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Good evening everyone, it's National Burrito
Day and it's HamTalk Live. It's episode number
159. MCOM 1 recorded live on Thursday, April
4th, 2019. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9 VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight we're joined by Emmett ONC W0QH
and we will take your calls live in just a few
minutes. Last week Corey Shields KB9JHU was here
to talk about the new SatNogs dashboard and if
you missed that show you can listen anytime at
HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube. You can also catch us on the
rebroadcast on WTWW. That's 5085 a .m. Saturday
evenings at or about 630 p .m. Eastern Time.
So we're going to talk a little Mcom tonight
and about Mcom 1. So get those questions ready
to go if you're listening to us tonight live.
which is Thursday night. You can give us a call
after the interview. And again, the temporary
phone number we're using right now is 812 -650
-9556. We'll give that out again here in a minute.
So you can write that down and have it ready
to go when we get to the call -in segment of
the show later on this evening. But again, we're
using the temporary number again tonight. But
if you're listening to us live on Thursday night,
you can give us a call or you can tweet us on
Twitter. Just look for HamTalk Live and put HamTalk
Live in the... message and we'll get that and
check those. And again, the phone number 812
-650 -9556 is the number you can use to call
when we get to that part of the show. So I'll
be back with Emmett and we'll talk a little bit
first right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you
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I like the company so much that I bought it.
TOWER ELECTRONICS, coming to a hand -fest near
you, or online at pl -259 .com. And we're in
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My, wherever did you get that lovely PL259? Tower
Electronics, pl -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973.
Do we sell PL259 connectors? A flashlight is
a case for holding dead batteries. Now, here's
Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Thanks as always
to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight. They'll be at Belton, Texas
this weekend, April 6th. And then on April 13th,
they'll be in Mobile, Alabama and Staunton, Wisconsin.
Or you can visit them anytime at all. It's PL
-259 .com. Well, our friend Emmett is back with
us, W0QH. He's the chief engineer at Radio Waves.
In the St. Louis, Missouri metro area, he designs
and builds custom antennas for both amateur and
commercial radio use. He's been on several ham
radio podcasts teaching about antennas and he's
here tonight as the custodian of MCOM -1, an
interoperable communications van sponsored by
ICOM America. And full disclosure, ICOM is a
sponsor of the show. Emmett's company, Radio
Waves, is also a proud co -sponsor of the amateur
radio news line, Young Ham of the Year Award.
And you can visit Radio Waves online at radiowaveswithz
.com. So Emmett, welcome back. And we're glad
to hear Rochelle's on the mend. Yes. Thank you,
Neil. And it's good to be back again and good
to hear your dulcet tones over the radio. Yeah,
Rochelle is definitely coming back, which is
good. Many people didn't know this, but she recently
underwent a quadruple bypass several months ago.
Not a hundred percent yet, as far as being able
to go out to all the shows. So she's not going
to be able to do Dayton this year. She has done
a couple, uh, smaller venues with me. Um, just,
uh, I guess gear up and, and exercise herself,
but she's doing better every day. And that's,
that's an encouraging thing. Well, we're, we're
very thankful to hear that and wish her a good
and speedy recovery and hope to see her back.
Uh, at Dayton and some of these bigger places
before too long. Well, you've had MCOM 1 for
a while now and you've been out on tour with
it. So some of our listeners may have seen it
actually at a ham fest or two. So let's just
talk a little bit about exactly what it is and
why it's been put together this way. Well, MCOM
1 was originally the idea of Mike Lee down in
Florida Where he's he designed? Well, he designed
the the basic concept and then of course I got
a little bit involved over time but Mcom1 is
an emergency communications vehicle that's equipped
with state -of -the -art ICOM communications
equipment. It's a mobile communications van that
includes ICOM interoperability products that
enables communication between a myriad of radios.
