So it got me to womdering, with the tornado that blew through the town, how much damage was done to the public service radios system and how much of a role did amateur radio play in this disaster.
Coming from Pennsylvania - there is not many disasters here, so the people here do not understand what a real emergency looks like or even take seriously the role that even the Sky Warn Program plays in a event like this.

IN a true disaster - everything would have been blown away, even the firehouse, the police station, the ambulance service.  Everything would have had to have been called in from another town.

from the pictures I saw, I would guess that all of the utilities are buried underground - phone lines, electric lines, cable service etc...

The Sad truth is - I haven't found anything on the internet saying anything about amateur radio playing a part in the recovery or the disaster.  Probably there is not a lot of amateur radio activity there, and the people were mostly young people and not interested in emergency communications - every man for himself.

http://www.infowars.com/91-dead-as-mile-wide-tornado-flattens-oklahoma-city-suburbs/

With Global Warming - this type of storm is only going to get worse before it gets better...

Airplanes used a trailing wire antenna.

You could basically put a parachute on the end of about 240' of wire and drive down the road or hang it up in a tree.  But it wouldn't be real practical.

There was some articles in QST magazine a while back of someone who took some PVC pipe and coiled some wire and put it inside of the pipe and put an Aerial on top.

The hard part isn't going to be building the antenna, but bonding all the individual car parts together to make the body of the vehicle capacitive.
10 / 11 meters it is not hard to do if you drove a Chevrolet Suburban, but with these new plastic fantastic vehicles - there just isn't enough steel in them anymore to make up the missing portion of a dipole antenna - to act like a ground plane, what ever you want to call it.

People doesn't understand the physical relationship between RF ground and physical ground and electrical ground.
RF likes lot's of ground, hence a 1 inch or wider braid strap ran from each individual piece of tin work to the frame and engine and transmission and exhaust and transmission and axles and doors and hood and what ever - costs a lot of money.

I see these porch monkeys that takes a piece of 12 gauge copper wire and runs it here or there and thinks that they have accomplished something.  It don't work like that.

I guess the bottom line is - there is nothing CHEAP about amatuer radio - if you want it to work and to sound good.

Are you a member of the ARRL?

Search tbe back issues of QST Magazine.....

Do you own a ARRL Antenna Book?

BUY ONE!

Do you own a antenna analizer?

Its hard to build a resonant antenna without one....

Please see the file below for this weeks news from the RSGB.

not real sure if this should be or under homebrew, but i am trying to find/build an 75 meter mobile antenna, that works for hams on a budget . i would like to have multiband capabilities, but as long as i have 75 meter to check into our net while i am out in the woods, or just driving down the highway. any thoughts or suggestions?

John
W7GJW

Found this great free add on for DM780 and HRD logbook by W4ELP, this tool enables free call sign lookups from HamQTH and QRZ web sites for use in the HRD ALE and DM780. I've been using it for a few weeks, also can add you wx data into the macros have a look here http://k7pt.com/w4elptools.html

My 817 is still kicking fine.

I haven't been on the air in about a month, but will try to get some radio time tomorrow. My last contact was Lithuania on 17 meters SSB. Not bad for 5 watts.

I have a Radio Shack DSP-40 unit, which really helps with the noise.

I had been saving for a used 100 watt rig, but that's on hold now, as I have some major car issues.

Ron
KD8AFH

I guess I'm kind of "old school" in that I when I'm on the bike I don't want any radio, no music,no phone or any of that. It's about getting away from all that! I do keep a HT and roll-up J-pole in the saddlebags for the down time though.

Great video, and the music was a nice touch. 

Ron,

How are ya liking the FT-817?  I'm looking at switching over to one sometime in the late summer or early Fall.  Right now I've got a backpack portable rig built around the FT-8900R.  It's a good radio and I do like it a lot.  It does 70cm / 2m / 6m / 10m; but not as SSB.  That's my only gripe with it. 

Looking back on it now, I'm wishing I would have went with the FT-817ND instead.

73!

Richard
KF5RHI

I've recently added a Yeasu FT-7 to my collection of amateur gear.
It's from the mid 70s and operates 80-10 with about 10 watts out.
I have been amazed at the contacts I've made using it in the shack
feeding my G5RV antenna. My first contact was with Spain, I've since
worked stations all over central Europe and into South America.
And getting 5-9 reports almost every time.
Before this I've been using my barefoot IC-706 putting out 100 watts
and was amazed at the contacts with it, now only 10 watts.
What the heck does everyone need with the big kilowatt amps?
I believe the ham radio world would be much better off if the outlawed
anything over 1oo watts. If no one more than 100 watts, no one would
need more that 100 watts.
Just my .02 worth.

73, W4RON