Author Archives: NY9D

As reported earlier, we got carried away and bought a lot of 30′ 6 KW diesel retired construction light towers and converted these for communications purposes. We signed an MOU with Minnesota VOAD and MNARES and were reminded that not all disasters happen on warm, sunny summer afternoons. We in fact got an email heads-upContinue reading “The Dawg House – Video/Comms Trailer”

After studying the idea of a radio/video uplink trailer for some time in early 2020, N0NAS and I discussed at great length the use case for such a rig. It would be for events, where we needed an indoor, all weather operating space for a day or longer. In COVID, a large, multi-operator space (i.e.Continue reading “The Dawg House”

At Field Day 2021 we identified a use case for a larger diesel. We had a big motorhome with a broken internal (7-8 kw?) genset. These have the 50A power cords. This is really 50A of 120VAC, not really 240V per se. The little single phase 6KW generators are set up for two legs ofContinue reading “Vin- a Bigger Mobile Genset”

How far away can some random city in Wisconsin be? I live about nine air miles from the border. I saw this one on the Hansen Auction site- bit rusty. Bad generator- not news. Lobbed in a crazy lowball bid. Then decided to study the photos. The little toggle /clamp in the two inch ballContinue reading “Bumblebee #15”

I’ve lost track of how many tower trailers we have. N0NAS did suggest placing low bids and walking away. I did this twice last week and have two new to us rigs in my driveway. Lucky is a Terex RL4000, similar to the excellent Terex RL4 I already have. The idea was a matched pair,Continue reading “Lucky #14”

ARRL Field Day 2021 is upon us, and we are listening carefully to the various planners. The tower trailers are popular in two roles- towers and generators. Beams are a nice add on for station planners and a 30+ foot place to hang a dipole- why not. Light towers have accessory outlets, and 15-20A 120VContinue reading “240V AC Power Distribution and Field Day”

The supply of running older used tower trailers at auction continues to be good so I keep adding new ones. Several of the older or non conforming ones were sold. I am trying to standardize. Every one is 30′ now and diesel. The concept is to generally deploy with pairs of similar looking diesels. SoContinue reading “Fleet Rebalancing”

Doug, N0NAS who has been a long time mostly remote collaborator on the tower trailer project gave up trying to convince me to not buy any more of them in March, 2021. The argument was “we don’t use them”- however they get used all the time. They have been to Hams in The Park (+Continue reading “Ham Tower Generator Trailer #13, Tango X-ray (TX)”

Right after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, DC there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about dirty bomb attacks. The idea was bad actors would get their hands on some radioactive material, and mix it with conventional explosives. This would cause panic and people to flee, potentially in large numbers.Continue reading “AX.25 Minnesota Statewide Packet Radio 145.670”

Years ago we standardized on Ubiquiti radios for our mesh work. That was a good decision. I prefer 5G vs 2G as it is in our experience far less congested. We picked channel 157. They are lovely, and the older models (use the HP = High Power ones, the really really old ones do not)Continue reading “Amateur Mesh Radios”