That's anything from Yesu, Kenwood, Motorola,
Harris, which we have all on board. The idea
is that we are not, the van itself is not designed
to have a whole bunch of operators in there,
but what we're able to do is create a platform
that Let's say the local police department can
talk to the state highway patrol that can talk
to FEMA, that can talk to the Coast Guard, that
can talk to all these different agencies or people
that might be involved in a disaster, all on
one platform. They don't have to change their
equipment. We're able to, let's say based on
what they allow us to do with them, use one of
the channels on their radio and we can tie those
individual frequencies and channels together
to create let's just say a great big switchboard
and we're able to you know the sheriff can talk
to the highway patrol on channel three on his
radio and the highway patrol can talk to the
sheriff on whatever frequency we you know we
deem is appropriate for for the highway patrol
and then of course if the coast guard is out
there let's say doing river patrol or along the
the lake or along the the oceans, it depends
on where we are, we can communicate with them
as well, and then they can also communicate with
air assets and so on. So what it does is it creates
this really good, flexible platform for multiple
agencies to communicate when they need to. And
then, of course, if there's another emergency
where we just don't have a lot of communications,
MCOM1's capable of filling in in that role as
well. But of course, You know, we don't have
a lot of operators in the van. We can remote
all the operators, let's say into a classroom
or into a tent or wherever, and not have to mess
with, uh, you know, bringing in the RV and all
the other stuff. So you've got all the equipment
on board and you can just, you know, come in
on one band and go out on a different band and,
and mode so that you can get all these different
agencies talking to each other. Yes, as a matter
of fact, the whole idea is that we're a portable
platform that allows, let's say we have an event
or an emergency or something. For instance, one
of the best examples is Hurricane Matthew back
in November 2016, where MCOM -1 was used for
emergency communications for, let's say, the
Department of Natural Resources, the State Highway
Patrol, the local sheriff. and let's say the
emergency services like fire and ambulance and
so on. And what basically happens is, is we're
able to take let's say your 800 megahertz trunk
system and tie into that. So, that way the sheriff
can communicate with other, let's say, the local
police department or whatever. Now, this doesn't
happen really quick. When I say really quick,
it's within minutes, providing that we have the
clearances and all that from the agency that
needs our assistance. we're able to get into
that area, set up and create that platform to
allow all these different agencies to work with
each other. We're also able to set up in that
van, which is kind of neat, we've got a P25 two
meter, effectively a VHF or two meter type P25
repeater system on there that we can crank up
on top of a 30 foot tower that's attached to
the back of the van. We also generally roll with
several 440 type repeaters in a closet full of
cans so that we can change out based on the client's
needs at that time. So we can either set up a
440 amateur repeater. We can also set up a P25
440 repeater system for the local sheriff department
based on whatever the frequencies are so we could
actually Replace one of their repeater systems
or extend their their their their ability to
talk at a you know farther distance And in some
of these interoperable systems that are permanent
You know It's that whole as we like to say in
ham radio when all else fails you know One of
the towers goes down and now all of a sudden
that interoperable system that they've relied
on all the time doesn't work anymore. And so
now you're pulling out the old analog stuff and
there's no repeaters. There's nothing there.
And so, so you can come in and set up something
temporarily until things get back in order. Well,
the, the van itself is set up the way we design
it. We've got crews of three. Initially, we roll
with a crew of three and then a three -person
relief crew so we can cycle ourselves through.
There's generally only one person awake at any
given time or basically on duty at any given
time, but we do overlap. In other words, we cover
24 hours if needed and we got three people that
we basically rotate our schedules to make that
happen. I'm trying to remember where I was going
with this discussion. What happens is we have
the ability, which it's already been exercised
a couple of times, where the MCOM -1 is on a
Mercedes frame. It's a diesel. We're capable
of being transported by either C -130 or C -5A,
which it's happened before. We have a 20 kilowatt
generator that we can typically tow along with
us. And if you go to Dayton, you'll see it there.
