely important communications, especially during and after emergencies.
Dominica - Caribbean IslandHere at BridgeCom we received a call from Franz, J69DS, on the island of Dominica. They had just endured a category 5 Hurricane and the aftermath was terrible. He was happy to report that the BridgeCom BCR...
Reviewed by Rick Palm, K1CE
QST Contributing Editor
k1ce@arrl.org
Using BridgeCom Systems’ new 222 MHz (1.25 meter band) mobile radio was a walk down memory lane for me. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, I was part of a small, quirky but devoted group who ragchewed on two 220 MHz repeaters in northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts. One machine was on Talcott Mountain overlooking Hartford, and was run by the son of a major city developer. The other was owned/ controlled by my longtime friend, Paul Koplow, WA1VEI, on Mt Lincoln in the Berkshires. Our radios back then were quirky, too: mine was a Midland (crystalcontrolled, no PLL) that looked like a battered, old CB radio from a trucker’s cab — the kind you might find today in a pawn shop. Later I had a Yaesu Memorizer for the band, which was a great radio. We rolled our eyes and suffered one user who used the autopatch to talk with his wife on his commute home every evening with over-the-top kissing and cooing sounds. Off-air and even on-the-air counseling sailed over his head.
Nowadays, the 222 – 225 MHz band is still a great spot for repeaters and their disciples. I had a lot of fun getting back on this band thanks to the BridgeCom BCM-220. Continuing with the nostalgic theme here, the company, which is based in Smithville, Missouri, evokes the feel and quality of those old radios in their new products, especially this one. The BCM-220 is built like a tank, with commercial-grade construction, and a high-quality, heavy-duty mic that eschews the numerous functions/ buttons that populate some mics. The BCM-220’s mic has a simple DTMF keypad and only three function buttons below it: the first to switch between memory and VFO modes, and the second and third buttons for frequency or channel up and down. That’s it — and I love it! It’s heavy and feels good in my mic hand. Indeed, all of the radio’s functionality seems to be focused on the essentials, and that’s a plus in my book.
Reviewed by Rick Palm, K1CE k1ce@arrl.net
The BCH-220 handheld 222 MHz (1.25 centimeters) FM transceiver is a product of BridgeCom Systems, a company many readers may not have heard of. Based in Smithville, Missouri, the company was established in 2004, and according to its website, develops and sells communications equipment for the land mobile radio, Amateur Radio, commercial radio, and remote monitoring markets. Its first product was a VHF/UHF FM repeater.
By Gayle Page – Staff Writer for The Standard Banner Jim Snyder, VP of Knoxville’s chapter of American Radio Relay League (ARRL), was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting. Snyder’s presentation stressed the importance of Amateur...
Here are some thoughts and pictures from our visit to Ham-Com 2015 in Irving, TX.
Ron and I left the Kansas City, MO area on Thursday morning and it was 80+ degrees. When we got to TX it was 90+ degrees, so summer is officially here.
Driving from MO to TX without the radio on leaves for a lot of random conversation, good, but random. Ron and I discussed our thoughts and expectations for Ham-Com. We expected to have a good booth location, plenty of foot traffic, and generate a positive buzz surrounding BridgeCom Systems and our products. We packed with us three repeaters (BCR-50V, BCR-220, BCR-40U), the new BCM-220 mobile, and our MV-DMR server in a 2U chassis, plus the assorted banners and spec sheets.
We arrived in TX about 3:30p Thursday and went straight to the Irving Convention Center to unload and set up. The people of TX are very nice, lots of yes sir, no sir. We got set up pretty quickly, we like to keep the booth small with just a few products and brochures. I'm not a fan of the table across the entire front of the booth, but it seemed to work well this time giving us some shelter from the masses. However, I should have put the banners out front on the corners where people could have seen them better.
ROIP Radio over Internet Protocol (RoIP) is a two-way communication method which involves trans-reception of radio communication signals over internet protocol (IP). Cost effective and power efficient, RoIP essentially leverages the same communication principles as that of VoIP but requires...