hvac help again

After Katrina, the *ONLY* communications that worked were HAM Radio, and CB. Cell phones were all out for several days, and some areas were out for weeks.

CY: Were you able to get any thing on AM or FM radio? I know that where I live, I can sometimes get Am or FM stations from the next city over. I routinely listen to a FM station from a city about 100 miles away. At night, the AM band comes to life, and I can get sometimes 100 stations on the AM dial, in my van.

Power was out for as long as 4 - 5 weeks. I lost commercial power for

10 days, phones and cable were out for 2 1/2 weeks.

CY: That's a long time to be without.

The local TV station was up on generators, but unless you had a generator of your own, you didn't know what was going on. For a week, the TV stations source of news was what came in on the HAM radio, or what literaly walked in through the back door.

CY: I've seen battery power TV for sale. But, now, with the digital signals, they are all useless. Some people used to take battery power pocket size TV to sports games.

Personally, I have a whole house generator, so I wasn't lights out for but just a couple of minutes. I didn't lose any antennas, so I was on the air almost continuously when I was at the house. Second day after the storm, I was at the TV station passing message traffic for them. When I was on the road and stopped anywhere, I was passing message traffic for folks with the rigs in the truck.

CY: Sounds like a good use of time.

BTW... almost *EVERY* fridge/freezer that was lost was due to running on generator and they let the generator run out of gas, or they shut down the generator when the fridge/freezer was plugged in and running.

CY: Have to remember that. Thanks.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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Most of the local stations didn't have power.... and the ones that did, didn't have any information to pass... no phones or internet. One of the stations on the coast only had a camera pointed at a HAM radio and the audio was what was between the HAMs and EOCs. All the LEO, fire, and EMS communications were down too. We had HAMs providing communications for them too.

BTW.. there was no water either... pumps didn't have back up generators, hospitals generators didn't have enough fuel.. even if they could get their generators to run.

It was a worst case "What if" scenerio

Reply to
Steve

I found a 7" portable digital TV for about $40 online. It has a Li-ion battery and a real on/off switch (a slide switch that disconnects the battery from everything, including the receiver for the remote control). The battery stays charged for months when stored that way. It came with an AC changer and can be charged from a 12 volt source (car or separate 12 volt battery). The built-in single "rabbit" ear works best on the upper floor of the hous (as expected), but does get one local station if by a window on the main floor (the TV transmitters are on the opposite side of the metro area, so getting even one station with the built-in antenna is good).

Reply to
news

That does sound like a dry run for the apocalypse, or WTSHTF. Sounds like the hams saved the day.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Most of the local stations didn't have power.... and the ones that did, didn't have any information to pass... no phones or internet. One of the stations on the coast only had a camera pointed at a HAM radio and the audio was what was between the HAMs and EOCs. All the LEO, fire, and EMS communications were down too. We had HAMs providing communications for them too.

BTW.. there was no water either... pumps didn't have back up generators, hospitals generators didn't have enough fuel.. even if they could get their generators to run.

It was a worst case "What if" scenerio

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

That's a very good price. I don't have any digital TV. I got two coupons for converters, but misplaced the coupons till after they expired. Oh, well.

I'm glad yours works well. I live behind a big hill, and the old analog TV only got one or two stations, fuzzy. Out of 5 that transmit from the city. I'd not expect a battery digital to do anything at all.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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I found a 7" portable digital TV for about $40 online. It has a Li-ion battery and a real on/off switch (a slide switch that disconnects the battery from everything, including the receiver for the remote control). The battery stays charged for months when stored that way. It came with an AC changer and can be charged from a 12 volt source (car or separate 12 volt battery). The built-in single "rabbit" ear works best on the upper floor of the hous (as expected), but does get one local station if by a window on the main floor (the TV transmitters are on the opposite side of the metro area, so getting even one station with the built-in antenna is good).

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

There are probably a small amount of ham hf repeaters that are solar. Most of the communications is going to be one on one. I fear power grid failure. Everything basically stops within a few days. Takes months and years to fix system. No fuel, no hospital, no trucking, no water, no natural gas.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

The repeaters have battery backup, as well as generators. When on emergency power their output is reduced... but the will still run for several days on a couple of 8D batteries. Oh, and it takes power for service station gas pumps to work...

Reply to
Steve

And, there are at least a few people in the world who want to do that, to USA. For several reasons, I think the odds are getting more dangerous now.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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There are probably a small amount of ham hf repeaters that are solar. Most of the communications is going to be one on one. I fear power grid failure. Everything basically stops within a few days. Takes months and years to fix system. No fuel, no hospital, no trucking, no water, no natural gas.

Greg

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Sadly, so many things depend on each other. I can easily imagine a collapse, and being a long painful recovery.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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The repeaters have battery backup, as well as generators. When on emergency power their output is reduced... but the will still run for several days on a couple of 8D batteries. Oh, and it takes power for service station gas pumps to work...

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I got 2-3 cable converters from comcast. Not in use currently. I need to upgrade my two regular cable boxes, beside the subject. I get, over the air, about 50 digital stations. I'm afraid I'll never get to use my 36 inch CRT toshiba. Dam that's a heavy set. Got stuff here I moved in 7 years ago, still fixing house up. I got one channel on 13 , which originally went high band, but the FCC made them go back to 13 . Tricky getting VHF high band working with UHF band antennas. The worst part about tv, we used to get broadcast in fringe areas on the lower freqs., but now nothing comes in in the fringes.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

Yet some of us remember before there was telephone or TV. Somehow we lived.

Have a couple. A couple hours tops on nine D cells.

There are similar sets for the new system.

Reply to
Winston_Smith

I talked to the engineer at the manufacturer(Rheem) for mine, they are sending me 2 kits... one for me (ECM gas furnace) and one for a customer(X13 air handler) with the same type of issues. The engineer said that they are only dealing with RFI/EMI issues on a case by case basis. Your tech will have to go through his suppliers tech rep, who will kick it up to the manufacturers tech rep, who will kick it up to the manufacturers engineers.

The X13 and ECM motor manufacturers are also addressing the interference problems and should have them corrected with the next generation of these motors.

Reply to
Steve

Thanks.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

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