Public Service and Special Events
One way to give back to your community is to offer to help during public events. Parades, walkathons, Marathons, etc. all cover a large area where simplex communications with a few watts won’t work. Some great examples of large events can be found in almost any ham publication.
How can you as a new ham with simple equipment participate? Well it is not always about the equipment! The skills you have learned over the past few months can now be put to great use. Quite often the group running the communications for an event will have plenty of extra gear to be used by those who do not have any or it is not enough for where they will be stationed. Another good reason to use other equipment when you can. Borrow or just sit with a different radio and get used to the way it operates.
When you are deployed on a special event you might be required to use tactical call signs. These make it easy for the net controller to figure out where you are located instead of having to look at a cheat sheet for every call. Most tactical call signs follow a pattern that is easy to pick up in a few minutes.
Examples of tactical call signs:
Starting line
4th Street Bridge
REST STOP 2
Finish line
If you have just turned on your radio and you hear a conversation including tactical call signs, LISTEN! Do NOT interrupt! Quite often you might hear net control make a general announcement letting others know the repeater is being used for an event. I have listened to events that I was not participating in and heard a lot of dumb things happen. Don’t be known as that jerk who did not get it. Listen and learn.
Equipment wise, if you plan on using a HT for an event make sure you have a spare battery. Nothing is worse than running out of power half way thru the event. Now is a good time to mention several types of battery packs. There are what is known as “clamshells”. These are made for individual radios and you can use regular alkaline batteries in them. Once the batteries are depleted you dispose of them properly and place a fresh set in the clamshell to keep going. In some cases you can use rechargeable batteries so you will need two sets.
For your first event it is great to shadow someone to see how it all works. Consider volunteering for a local event, you will have a blast and a front row seat!
73 WA2NTW