Listening Down The Grid
It’s 8PM Sunday in Connecticut. That’s the day and time of the state’s ARES net. Except for the Echolink nodes, it’s all off the Internet. The repeaters are all linked together via ham radio, some of the repeater networks are up permanently. It’s usually the same dozen or so people, I know most of them at least peripherally. One of the section managers used to show up at EAST Meetings back when G* used to have them. He also was the guy who got all my excess AX.25 TNCs for the state’s packet radio network. Yes, there is still AX.25 up and running around here.
This is all down-grid comms. Most of it is either standalone, or running on independent (non-Internet) networks. A lot of it you can access with a $30 handheld radio and a Technician class ham radio license. If you don’t have your ticket, you can still listen with a $10 swapmeet police scanner. The frequency ranges you want to search are 144-148 and 440-450 MHz. Sometimes, late at nite, things get interesting. Back in the day on the 145.13 machine, an ARES/RACES-affiliated machine with a 90 mile reach, we used to have an informal “nut net” at midnite, in New York. The 147.06 machine a bit further south had a similar late-nite gathering of hams. The repeaters are not as active now as they were back then, but they’re still operational and ready for use.
I was at my club’s picnic a couple weeks ago, talked about it earlier. One of the members sells radios at the local hamfests and techie swapmeets. Reasonable prices sold by a righteous dude. He had these $10 Alervites HTs, which are rebadged Baofengs. Model AT-W31D. UHF, 30 channels. Bright orange color so you won’t lose it, and recognize another club member from across the field at a hamfest. Turns out 30 channels is enough for the region’s major linked repeater system nodes, and a few simplex frequencies for chatting at hamfests or doing microwave liaison work (aiming dishes at each other). You can download the programming software for free, and use your Baofeng cable that also works on the Quansheng with the multiple firmware hacks.
A technician class ham license only requires you pass a 30 question test that has a published question pool. Even though it’s a technical service, the VHF/UHF bands make for a great local and quite possibly regional down-grid intercom system you can use to talk with your friends who also have their ticket. Don’t worry about being tracked by “the man.” There are 710,000+ other people in the country who also have their ham ticket, and nobody cares. As a bonus, you’ll get a helluva technical education by some cool people who have BTDT.
In the meantime it’s 10PM here in New England. It might be a Sunday nite, but that’s when people have time to get on the air. Most of the conversations are mundane. Most of them…