And we have enough fuel online to where we can
run at least anywhere between three to seven
days unsupported, meaning we don't need other
people coming in and giving us food and fuel
and all that. We can basically be the tip of
the spear, which at times that's what a lot of
people need. Then it gives them the time they
need to get their big resources, like the big
communications vans and all that. And quite often
we find that the van itself needs to stay because
we do we have that ability to go, let's say,
from a Harris radio system to, let's say, a Harris
EDACs to a Motorola P25 or whatever. And then
we can also talk to the National Guard on another,
on an HF radio that is encrypted and so on and
so forth. And then also we've got search and
rescue people out there that are all running
with their FRSs. And we have that ability to
be able to communicate with all of them. We have
the ability to give, let's say, the incident
commander one radio. It looks like a little HT,
like ID 51. That's what it looks like. But it's
an IP -based radio. And based on what his requirements
are, we can configure his HT. to be able to either
communicate with all the radios, some of the
radios, or whatever. In other words, he'll be
able to select what channel he wants to talk
on so he can control, or even monitor. Let's
say he needs to find out what's going on in the
air so he can switch over to the air channel
and he can listen to whatever air traffic is
going on in the area. And the same thing, we
are also a Class B base station. Marine base
station in that vehicle as well So, you know,
we're there to help out the Coast Guard and other
marine based operations depends on where we are
Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about deployment
What is the plan for deployment? Do you have
to be you know called and invited in? How do
you? You know, if there's an emergency in California
and you're in Missouri, you know, how does that
all work? It depends on how bad they need us
typically we get invited in and then of course
we You know, how do I say this? What will happen
is we get a call we come to an agreement as to
who covers insurance and everything else There
are two ways that we can get to from point A
to point B. Number one Is to drive there and
of course the the agents who will have to cover
those expenses And quite often what it will happen
is to say we need this and if we can do that
Well, what we'll do is we'll you know, provide
them the technology and the ability to do it
the other way of getting out there is By plane
and so what we'll do is we basically go to let's
say Scott Air Force Base or wherever they've
got the C 130 coming in or whatever the other
other aircraft is and basically we've already
got a load list so the the load master has a
better yeah the load master knows exactly what
our weights are um you know you know what we
have on board everything so that way you know
the air force is happy when they or the national
guard is happy when they when they fly us out
And then of course we go there go to the location,
you know drive off we can use JP6 fuel if we
had to or we can load up on diesel and We also
have plenty of Extra fuel cans so that we can
have that seven -day durability What will happen
is is we get the phone call? Basically the the
three people that go are here in st. Louis with
me right now. We've got one person in Texas that
In a pinch he can come out and then we got a
person in in Wyoming That is available too as
one of the alternates and Basically, we'll do
the alert and typically we can be rolling within
an hour or so Except if we're let's say getting
ready for a show and we've got things stripped
out It just means we've got to reload the the
van out with something different In other words,
whatever is needed for the specific mission that
we're going to be going out on Okay now I'm a
little curious too, how do they know to call
you? Is there some kind of agreement with Homeland
Security where they know that this is an option?
Yes, there are several agencies throughout the
country know how to get in touch with us. Municipalities
know how to get in touch with us that we've worked
with before, so it's just a matter of them contacting
us. For instance, Flagler County knows that we're
available for them if they need us for whatever
reason. We still have a good working relationship
with them. Several municipalities in Texas know
how to get in touch with us if they needed us
directly. So yeah, they know how to get a hold
of us when they need us. If they need to include
us in their plan or that they needed us to come
out and play during a, uh, an exercise, we'll
be more than happy to do that. It's just a matter
of them contacting us. We coming up with, excuse
me, a real quick MOU, which is, it's, it's just
a real simple, um, uh, it's some pretty simple
paperwork to do depending on the, the, the place
that we're going. Now this is. pretty unique
are there any others that that do this and you
know there's a lot of these communications vehicles
out there but it's just you know an hf radio
vhf radio uhf radio and you know you may have
a few of the other radios for local use thrown
in there but you know this is you know like you
said a switchboard it's allowing all these different
things to to talk to one another. So is this
a one -of -a -kind thing? Well, it is unique,
and I haven't really run into other the military.
