Antenna Orientation & EMCOMM
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I've generally gravitated towards dipole antennas for HF, not paying a lot of attention to Verticals. While I do believe dipoles are generally more flexible, in that they can be used to communicate across a range of distances from local to world-wide, there are some advantages to deploying Verticals, especially if you're deploying with a vehicle or trailer equipped with one (or more).
I've covered Near Incidence Vertical Skywave (NVIS) antennas before, basically deploying a dipole close to the ground. The advantage of the NVIS dipole is the ability to create a local or regional cone around the transmitting stations in the 200-400 mile range. Flying the dipole low causes radio signals to radiate more vertically, and are reflected downward rather than over the horizon. Think a water hose pointed at the ceiling of a room - the water will bounce off and scatter all over that room. Take that same dipole and raise it high (at least 1/4 wavelength above the ground) and you can now communicate world-wide.
The NVIS dipole will radiate with a takeoff angle of over 60 degrees, while a non-NVIS dipole will have a takeoff angle of closer to 25 degrees, and as low as 15 degrees. One thing we have noticed, is local communications, 0 to 30 miles, with dipoles is very hit-and-miss. Even with NVIS, the immediately surrounding areas are usually overshot by the reflected signals. NVIS for local communications can work, but, as I said, it is hit-and-miss.
Verticals, on the other hand, naturally radiate at a low angle, so the "skip" is long. But verticals, because of the low takeoff angle, also provide good local ground-wave propagation. 160 Meters is a really good ground-wave band, but a Vertical antenna supporting this band is ungainly at best. 80 Meters and 40 Meters are also "ground wavy", but not as good as 160 Meters. Still, a ground mounted Vertical can provide good local propagation out 20-40 miles. As the bands go higher in frequency the local propagation distance rapidly diminishes.
A ground mounted Vertical will radiate with a takeoff angle around 25-30 degrees, while one raised on a mast will radiate at 10-15 degrees, outperforming even a raised dipole in that respect. Both ground and raised verticals will work well for DX, but the raised Vertical will more easily reach intercontinental distances. Raised verticals also have the advantage of clearing local noise for a cleaner signal coming in.
In terms of deployment, dipoles can basically be "thrown in the trees", with no need for masts or other mechanical supports beyond rope - if you have trees around! On the other hand, a Vertical can be mounted on a vehicle or deployed using a ball hitch. The West Georgia Amateur Radio Society (WGARS) has included a mast in their communications trailer, allowing deployment of raised Vertical antennas as well as deploying inverted-V dipoles.
So, what does this mean for EMCOMM? Well, it would seem using ground mounted or close-to-the-ground Verticals would be preferable for local communications (0-30 miles) on HF ground-wave frequencies, 160-60 meters while still offering success at medium range communications (400+ miles). A NVIS antenna would probably be best for communicating in and out of a disaster area (ranging 30-400 miles) on 40 or 60 meters daytime and 80 meters night time, while a non-NVIS dipole or vertical antenna would be best for more distant communications on around 20 meters during the day and 40 or 80 meters at night.
Keep in mind, that for local communications on a ground mounted Vertical, all stations would need to be using the same configuration for optimal performance. How your signal is oriented (Vertical or Horizontal) ceases to be significant once the signal skips.
Indonesian Earthquake - Amateur Radio & Digital To The Rescue
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A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Flores Island in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province on August 15, 2026, damaging nearly 12,000 homes, hundreds of schools and health facilities, blocking critical highway supply routes like the Trans Ende-Bajawa road via landslides, and disrupting communications throughout the region.
Indonesia's Emergency Management and Amateur Radio leadership's advanced preparation paid off. Repeaters with backup power systems and the IO-86 (Oscar 86) Satellite enhanced their HF capabilities, heavily leveraging digital modes.
Early in the incident Amateur Radio operators began relaying traffic using Winlink, JS8Call, and DDigi were used to send lengthier communications, short tactical messages, and formal ICS style messages, respectively.
Operators utilized the Winlink Network to send standard email - complete with text and small file attachments—entirely via radio waves. When local internet was down, stations connected via High Frequency (HF) radio to operational Winlink gateways hundreds of miles away in unaffected parts of Indonesia or neighboring countries, which then forwarded the messages to traditional internet email addresses.
JS8, a weak-signal digital mode, allowed operators to send live, keyboard-to-keyboard text messages under extremely poor radio conditions. Because JS8Call can decode signals that are completely buried in background noise, it enabled low-power stations with compromised or temporary antennas to successfully transmit critical text updates.
FlDigi was deployed to send structured, error-free text forms. By pairing FLdigi with Flmsg, operators used standardized emergency templates (such as ICS forms) to ensure that medical needs, logistics requests, and structural damage reports were sent accurately without typing errors.
Indonesian operators went one step further proving this isn't you grandfather's radio hobby anymore. The IO-86 amateur radio satellite (officially known as LAPAN-A2 or LAPAN-ORARI) was activated by Indonesia’s national amateur radio society, ORARI, as a critical spaceborne communications bridge during the August 2026 earthquake response.
Because the earthquake disrupted ground-based towers and isolated remote mountain hamlets, operators used the satellite to relay data directly over the disaster zones. The satellite was utilized in two primary ways, tactical voice via the satelite's cross-band repeater and the onboard APRS repeater for short text messaging and position reporting.
Standard line-of-sight VHF/UHF Handheld Transceivers cannot communicate across mountains. However, when IO-86 passed overhead, its FM cross-band transponder (uplink: 145.880 MHz / downlink: 435.880 MHz) acted as a flying radio repeater. Low power (5W) radios with Arrow or other Yagi antennas allowed scheduled tactical communications.
