Chapter 14

[West Georgia]

After a big slice of cake washed down with tea, Dad sat back and said, "Shirley, tell me more about these radios in a general way. I'm just a farmer, not an engineer." I almost choked because Dad knew more about more different things than anyone I had ever met in my life.

Shirley looked at little startled but said, "First of all, hams are licensed after passing tests, one for each license level. There are, or were, three levels, Technician, General, and Extra. I have a General though haven't been on the air much since going to college. Dad had an Extra. In each case, the higher you go, the more frequency allocations you have with the big step being between Technician and General and the big test difference between General and Extra.

"Looking at all the frequencies available, they are divided into bands based upon general wavelength for a group of frequencies. A popular band for Georgia and the rest of the southeast is eighty meters. Different states all over the U.S. use a different frequency for communicating primarily within a state but also with neighboring states. In Georgia, three point nine seven zero megahertz was popular and, in Alabama, it was three point nine six five megahertz. Other states had other frequencies that were used. Usually, those frequencies had nets to practice proper radio operation and to give some preparation for emergencies. There was even a method for passing organized traffic or dispatches. Dad was active on the Georgia net and checked into the Alabama net often."

Dad said, "So, we would have to find a radio to tune into that eighty meters band and, if anyone is out there, we could talk to them?"

"Yes, Sir, but it's simpler than that. HF ham radios include all the bands in the HF ranges. So one radio can cover many bands. Antennas are easy. It only takes wire and a tree to string up an inverted fan dipole. I've helped Dad do that many times to help other hams and for Field Day.

"Then, there's forty meters which is good for all over the U.S. and some overseas talk or DX as hams call it. For some reason, that was Dad's favorite band. I liked twenty meters, which is okay for the continental U.S. but great for talking overseas. I have worked over fifty countries on twenty meters which means making contact and confirming that contact in writing with a card or a log entry with one of the big internet logs.

"There are others but the next band to mention is two meters. I will talk about it and then quit boring you. Two meters is above the FM radio band and is good for local operation. There are also stations called 'repeaters' that automatically receive and retransmit one ham's signal so another can receive it further away. I took an HT when I first went to Tech and talked to Dad through that method. Then phones had free minutes and we phoned more. Ooh! I left it in my room when I met Jack. We will have to get it. They are expensive."

"Shirl, that's not an issue. I don't think money is going to be necessary to buy things." I said.

"Oh!" She said. "Well, it's still worth having because it's all programmed with repeaters"

"Okay, I'm sure we will be making trips into Atlanta to get things in the future."

Mom was fast. "What's 'Shirl?'" She asked.

Shirley answered, "Jack called me that as a nickname. He didn't know that 'Shirl' is, was, Dad's pet name for me." She teared up a little. "But I like for him to use it." She added quickly.

Mom gave me a look and then smiled at Shirley. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to. I think Dad caught all that, also. I wasn't sure because he has a true poker face but his talk earlier suggested he suspected something.

Dad picked up the conversation, "I would think that this two meters would be better than CB radios because it is FM which would be quieter and has those repeater things."

"Yes, sir, it's popular and, with the repeaters you can talk from most of one end of Georgia to the other. It is "line of sight" though that term is pretty wide. Dad could reach repeaters in Atlanta with his rig at home with forty watts of power. I could talk to him on the HT with one watt from my dorm room through an Atlanta repeater."

"So, if we had a repeater in the area, we could talk from here to Atlanta and over to Macon and Columbus. Is that right?"

"Yes, Sir. Also, the antennas are small as are the radios which makes them good for mobile operation."

"Okay, Shirley, how do we obtain these radios?"

"Either from hams or a store in Doraville that should have plenty in stock. There would also be a stock of HF radios there. We could use those and might find other groups and communicate."

"We'll see. Don't tell people where we are over the radio until the family has had a chance to discuss what our attitude is going to be toward strangers."

"Does that include me?"

Mom jumped in on that. "Jack vouches for you and Robbie and I like you. The rest will go along with us pretty easily. The fact that you are pretty and smart doesn't hurt either." I smiled a bit proudly. I thought to myself, "And she likes me, too."

Dad said, "Back to the radios. Is there some way to determine where repeaters are located?"

"Yes, there are books put out by the ARRL, the American Radio Relay League, which lists them. There also are web sites. There are probably a number that can be easily reached from here. We can also use the internet to look for hams who lived in the area."

"Jack, you two take your laptop into the dining room and put together a list of repeaters around here and another of some hams who lived around here. I think you two will have to find some of them to quickly get radios, hook them up and demonstrate what they can do."

Shirley and I nodded. I left the room for my laptop that I kept in my bedroom. We went into the dining room leaving the door open. After all, I knew the rules.

Shirley noticed that and said, "Is that one of the rules? Could I kiss you or does that break the rules?" Her eyes were smiling and she had a fiendish grin on her face.

"The door has to remain open. You had better kiss me back." With that remark, I pulled her tight and gave her a passionate kiss that was eagerly and vigorously returned. After an endless minute, we broke our clench and got down to work. I started up the computer and opened Firefox and looked at her. "Where to?"

She looked at me for a second. "Why don't I type things in and talk about it as we view the different sites?"

"Works for me." I got up and waved her to the chair. She sat and started typing for a web site.

"This site locates repeaters. There more than two meter repeaters but that's all I'm looking for right now." A new screen came up with a map. "Okay. That's what I wanted. What's the zip code here?" I told her and she typed it and pressed, "return." The screen changed. It showed a map of the area with our zip code in more or less the center. There were a number of circles on the map. "Those circles are repeaters and their coverage area. On the left are the details for each repeater on the map." We looked and I could see that there were a number of circles that included our area. Shirley started making notes and moving the slide up and down on the left adding to the information. "There are six repeaters that should cover this area pretty well and two of those should be excellent. I have the information we need listed to program radios. I will save it to favorites, if that's okay, so we can access it later?" I nodded. "Now, I'm going to a site that will let us look up individual hams." She typed in a site and it came up. She logged into it. "This is my call." She typed in a call in the search box and clicked. Information on her call came up along with a picture of her operating a radio. "Dad took that and insisted I put it up. People seemed to like it."

"I like it." I said.

"Thanks. Let's go to advanced search and see what we can find." She shifted screens and started entering search criteria. After she pressed, "enter," a new screen came up with a number of calls and names. We went over each one looking at licensing levels and locations. We picked six that I said were close. We would check them out. She saved that site to favorites, also.

"Okay," I said, "we have a list. Let's tell Dad and Mom where we're going and we'll check them out." She nodded.

We got up and went back into the living room and then to the kitchen. Mom was working at the stove and she and Dad were talking but the conversation died when we came in the room. Dad looked at me and I said, "We have a list and six are very close. I thought we would go check them out."

Mom said, "Be back in two hours for supper."

"Yes, Mom," Shirley and I chorused. Dad and Mom grinned. We went out the door and got in my truck. We went to the first one on our list that I had sorted to make the trip shorter.

The first one was the father of a high school buddy. No one had seen them since before the Day. We went inside and the smell was bad. Mr. and Mrs. Montrose were in their bedroom in bed where they had died. Tom was in the living room on his face. We left them alone and found where Mr. Montrose had his radios. Shirley began to unplug them and have me carry them out to the truck. When I returned, she had me open the window and push the window pass through out. We left the house. Shirley then led me around the house to the window of the radio room. We began to gather wire and track down the antennas. We pulled the cable to them loose and actually got one antenna down. Shirley told me it was an inverted vee fan dipole. We got all the wire into the truck and left for the next house.