The Army does have a vehicle that's similar to
this, but it's generally not deployed in civilian
in a civilian world. But yeah, there aren't a
whole lot of municipalities that that go into
this concept. I don't think there a lot of them
are 100 percent. How do I say it? They're not
really 100 % aware of what can happen for them.
It's not necessarily our services to them, but
also we provide a service of helping them determine
what would probably be best for them. In other
words, instead of a $5 million budget, you're
looking at about a $1 .2 million budget to a
$450 ,000 budget. That's significant. Compared
to you know some of these big, you know payment,
you know, these these great big huge, you know
$250 ,000 RVs that have been converted for as
a mobile command post and so you're looking at
about two to three million dollars versus, you
know 500 1 .2 million so it's it's a significant
savings and also You can be on the road quick
a lot quicker with this vehicle than you could
with a lot of these other systems that would
require loadouts, everything else that would
be involved in getting these bigger systems out
and about. Plus, we don't need, how do I say
it, we don't have the day rooms or the meeting
rooms and so on. That's something that you can
set up on your own. So it kind of makes it nice
because you could easily set up in a school where
an event is happening or you can set up in one
of the mobile tents that the Army has or the
National Guard has available to more portable
shelters. This makes for some really unique flexibility
and gives you the ability to go out and do things.
that most people probably wouldn't have even
thought having the platform that we have and
having the versatility that we have and having
the radios and the technology on board which
is a new technology the idea of being able to
you know hook up just about anybody's radio to
the are the key to the key to this is the icon
vpg three. And by the way, they're coming out
of VEPG4 soon too. And what this is, is that's
the interface that allows us to connect the radio,
the controls for like changing channels, the
microphone, the speaker and so on. And what that
does is it converts it to an IP address, which
is then handled through a gateway, which allows
us to route. that radio or a series of radios
to, let's say, a specific IP -based phone or
a computer terminal or whatever. That makes it
nice because then all I have to do is carry along
10, let's say, 10 IP -based phones. We can remote
all these radios and basic communications to
a more convenient location, and it doesn't cost
the agency or whoever an arm and a leg to get
these other machines out. Wow, that's some pretty
powerful stuff. I'm really intrigued by the possibilities
here on this. Maybe some people out there listening
have some questions to ask about this. We're
going to take a break and when we come back,
we're going to take your phone calls at 812 -650
-9556 or you can tweet us. It's at HamTalk Live
on Twitter. So we'll check that out and I'll
be back with Emmet right after this word from
Icom America right here on HamTalk Live. Create
your own band opening. Icom's newest SDR transceiver,
the IC9700 is coming soon. This radio is bringing
direct sampling to the UHF -VHF weak signal world.
The IC9700 all -mode transceiver is loaded with
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max power on 2 meters, 75 watts max on 70 centimeters,
and 10 watts max on 1 .2 gigahertz. Pack your
bags because the Dayton Hamvention is coming
up. From May 17th to 19th at the Green County
Fairgrounds and Expo Center, you can see the
latest and greatest ICOM gear and meat hams from
all over the world. Visit www .icomamerica .com
slash amateur for more information on ICOM radios.
Nominations are now open for the amateur radio
news line, Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF Young Ham of
the Year Award. I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. Since
1986, we've had the honor of celebrating the
accomplishments of Youth and Ham radio when we
want to know about your exceptional Young Ham.
You'll find the rules and a nominating form by
clicking the Y -H -O -T -Y tab on ARNewsline
.org. Fill it out, send it in, and we'll see
you and an amazing Young Ham at the Huntsville
Alabama Ham Fest in August. Thanks, and 73. from
Amateur Radio Newsline. HamTalk Live's on the
air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time
right here at HamTalkLive .com. Be sure to check
us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And
thanks to ICOM for their support of the show.
