My Secret Weapon to Keep Chaos Under Control 🤫

 The Christmas parade our radio club supports is coming up this Sunday, which means I’m officially in prep mode . There’s a lot more that goes into this event than most people realize, and this year I’ve got double duty.

First, I’m on the tech team—our job is to set up the portable repeater and digipeater, handle any on-the-fly tech issues, and even program folks’ HTs if needed. My second role is receiving registration data over RF, passing it along to command, and tracking everything via APRS. Basically, if electrons are moving, I’m somewhere nearby .

All of that takes a fair bit of prep. My routine starts with reviewing last year’s after-action report, then setting clear goals for this year’s event. Once the goals are locked in, I sketch out a rough outline of how each of my stations will be configured and what gear I’ll be using. It’s not a full equipment checklist—more of a high-level game plan. The exact gear changes a bit each year as new toys come into the shack and other stuff gets sold off.

Only after that outline is done do I dive into the actual checklist. I use the Checklist Generator to pull in everything from inventory. I like to build this about a week ahead of time, then review it a couple times leading up to the big day. It’s the best way to make sure nothing important gets left behind .

It is a lot of work, but honestly, I absolutely love it. It’s a fantastic way to serve the community while putting our skills to the test in a real-world environment. I can’t think of a better way to spend the day .

The Radio Trick I Totally Blanked On

 A week or so ago, I was driving home and tried to key up our county’s primary repeater. Nothing. Tried again—still nothing. That was strange. I switched over to another repeater and called the trustee. He answered and, after a quick check, confirmed that the main repeater was offline. The power supply had failed, and the backup battery had completely drained.

I offered to meet him at the site and swap in a new power supply. On the drive over, he kept calling me on the reverse frequency. I never answered because I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to get my radio into reverse while cruising down the interstate at 70 mph. If you already know where this is going, feel free to chuckle. For everyone else, here’s the important bit:

When a repeater is offline—just like ours was that day—only one operator needs to be in reverse. Everyone else can transmit on the normal repeater frequency. The operator in reverse will hear you, even if you can’t hear anyone except that one person. Simple enough… but I clearly wasn’t thinking it through in the moment.

All I really had to do was pick up the mic and talk. He was already doing the heavy lifting by operating in reverse from a high-elevation tower site. If I had switched to reverse, he wouldn’t have heard a thing I said. Lesson learned!

What Experienced Hams Aren’t Telling You (But Should)

 Early in my amateur radio journey, I’d ask a more experienced operator something like, “Which HT should I get?” or “How much battery do I need to make it through Field Day?” I was looking for a clear, confident answer—or at least a direction to point my compass. Instead, the reply was almost always the same: “It depends.”

Looking back, I now understand that this was the right answer… but at the time, it was incredibly frustrating. What they were really trying to teach me was that you often need more information before you can make an informed decision. A 10Ah battery alone might last the duration if you’re running a 5W rig, but it’s probably not going to cut it if you’re using a 100W rig for multiple days.

Take digital modes as another example. Suppose you’re trying to choose between System Fusion, D-STAR, and DMR. Which one is “best”? Well, you could buy the newest, fanciest DMR radio out there—but if no one in your area uses DMR and there aren’t any local DMR repeaters, you’ll be stuck talking through your own hotspot. On the other hand, if your local community is active on D-STAR and you’ve got multiple D-STAR repeaters nearby, that’s where I’d want to be. In my experience, the mode that connects you to the local crowd is usually the most enjoyable.

Maybe instead of answering with a vague “It depends,” we experienced operators should try saying, “We need a little more info before we can give you a good answer.” And at the same time, new hams need to know that some of the homework is theirs to do—because what works perfectly for one operator may not work at all for the next.