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Kenwood TM-D700 mobile/hospital use

 
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KC6VVT  



Joined: 03 Jan 2005
Posts: 37
Location: IL LaSalle Co Tonica

PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 3:51 am    Post subject: Kenwood TM-D700 mobile/hospital use Reply with quote

greetings all,

Have been using this excellent Kenwood TM-D700 rig for APRS mobile for some time now, and have a pretty good opinion of it.

I was not one to give up my KPC TNC and 12VDC laptop display for APRS easily. Once I attached the gps engine to this rig, and replaced a problem gps cable, it has proven very reliable and am more comfortable with homing in without the map display by using the List/Detail function and the distance/bearing (direction) to the station. And the last 40 stations are visible.

Further, if your GPS allows, it will capture stations heard by the rig as waypoints, so am happy to see the reduction in 5 state packet paths!

Many Illinois POD hospitals with ham volunteers are purchasing these rigs for back up emergency communications with their Regional hospital, both for the dual band VHF/UHF capability, plus the APRS mode (and ability to switch to packet with a computer. Running APRS Digipeater off is still recommended, unless needed as a WideN-n to link other hospitals, and rather would use only the ILn-N then instead of any Wide.

No GPS is required after the position is known when used as a hospital (or fixed) base in APRS mode, because from 1-5 latitude & longitudes may be preprogrammed in. Some discussion has been on what should be used for the hospital positions. Here are the leading emergency location contenders for these five stored locations that can be selected (and changed) with the menu:
1. Emergency Entrance (ambulance)
2. Helioport pad (air ambulance)
3. Triage/mass casualty staging area
4. Nearest intersection, if hospital and/or signs visible (more ambiguous)
5. (reserved for IMERT support)

I also have been successfully updating the rig mode and memory programing with software available using a laptop serial port with a direct serial connection, and would recommend keeping a program copy nearby or stored in the packet computer furnished by the hospital. Different setups may be saved along with latest updates.

Very impressed with technical aspects of this versatile rig, and do not hesitate to recommend to local hospitals, Public Health and local emergency management provide their are amateur radio volunteers willing to respond in ARES for the emergency and to run regular tests.

Be ready for the emergency out there!

Signed
Pat Ryan KC6VVT
ARRL Illinois Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator
ASEC/IL ARRL
P. O. Box 24 e-mail: kc6vvt@arrl.net
Tonica, IL 61370-0024
Monitor 146.52/446.00 FM/local repeaters
APRS KC6VVT-14 on 144.390 pl 100.3
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