And look forward to seeing them over at the Hamvention
coming up soon. So it's getting to be about that
time. Now it's time for your calls. So if you
have a question for Emmet, give us a call. It's
812. six five zero nine five five six again eight
one two six five zero nine five five six or you
can tweet us it's at ham talk live on twitter
if you're on speaker you can type in the chat
thing there too we can look at the comments there
uh... but you have to have an account and all
that stuff so uh... easiest thing to do is give
us a call at eight one two six five zero nine
five five six So we're back with Emmett here,
and let's talk a little bit about what's going
on with the van when it's not deployed. Obviously,
like ham radio, it's not a 24 -7 emergency. And
so we've got all these other things going on
when it's not an emergency. So what's going on
with the van when it's not an emergency? Well,
typically we go to hamfests. We do like to go
every time, for instance, like Orlando, Dayton,
Hamcom, down in Dallas, Huntsville, and so on,
to basically show off its capabilities and also
set it up as an event station in a couple places,
basically to show its capabilities and also to
Pull in some younger hams, which I really we
really enjoy doing is pulling them into the you
know To the emcom side because it gives them
something to look at We also are constantly updating
changing programming Incom one to adjust best
for the newer, you know, whatever the new protocols
are the new equipment We partner with Harrison
in Motorola and ICOM altogether. So quite often
we'll be changing out some of our equipment that
is, let's say, becoming aged and replacing it
with something newer. That way we can obviously
be a, not necessarily a show platform, but a
demonstration platform of what you can do when
you have mobile or transportable interoperability,
which over several... several incidences we've
discovered it turns out to work out a little
bit better than fixed space because we're able
to take that interoperability and that capability
and you know with the and literally work with
a plug -and -play radios you know which everyone
knows interoperability is and is is important
plus m .com one scalable so we're training a
lot we're working with new ideas adding new things
you know, coming up with better demonstrations.
A lot of times on the going to HamFest and doing
some other things, we quite often treat it as
if it was a mission in itself. So the exercise
is getting things up and running and functional
and in a reasonable amount of time. And quite
often the thing with MCOM -1 is that it's set
up to work quite often while we're driving, we're
on the air, we can work. And one of the things
that we're starting to do now is on the amateur
side will typically have a 7100 up and running
as we're driving and you know try and make contacts
and we've got some new qsl cards just for mcom1
which will by the way mcom1 does have a club
license and that's whiskey echo one charlie oscar
mike that's we1 COM and that's our the club call
sign and it's also the call sign that we use
on the amateur side to make contacts or if we're
doing Contests or whatever and what that does
is it gives us the ability to exercise which
You you can go to any fire department. That's
worth its salt. They're always working. They're
always Practicing they're always exercising.
So even though we're not at an emergency For
instance this weekend. I plan on taking him calm
one out to a field Setting up and playing with
our new VHF UHF quad beam antennas to see what
we can do The idea being is just you know showing
how it works You know coming up with a couple
videos for how to set the set the antennas up,
but we're still exercising things out of the
van. The van itself is also a mobile RF lab.
We generally carry all the equipment that we
need to repair, do minor, and sometimes even
certain major repairs on radios. So there's a
lot to it. So that's sometimes why we have this
little bit of an overlap when we're in our 24
-hour period. where one person will probably
be fixing things like let's say a police officer.
Um, one of his antennas just got all squirrely
and we typically have the equipment to where
we can fix a couple things for them and, and
get them back on the road again. Or even if it
means just getting charging his radio or his
APX radio, we're, we're all there for that. And
so my next question is how in the world do you
cram all that stuff in a van? It's amazing. Yeah,
it's, The whole thing is the efficiency, and
it's one of those things where if you've ever
been in it, you can see we've got all the radios
literally mounted up high. And because we are
not looking at having a bunch of operators in
the van itself, using the VPG E3 by ICOM, that
is the thing that makes everything work. In other
words, allows us to... Um, you know, the, the
VPG three and the gateway allows us to do that
digital footprints that we can, we can, you know,
route everything where it's supposed to go and
to whom it's supposed to go to. Um, but that
in itself is a lot of work and w and it's, you
know, everyone is trying to learn everybody else's
jobs. So that way, when we go out, we can fill
in if we have to. Now, speaking of, if you have
a chance to see it. What are some upcoming opportunities
that you can have a chance to see this thing?
