For Book: Shortwave Radio Questions

[ncbill]

Okay, so it doesn't in fact bypass the breakers except for any circuit that it's plugged into. I'm guessing that plugging into a 110 outlet will only power some of the circuits in the house?

Through trial and error, he'll end up with a generator like this:

Which can output up to 15 kW.

IIRC the 120VAC legs are split at the panel, so plugging a suicide cord into a 120VAC outlet will only power half of the 120VAC circuits on the panel.

Better to simply connect the generator's 240VAC outlet to a dryer outlet (30A max, IIRC) to run all the household circuits.

After he flips the main breaker off or pulls the meter.

Best is to improve the above by getting a transfer switch at a local electrical supply/hardware store and installing it themselves (they do come with instructions).

 

[TromboneAl]

Okay, call me dense but who is he buying this from?[emoji15]

Everyone is dead, so he just breaks into the store and takes what he wants. I shouldn't have used the word "buy."

 

[ls99]

All you need to do is pull/switch the main breaker in the box. I just looked at mine, it has a ganged flip switch. That isolates you from trying to power the neighborhood. Easy-peasy.

There's really no danger of burning down the house with a suicide cord. If the cord is sized for the generator, or the breaker on the circuit (which it almost 100% would be), the breaker still protects everything. You would not be able to draw more total than what that circuit handles.

The suicide cord gets its name from having the exposed male plugs on both ends, so when powered you can easily kill yourself by grabbing the exposed metal plug. But in reality, if you aware of the danger, you become super-careful, and the odds of hurting yourself are about nil. Just like you wouldn't juggle with a vial of nitro-glycerin. Or run with scissors.

-ERD50

Agreed.

My comment for pulling the meter, was for the scenario where the power feed from the utility would be cut. Thus with a large generator capable of 220 VAC powering the whole house. No need to flip any breakers.

 

[WestUniversity]

Everyone is dead, so he just breaks into the store and takes what he wants. I shouldn't have used the word "buy."

I figured I missed something...[emoji3]

 

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by TromboneAl View Post
Everyone is dead,

I figured I missed something...[emoji3]

Wait a minute. If everyone is dead, how does his story get out? Who is around to read it?

What did I miss?

-ERD50

 

[TromboneAl]

Wait a minute. If everyone is dead, how does his story get out? Who is around to read it?

What did I miss?

-ERD50

Maybe it will turn out that not everybody is dead.

In fact, I don't want to go more than 20% through the book without having people for him to have conflict with. First up will be Ryan Greenleaf, who is super handsome and dumb as a rock. Anyone recognize Alex?

 

[CTRetiree]

Have him find an Icom IC-7300 radio. It's about the most popular HF (short wave) radio selling right now. In 12 years, there will be thousands of them.

It puts out 100 watts, which at the right time of day on the right frequency will go easily from east coast usa to west coast or europe using voice (SSB - single sideband). Trans equatorial, even farther. The radio runs on 12V, so all your guy has to do is find a car battery and a solar roof panel. There will be zillions of them.

His issue will be learning how to connect an antenna. Best idea would be to just take over the hams house. Then the problem is figuring out how the ham connected everything. i.e. What antenna do I use on what band?

Take this idea and run with it. Get a couple of local hams as advisers to make your technical details believable and you are good to go. If there are hundreds of survivors worldwide, then "nets" will crop up and meet each day on a particular frequency and time. The locals can help you make those details believable too.

73,
Tom - N1MM

P.S. I can't be your adviser. You can google my callsign to see what keeps me too busy to help.

 

[Doc0]

Radios today are quite complex and menu driven often with menus several layers deep so getting it to work is harder than just turning it on and pushing the mic button. More like programming a satellite dish on steroids Far from something you can randomly figure out by the seat of your pants. Transmitting antennas are resonant on specific frequency and not generalized. You can receive across a wide bandwidth but if you try to transmit into a non resonant antenna the transmitter will shut down. The more power you run the more power supply you need but the power is typically 12v so you might be able to crack open a old uninterruptible power supply and siphon off 12 v or find a car battery but make sure the polarity is right. You will need some kind of recharging device for the battery. More power means farther communication is possible but if you're good even a few watts can be made to work. A solar cell can provide a few watts Morse code is better as far as "reach". In hurricane Francis my power went down but I had charged batteries and my antenna stayed up so I spent the night in the dark talking to people all over the world using morse code while I waited for the storm to pass. Definitely some assembly required unless you know what you're doing or call the professor and see if he can make 2 coconuts and a banana work.

