A Simple Simplex Readiness Test

Who would you call, in your city, on 2 Meter FM simplex mobile if you had a problem in your city?

Get with that person and test your simplex communications capabilities. One example of testing would be to drive to the "four corners" of your city and check your ability to communicate effectively from your mobile station to the fixed station. You may find that one or both of you need to make improvements to your stations to accomplish this.

Once you are communicating effectively with the same fixed station from many points in your city, you can switch duties. The previously fixed station can now go mobile and you can operate from your normal fixed location. Run the same exercises to determine your ability to communicate effectively via 2 Meter FM simplex from various points in your city. Make station adjustments as necessary. Then find other stations and perform the same exercises.

As a mobile station, you don't have to be able to talk to a fixed station from every spot in town. Strive to find several distant points around the perimeter of your city where you can communicate and make notes of these locations. You might make a simple log to remind you of what fixed stations you can work from what locations.

Finally, you may want to plot mobile to mobile capabilities from different locations in your town.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. You should do it now before the repeaters go silent.

It doesn't make much sense for a group to say it will fall back to simplex operations should local repeaters fail during a disaster if they don't' know what their simplex capabilities are.

73,

WF5TX