The soonest one will be Dayton, where we'll be
part of the emergency services wing or whatever
you might want to call it. We're going to be
right there by building two, I think it is, with
all the other emergency vehicles. We'll be set
up there with a canopy. There'll be one or two
of us there at any given time showing off things
and taking people on tours The next one will
be I think it'll be ham calm, which will be down
in Plano, Texas Will be setting up there. It's
a really nice venue We really like it and then
after that then the one after that would be Huntsville
There might be a couple things in between, but
I'm not really sure what they are. Rochelle generally
keeps that schedule up for me. And if there's
anything goes on in between point A and point
B, we'll probably be at an emergency. As a matter
of fact, one of the things we are doing this
actually starting tomorrow is we're going to
be driving, going around to a couple areas and
just checking. to see what the water levels are
and so on. We'll deploy our drones, take a look
at what's going on over the hill, is it something
that we need to report, so on and so forth. So
one thing that's happened is our background,
where we grew up, my wife and I was in Nebraska,
and places like Blair and Bellevue and some of
these, Fremont, are all underwater. Not completely
underwater, but heck, even SAC got soaked. That
was something else. I saw a couple flood scenes
of what was going on at the Strategic Air Command.
Actually, it's not the SAC anymore. I forgot
what it's called. But that's amazing. And of
course, when that floods, we know that it's basically
coming down here. And so we've got the Mississippi
River, the Missouri River, and the Merrimack.
And they all dump into the Mississippi. And so
we're looking at flooding on the Missouri side.
We've already had some flooding in the Merrimack
and we've got, we definitely know that the water
levels are going up on the Mississippi. So it's
a matter of being vigilant and watching. And
we have a little bit of flexibility in the sense
that we can drive to an area and then our range
is extended when we deploy the drones. And that's
a whole other discussion at another time, but
it's amazing the things we can do with drones.
And so we can do some real quick surveillance.
uh, reconnoiters, you know, go out and do a Reiki
on, you know, this, this roadway area. Let's
look at the dam. What do the locks look like?
That kind of thing. And then we can report back
to whatever agency needs us to give them that
information. 812 -650 -9556 is the phone number.
Uh, if you're listening to us live on Thursday
night, uh, if you're listening on WTWW or on
the podcast version of the show, you won't be
able to reach us cause, uh, It's Thursday night
right now talking to Emmett W0QH with MCOM 1.
So those are some opportunities for people to
see it. Now during the break we were talking
a little bit about you know hams may come in
and look and so okay well there's this ham rig
and that ham rig and then there's all this other
stuff but the skills of Hams is really what makes
all of this work. You got to know all these different
bands and modes and all this kind of thing. And
so it really rolls over from the ham side over
into the Mcom side. Yes, it does. The one thing
that Mcom1 is set up to do is we can talk to
everything, both analog and digital. And on the
amateur side, Our familiarity with technologies
is a definitely a good lead in to being there
to be helpful. The other part is all the other
FEMA requirements where, you know, ICS and being
part of ARIES and so on. As what we do with MCOM
-1 is not related to ARIES, we do work with ARIES,
but we're not working in an amateur capacity.
We're working as a land mobile as emergency services
working with, you know, the individual municipalities.
But we do interface with hams. So consequently,
we do have ham radios on board. The scale of
cost is considerably different. For instance,
our gateway system, you know, some groups would
like to have that system, which is great. But
when we start talking with the prices, they all
run away. And then we talk to some agency representatives,
and they start seeing what the price is and what
it can do. And they're looking at it as a very
economical and very, you know, it's a very reasonable
thing to do. So it's an interesting turn. On
the amateur side, though, you know, the one thing
that, you know, you've got a lot of people out
there that have gotten all the way up to their
extra class, and they don't think that there's
anything else for them to do. My recommendation
is to start looking and getting your GROL, GMROL,
General Mobile Radio Operators License, which
is a lot more technical. You can actually work
with, on a commercial level, working on radios
and so on and so forth. It's a new level of technical
prowess that would be very useful in the field
and I personally think that it would be a good,
it's a good, how do I, next step, you might say.