IO-86 carries an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) digipeater operating under the tactical callsign YB0X-1. This payload acted as a digital relay in space, not just allowing tactical text traffic, but also update tactical team locations.
Unlike most polar-orbiting amateur satellites that only pass over a specific region twice a day, IO-86 flies in a specialized low-inclination equatorial orbit. This allowed the satellite to pass over the Indonesian archipelago roughly 14 times a day. This high-frequency pass schedule provided disaster response teams with predictable, recurring windows of satellite coverage every few hours to send and receive life-saving reports when traditional networks were completely dead.
Colombian Earthquake 2026
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Colombia’s communications infrastructure experienced significant after the magnitude 7.4 earthquake on August 10, 2026. Effects were concentrated in western departments—especially Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Quindío, and Caldas—with intermittent service nationwide initially due to congestion.
Only a few days later things are returning to normal as far as infrastructure is concerned. The power grid is coming back online and communications systems are mostly restored.
Main Disruptions
Network congestion: A sudden surge of calls and data traffic from people checking on family/friends and contacting emergency services overloaded the communications network.
Field Deployment Of Antennas
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Field Day provides great practice setting up antennas "on the fly" somewhere other than on home turf. However, it is a planned activity, and the event venue is often the same one, two, or few places. As a result, setting up becomes almost a reflex action in some cases. Good practice, and well worth the effort, but we often don't need to consider things like we did the first time or two we setup somewhere.
Things we have to consider when setting up at an unknown location include site selection and safety, the most efficient means of getting up and operating, propagation and proper antenna orientation, optimizing the installation, and the need to avoid some pitfalls related to setting up "on the fly".
When arriving at a new location we need to consider takeoff angles for HF and line-of-site for VHF/UHF,
Operation Talladega Signal
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As many of you may know, we have an upcoming exercise, where we'll put various amateur radio skills together to test our ability to assist in emergency response. Operation Talladega Signal will take place on March 28, 2026 at the Big Oak Hunt Camp, Talladega National Forest, 11:00AM Eastern, 10:00AM Central. This will be a great opportunity for all of us to practice our existing skills and learn new ones, so I hope you'll attend.
At the heart of the exercise will be to cooperatively use Radio Direction Finding (RDF) skills to locate a lost hiker who will be calling for help on an FRS radio. FRS frequencies are close enough to our 70cm band that our equipment should work fine, as almost all 70cm radios will tune out-of-band for receive.
P.A.C.E. and EMCOMM
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The military, various government entities, and some NGOs, plan for emergencies by implementing a multi-layered plan. Essentially, four "independent" levels, each one more reliable and less reliant on infrastructure than the one before it. As you might imagine, each letter represents one of the levels: P(rimary), A(lternate), C(ontingency), and E(mergency). I suspect you can guess which layer we fall into!
For PACE to function all players must roll through the levels in order, from P to A, A to C, and C to E. As we often say, Amateur Radio: When all else fails!
While each layer is to be independent of the resources of the preceding one, it is not always the case. Obviously, the more self-contained each system is, the more likely it is to function despite other failures.
HOAs, Amateur Radio, & EMCOMM
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Amateur Radio Operators and HOAs go together like oil and vinegar in most cases. Rules regarding antennas or "other structures" on a property bound by HOA rules often makes installation of HF antennas impossible, and even makes VHF/UHF installations challenging and less-than-optimal.
The FCC has addressed local ordinances with PRB-1, which legally inhibits local governments from imposing unreasonable limitations on radio operators. Our ability to provide emergency communications support is at the core of the argument made for PRB-1 freedoms. Sadly, PRB-1 does not impact HOAs because the HOA rules are imposed by private contract, not legal ordinances.
NVIS Antenna Configurations
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NVIS (Near Incidence Vertical Skywave) is best accomplished transmitting in the most common NVIS bands (80, 60, ad 20m) with a very high angle of incidence, the radio waves going almost straight up. This is the exact opposite of what we are doing when we're "DXing" (distant communications); as a result, almost all the logic we apply to setting up antennas is turned on its head. We must utilized antennas in ways we typically would avoid, and we'll cover the different ways here. The key is to remember we are attempting to direct radio waves upwards, rather than towards the horizon.
Dipole Antennas
These are the most common antennas in amateur radio. They are easy to make and work well. For DX, all you need to do is get them as high off the ground as you can get so the bulk of the radio signals are radiated towards the horizon.
QRP, NVIS, and 60 meters in EMCOMM
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Low Power (QRP), Near Incidence Vertical Skywave (NVIS), and the 60 meter band looks more and more to be intended for use in Emergency Communications (EMCOMM). I've touched on all of this over the last few presentations, so all I'm really doing here is putting it together.
The recent changes to the 60 meter band embrace the use of QRP on that band. What was the third channelized frequency in the 60 meter band has been eliminated, the frequency spectrum in consumed, and the adjacent portions of the band between the 2nd and 4th channels is now VFO tunable - with the caveat that operation must be QRP (9.15W ERP). The remaining channelized frequencies may still operate at the previous 100W (ERP) level.
The New 60 Meter Band
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Recent NVIS tests we conducted showed, at least for early daytime hours, 40 meters worked best for NVIS, although both 10 and 20 meters did perform, just not as well as 40 meters. As one might expect, 80 meters did not work well in daytime for NVIS.
Some of us discussed 60 meters, the channelized band, as a possible NVIS candidate. An indication it might perform well is the fact the Federal Government uses it as part of their emergency communications system and SHARES, a public/private emergency communications network.
During those discussions we considered executing a NVIS exercise that included 60 meters. Coincidentally, the FCC has made changes to the 60 meter band, eliminating one of the channels and replacing it
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