 

[Global Wizzo]

Most of the ham radios come with a short quick start guide and the full manual Yaesu and others have the complete documentatiion on line. So, finding a radio in a box with minimal instructions.

He will need to figure out how to make an antenna work. Have him find an old ARRL Antenna handbook and a few issues of the Amateur Radio Handbook. The last one is published annually. Some on a shelf in the back of an old junk shop. All these radios work on 13.8 volts DC. Batteries, solar panels, etc. Handheld VHF/UHF are the exception.

I’d like to read it when you are done.

 

[rick55]

In the year 2031, a man will find himself alone on a well-equipped ocean-going sailboat. He has no experience with radios.

Q 1: Will he be able to figure out how to use the radio to call for help (there's no manual)?

Q 2: Back on land, if he went into a deserted radio store (everyone else is dead), would he be able to buy and figure out how to use a shortwave radio (again, no manual, because in 2031 all manuals are online, and the internet is down)?

Geez, if everyone else is dead, who will he talk to?

 

[sfbrown]

Why don't you visit a yacht club and ask one of the members to help you. You can't just go out and yammer on any old channel. Some are designated for military use, while others (like ch. 16) are every day use.

 

[TromboneAl]

I want to get a feeling for how it would sound to be searching for shortwave signals. I considered buying a cheap receiver, then I realized that I can do that online with a website like this:

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

No idea what I'm doing, same as the main character.

 

[ERD50]

I want to get a feeling for how it would sound to be searching for shortwave signals. I considered buying a cheap receiver, then I realized that I can do that online with a website like this:

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

No idea what I'm doing, same as the main character.

But if he stumbles on a ham setup, the ham will likely have some log books, and frequencies that he monitors. I don't know if a novice could make sense of those though. Might be shorthand notes?

-ERD50

 

[ls99]

Amateur radio bands are allocated and Hams are allowed transmit within those bands. Receivers are often general coverage. Thus hearing morse code may not be amateurs transmitting.


The sad part is that at one time there was a marine distress and guard frequency 2182 KHZ well known to mariners, which was monitored by commercial ship's Radio Officers. And Coast Guard. All of which was mostly done away with in favor of digital and satellite communications.



On VHF 121.5 MHZ is aviation distress frequency.

 

[TromboneAl]

It's interesting using that online shortwave radio in the Netherlands. Lots of tones and beeps and interesting sounds, and it reminds me of listening to the shortwave as a kid.

I found some CW (Morse), transcribed it, and it was gibberish.

My assumption is that if almost no one is broadcasting and there are no electronics things running, it will all be just white noise. Right?

 

[CTRetiree]

You'll need a reason why there is no power. EMP? Everyone dead? But yeah, with no commercial power, backup power would eventually run out. All you would hear is white noise and lightning static crashes. You'll want the hero to tune 7 mHz to about 14.5 mHz. Any activity would likely be concentrated in ham bands at 7, 10 and 14 mHz for long distance communication depending on the time of day. They will be concentrated there because that is where the ham bands are for DX (distance) and the equipment will all cover those bands. In general, ham radio equipment does not cover outside of amateur bands, although no one will enforce regulations limiting that in your novel.

For your research, use that radio on 14 - 14.07 for CW (continuous wave via morse code) during the daylight hours AT THAT RADIO. Try 7-7.07 for nighttime.

For USB (upper sideband, single sideband aka voice) tune 14.1 to 14.350 daytime and 7.1 to 7.3 nighttime.

73,
Tom - N1MM

 

[nphx]

After an EMP he stumbles upon a wwii museum (or my garage) and finds ARC-5 vacuum tube radio sets with dynomotors and figures out how to power those mechanically?