In other words, look at your amateur, look at
your hobby as something, as a gateway to something
a little bit more technical and at times a little
bit more, you get a little bit more out of it
because you're actually in there working on things
and you can. Yeah, I used to give those exams
and and they use extra class hams as examiners
for that much like the the volunteer exam program
on the ham side of things that they can administer
those as well, so There's some opportunities
there to to get that you know just I'm amazed
at Just you know how much stuff you've got inside
of this thing You know you've got the drones
you got food you got you know enough water and
gas and then you know and then you've got a repair
shop Amazing that you can get it all in that
one van and and you don't have to have like a
CDL to drive the thing No, the nice thing about
that that that it's a Mercedes Sprinter which
Is really nice because I get 26 miles to the
gallon and that's with the the 20 kilowatt generator
that we're towing We have a 30 gallon tank. We've
got a 30 gallon plus a 16 gallon tank in the
generator plus we carry another 20 gallons If
we need it Um, so literally there's we carry
a lot. Um, but also on the other side, it's all
efficiency of where everything goes, how things
get set up. Sometimes when you go in and look
at the van, it looked, it might look crowded
and cluttered, but everything has a place. And
typically, um, we try to load it out the same
way every time. Um, you know, the radios are
up and out of the way. As a matter of fact, one
thing you can look at is go out on, on the internet.
Look up ICOM, MCOM -1, and there's a video where
Ray and Mike Lee take you on a tour of MCOM -1
and explain a lot of the resources that go into
making it work and a lot of the key things that
are in there. Now, I will tell you that we've
added some things on the air side. We also have
an ADS receiver unit in there, so we're able
to monitor air traffic in the area that we're
in. Uh, we're also able to, uh, we've got a couple
of gateways set up. Or let's just say hotspots.
So that gives us the flexibility of, um, you
know, if we don't want to use a whole radio system,
we can use the hotspot, um, for instance, let's
say on DMR or let's say D star or let's say,
uh, P 25, um, we can set up a gateway and we
can link it from point A to point B or. you know
bring in someone from the outside as long as
we have an internet connection which quite often
we will. One exciting thing is one of the things
we were able to do is in one situation we were
able to everything was operational but there
was someone in Washington DC that needed to listen
in and monitor. We were able to forward you know
we gave them an access code and we were able
to forward that information to an IP based phone
and he was able to listen to what he wanted to
listen to and then when we were done we disconnected
the link and you know we're on our way again.
Well that's some pretty cool stuff and uh hope
uh some people will have a chance to check that
out at uh Hamvention and Huntsville and HamCon
and and wherever else you end up and uh John
Piper's listening to us tonight so hi John and
thanks for it. Hey John. For tuning into us here
tonight, so we're gonna wrap things up here,
but any any last -minute Items here. We've missed
before we take off No, I think we covered it
quite. Well. I mean there's a lot to the van
There's a lot to the way things are set up during
Dayton We are going to be giving possibly two
different forums on one how to get on the air
for emergency communications. Then the other
one will be MCOM -1, as in how do we deploy it?
What's in there? How does it all look? You know,
you get to see a little bit more, you know, the
nuts and bolts, the nitty -gritty, you know,
how everything's hooked up as far as what gets
connected to what, the gazindas and the gazaudas.
So that will be kind of fun, and we look forward
to seeing people. Make sure you drop by and say
hi. Rochelle won't be at Dayton, but she'll be
probably at the rest of the HamFests for the
rest of the year. And I do want to say, give
out a shout to our good friends at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring HamTalk Live. And, you know, Scott
and Scott and his wonderful, wonderful wife,
you know, they they're working all the time.
