Blackberry REACT October Newsletter

Quick Clicks

I stumbled across this camera "skin" on a Web site: http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/10128/slr_camera_armor/ It refers to itself as "camera armor," but it's just an SLR-shaped cover for your camera to protect it from dust and debris; it is not water- proof. Given that amateurs are often in the thick of things, I'll be looking for this product when it is finally available in the wild. It seems to offer good protection to a camera when taking photos during fires or building collapse work. (I know we shouldn't be taking pictures, but we will be.)

Modern Mechanix has an old article from a 1940 issue of Popular Science at http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/09/14/tenants-run-apartment-network/ talking about how some people in an apartment building put together their own radio station in the basement and ran their programming to all the apartments. It might be of limited interest to modern day hackers who would be interested in wiring their house for MP3s, but the thing that may be of greater interest is that this old- time hacker was Les Paul. Yes, that Les Paul. The Les Paul. And when his friends came over the play radio, it was something to listen to.

An interesting article in the Reno Gazette Journal of September 5, 2006: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060905/NEWS/609050352 Burners Without Borders drove from Nevada to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and began demolition of uninhabitable houses. All volunteers and no agency structure and bureaucracy meant the Burners could do a million dollars worth of demolition (going rates by contractors ranged up to $10,000 per house) for nothing, and the Burners brought in $40,000 and seven tons of food to share. Two hundred Burners rotated through their camp over the seven months Burners Without Borders spent in Mississippi. The lesson here is that volunteer without bureaucracy get things done; the problem is not being cowboys and interfering with organized aid.

Anderson Powerpole Crimpers cost a ton of money. Harbor Freight has a crimper that works with the 15, 30, and 45 amp Powerpoles. Go to http://www.harborfreight.com/ and search for Item Number 36411. The normal price is $6, but it is on sale now, as they say, for $3. For a comparison of three non-Anderson crimpers, see http://home.comcast.net/~dstuard/powerpoles/PPcrimp.htm which included directions on crimping.

As communicators, we are required to have certificates of training. Fortunately, the courses are available online (with the current exception of California's SEMS). See http://del.icio.us/philip/training for links to FEMA, ARRL, and REACT training courses.

Events

The San Mateo County Disaster Preparedness Fair, September 30. Jon Mosby and Phil Henderson set up our table at the San Mateo County Preparedness Fair and staffed it for a couple of hours by themselves, and Louise Johnson and I came in elevenish and helped answer questions and offered brochures and first aid pamphlets to passersby. The fair is the second one for San Mateo County, and it had a great deal to offer. Parking is free for attendees, and we were all given a canvas bag and a very nice first aid kit just for being there. Some booths offered free flashlights, collapsible water containers, and the like.

I learned that the San Mateo Coroner's Office has a procedure for county residents in the event of a mass casualty: Safety (keep myself safe), Locate (if I know of a dead body, mark its location), Identify (use any means and put the date and name of the deceased on something near the body), and Tell (contact authorities ASAP). The Coroner wants me to remember this procedure by the handy acronym SLIT.

Trailblazer 10K Race, September 24 A whole crew of hams helped out at this event, using the SPECS repeater for awhile. We apparently had several people, including Net Control, in dead zones, so we switched to the alternate frequency on simplex, which worked much better.

The Art and Wine Festival, September 9 and 10 The event is reported to have gone well with a very windy Saturday.

HAM CLASS ON OCTOBER 22

Ross Peterson is offering the next ham class on October 22, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at Washington Hospital West in Fremont; the fee is $30. Takers may now register online at http://www.baears.com (the Bay Area Educational Amateur Radio Society) where you will find more information and a .pdf copy of the flyer.

Updates

More information on satellite phones and their costs at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/CivilizedExplorer

The Preparedness Fair had a booth for EverSafe meals. EverSafe is similar in concept to MREs: a packaged food that requires no refrigeration, has a shelf life of a couple of years, and can be heated with an included self- heating unit. Drop by their Web site at http://www.geteversafe.com/ for the full story. NOTE: if you order a case before October 31, 2006, and use the special offer code SMD, you get free shipping on full case orders.

Louise and I have been using a competitor's meals, http://www.heatermeals.com/ which we expect is similar. The food doesn't knock my socks off, but it's warm and filling. We do order by the case and eat them when camping and when we don't want to bother cooking at home and have nothing to nuke in the microwave. We keep them in stock to have food when the earthquake hits, and we recommend that everyone have a supply of non-perishable food that requires little or no cooking when we have no gas and electricity. For people with special dietary needs, drop by our Quick Meals on the Playa page at http://www.cieux.com/bm/quickMeals.html for links to vendors that provide vegetarian, kosher, gluten-free, and other meals. The Quick Meals on the Playa page is aimed at people attending Burning Man where conditions are harsh and meals don't come regularly, but this may be the same situation we find ourselves in after a big quake, so give some thought to caloric intake, along with general nutrition.