Blackberry REACT July Newsletter

Quick Clicks

Keyrings

Key Rings
Keyrings, but not what you think. These are rings for your fingers, but they are computer keys: get a set of rings that say Ctrl, Alt, or Delete. There's one for Esc, too.

Portable lights

Closet Light
These are what are billed as "closet lights," but I'd be tempted to have one in the car or van. The lights are small boxes with three LEDs on one side and a magnet on the other. The lights run on three AAs, and the projected price is under $20 each; available sometime this year. Aside from the magnet that lets me put them anywhere I have a metal surface, the lights have a motion sensor and turn themselves off after having detected no motion for 15 seconds. (I'm not sure that's long enough given how slowly I move, but there it is.)

More stuff on batteries

I've found that hams are not the only ones that need small batteries with long lives. Model airplane racers do, too, and their batteries are state of the art. Drop by your neighborhood toy store and ask for RC batteries. (RC for radio controlled toys - airplanes, model trucks, etc.)

Louise and I used sail on the Chesapeake Bay, and sailboats need big sets of batteries that do deep cycle really well. I found a guy's Web page that does an excellent analysis of battery use, battery need, and battery cost by brand name and model:
index page

He's got charts of average capacity vs. draw, reserve minutes vs. draw, energy storage per weight and volume (comparing gel cells, flooded, and glassmat), instructions on how to pick the right size battery for your application, and a ton more stuff. He goes through a very thorough analysis on what battery to pick for his boat and explains his thinking all the way through (even graphs), telling how he decides how much bang he gets for his buck. A long series of Web pages, but well worth reading through. I learned a lot.

National Park Service's Public Health Program

PHP
This is a site that covers public health in national parks. Now you may ask what th' heck has this to do with me? In the event of an earthquake, we may all be living in the backcountry right here on the peninsula, and the NPS's Public Health Program, among other helpful information, tells licensed guides and tour operators how to purify water, deal with solid waste, maintain food safety, and all the issues still being addressed in New Orleans. I strongly recommend spending some quality time on this site.

One of the things to remember is that after an earthquake, it is likely that water mains will be broken or contaminated, but that we have plenty of sources for fresh water - we just need to make sure it's pure. The NPS site covers boiling, chemicals, and filtering for large groups on weekend trips, which is the same thing as small groups for weeks. If water mains are broken, you may not have water to flush - or the sewer mains may be broken and backed up. You then have the back country manual on handling and disposing of solid wastes.

Flashing lights on a vehicle may be prohibited in California

We all volunteer at various events where we see someone with a rotating amber light on or in his car, van, or whatever vehicle. I have been assured by everyone that has one that flashing amber lights on a "civilian" car are legal in California. This may not be true. I direct your attention to California Vehicle Code Sections 25250 - 25282, available at several Web sites, including
Code Sections

Section 25250 says, "Flashing lights are prohibited on vehicles except as otherwise permitted." The exceptions make up the rest of that series of sections, and the only reference to normal people being able to use flashing lamps other than using turn signals to signal a turn, to signal that the car is disabled or parked close to a roadway, or that they are driving more slowly than the surrounding traffic is in Section 25259.1, which says that disaster service workers ordered by lawful authority to perform disaster services and who have been trained in the use of flashing amber warning lights by a disaster council or emergency organization accredited by the California Emergency Council may display flashing amber warning lights while at the scene of the emergency or disaster.

"Disaster service workers" are the subject of their own series of laws at Sections 3100 - 3109; see
Code Sections

If anyone knows of a contrary law that says that normal people may display an amber flashing light, I'd appreciate a reference to the statute.

Federal Geographic Data Committee

You didn't know we had an FGDC, did you?
USNG
They decided we needed another grid. Lat/lon and Maidenhead weren't enough. The purported advantage of the US National Grid is that it's accurate down to about a meter. Let's consider New Orleans after Katrina. The troops are out looking for people, and they have a survivor in a house that's up to its roof in water - no streets are visible, let along a street sign. If, for some reason, they didn't have GPS, they could look at a map and convey the coordinates with sufficient precision to have rescuers fly out and do an airlift. According to the FGDC, Florida is using USNG for its standard for mapping in all situations, including emergencies.

Among the useful concepts that come to mind is when I have an address and my Thomas Guide, I need to look in the index for that street name, then find the matching map number, which may take two or three tries, if the street extends over several map pages and this assumes I can tie a street number to the map. Or assume I'm at 12254 El Camino Real, but I'm not sure what town I'm in. Louise and I were looking for a business at an address on El Camino, and we couldn't find that street number. It turned out, we were off by a town.

The problem is that the USNG is difficult to use and requires a map and a grid reader both to determine the grid location to tell someone and for that someone to then relocate the location on their map. I'm not sure this is better than requiring someone to have a GPS. The difference appears to be - no batteries required. After the big one, there may be no batteries.

Doping techniques and PN Junctions

PN junction
Other pages on this Website are just as in depth.

Being Seen; protecting gear

Burning Man is approaching, and Louise and I are preparing for a week on the Black Rock Playa:
Black Rock Playa

We concentrate on being seen at night when people are riding bikes without lights, so here are some of the things we have read about online which might help all us REACTors be seen when we're out at night during an emergency.

PakLite has a cap that fits over a 9V battery with 2 LEDs on the cap:
9V light
The LEDs can be both white, or one of several choices: white, red, green, infrared, and turquoise. The lights can be switched on or off independently, but the prices range from $16 to $30, which seems rather high. In any event, you end up with a flashlight the size of a 9V battery.

Polybrite specializes in lighted safety products, whatever that means:
Polybrite
They sell vests and wands that are reflective but also actively lighted, which we value on the playa where there may be bicycle traffic without lights to reflect on our clothing. Having lighted clothes is a big plus. Polybrite also sells lighted armbands, belts, and ponchos for use in our rainy winters. They claim 400 hours on 2 AAs. In addition to lighted products, the site also offers flashlights, laser signalling devices, and more.

Dummy Load

I often say I'm the dummy load at my ham radio, but sometimes the dummy needs to be more portable. Here are instructions on making your own dummy load for testing your radio, and the load is made from a jar and saltwater:
dummy load

Dust and dirt protection for your gear

People in Iraq find dust a problem; after a big earthquake, we will, too.
That's a wrap offers the suggestion of putting Glad Press'n Seal over the keyboard of you laptop to prevent dust from getting into it. I haven't used Press'n Seal, but I'm guessing it's more robust than regular wrap like Saranwrap. However, my guess is that either would offer some protection to all our gear if we're caught in the rain or dust - just wrap some stretch wrap around our radio and continue using it.

Events

Saturday & Sunday, September 8 and 9, the Art and Wine Fest. Contact Phil Henderson to volunteer.

Sunday, September 30, Stevens Creek Walk.

Updates

Ken Duecker will be at the August meeting to talk about how REACT will fit in to the Fire Department's plans for emergencies.