And just for them to do something like this is
really, really nice. Yeah sure is and I know
Jill saw a while ago said she Had a big long
drive today, but she's made it to Texas and be
ready for Belton, Texas this weekend. So shout
out to them and Thanks for sponsoring the show
and being out there on the road and Emmett thank
you for being out there on the road taking this
thing around and demonstrating what can happen
when you put all this digital and analog together
and make it all talk to each other and some of
the possibilities and maybe even some career
opportunities for some hams out there. Oh, most
definitely. Like I said, the biggest thing is
it seems complicated, but when you start looking
at each individual function it starts to fit
in you know it starts to fit a little bit more
logically but um yeah uh definitely come by say
hi um let's see it'll be myself and possibly
uh one other person out at the mcom one uh we'll
be having our booth will be right next to icom
just like last year and uh bob hyles is going
to have his booth next to us um as well as well
as ham nation and then the event station is going
to be a little bit farther back uh you know back
towards where w5kub is um so that's going to
be kind of fun and we're looking forward to having
a good time there we really enjoy that that that
venue they've done a great job of making it a
better um a better ham fest than it's ever been
i mean honestly you know We all like terror arena
to an extent, but man, I'll tell you what, some
of the events, some of the things that happened
around that place, you know, I'm very glad they
moved it. Uh, yeah. So it had its, it had its
character, but it is, but it, uh, yeah, it needed
some needed some help. So, um, okay. Well we're
getting ready to finish up here, but John. Through
in a question here at the last minute. So I think
that a quick one So let's do this. He wants to
know where he can see pictures of the Sprinter
van and it says it looks like a cool setup and
and he wants to know can can you do a show from
the van? We've done it. We've done it a couple
well, I haven't done ham talk live from the van
Well, the thing is you don't have a camera Yeah,
we don't need a camera. So yes, actually we could
because all I need is an internet connection
and we could do the show from the van if we needed
to, I guess. We sure could. Yeah, we can do shows
from the van, the Sprinter van. You can look
at, well, actually look up the video that's on
YouTube that's Icom Mcom1. And that's a good
tour of walking through and seeing it. Like I
said, that Sprinter is so nice. It's a turbo
diesel. I get anywhere between 20 and 26 miles
to the gallon. With the tank that I have, I have
about a 600 mile range. But typically I don't
run that full length. I'll generally stop because
I have to go to the bathroom or something like
that. But what makes it nice is that we can rotate
really easily and fuel economy is there. We are
diesel. Everything is diesel on that van. So
we don't have to worry about draining all the
fuel if we have to go in the air. Now we finally
found something that's not on the van. What's
that? The bathroom. Yeah, well we do bathroom
is not on the well, okay. All right, okay It's
one of those five gallon things so Typically
we just to stretch our legs and for safety purposes
will pull off You know do the rest area go to
you know, do our duty and then and then get back
on and go again Yeah, that sounds like a much
better plan. Well, Emmett, thank you so much
for coming on the show. Appreciate it and look
forward to seeing you here in about six weeks
or so and give our best to Rochelle and we'll
be praying for a speedy recovery for her. Thank
you very much. Thanks again, Neil. It's been
good talking to you. All right, well that is
a wrap for this week's edition of ham talk live.
Thanks to my guest Emmett Owen C. W0QH from St.
Louis and everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening and writing in tonight and invite you
all back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time. Lee Hite Case 8 CLI Jocelyn Broad KD8 VRX
and Melinda Zimper All from the National Voice
of America Museum of Broadcasting will be here
to talk about the 75th anniversary of the Voice
of America Bethany Relay Station. And we'll also
be announcing the special Hamvention Hours and
a special bonus. The mystery is out there. There's
a special bonus. that's going to be available
during Hamvention Weekend. So we'll be announcing
that next week on the show. And for a list of
all of our upcoming guests, just go to HamTalkLive
.com. And if you like HamTalk Live, please leave
us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.
That helps others find us faster. So for now,
this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7375. And may
the good DX be yours. Thanks for watching!