XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.sys.mac.advocacy
AJL <
noemail@none.com> wrote
On 11/18/2023 10:47 PM, Wally J wrote:
AJL <noemail@none.com> wrote
we don't normally get rain from about March or April to about now.
Sometimes we get rivers of rain. Sometimes not. It's fickle.
Weather.
Things are pretty constant here in the desert, hot and dry...
Ah, hot and dry? We're hot and dry too (not as hot, and not as dry
though), but we have thick "chaparral" which is flammable.
And we have PG&E power distribution lines running through the chaparral.
PG&E is to electricity as the Ford Pinto was to automobiles, so to speak.
<
https://yubanet.com/regional/as-californias-wildfire-season-starts-pge-turns-on-enhanced-powerline-safety-settings-across-all-high-fire-risk-areas/>
Notice that we are on wells most of us in the mountains as they don't pump water thousands of feet up the hill I guess. So we draw our own water.
Do you have a well out there in the desert?
I don't know a single person that doesn't have at least one
generator. Unfortunately, some people use a suicide cord, which is
just dangerous.
I had to look up 'suicide cord' cause in my last (and final) job I ran
across a few folks who had hung themselves using an electric cord. But
Google set me straight...
It's called a suicide cord because it is male on both 220VAC ends of the
cord; and if power is suddenly added to one end and you touch it...zzzap!
<
https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/generators/why-suicide-extension-cords-are-so-dangerous-a1189731437/>
As far as I know, they don't sell these male-to-male cords; so you have to fabricate your own cord (which in and of itself, is another safety issue).
Oh my! I just googled to make sure I was stating facts that they don't sell 'em, and they do! Yikes. I can't imagine what their lawyers think of that.
<
https://midrange.tedium.co/issues/consumer-product-safety-commission-suicide-cable/>
With the male-to-male cord, people plug one male end into the female or
into the female NEMA L1430R Locking Outlet on the generator and then they
plug the other end into a corresponding female or 220VAC outlet (usually
for a clothes dryer) anywhere they have it.
<
https://www.batteryequivalents.com/generator-suicide-cord-male-to-male-extension-cord.html>
There's an additional issue if you don't also turn off the mains because
you're back powering the grid (in effect) so a linesman is at risk if he "thinks" he's working on a dead line (but you're feeding into it).
<
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_fxXGb8t_k>
BTW, a generator is like an FM radio out here in that it's nice to have
when you need it, and, unfortunately, even PG&E says that we need it.
<
https://www.pge.com/en/outages-and-safety/safety/community-wildfire-safety-program.html>
Just like with the FM radio built into the phone, you want a generator that
is built into the house (which most of us have) with a transfer switch.
Out here, a built-in generator always has a huge built-in (usually wall-mounted) transfer switch that automatically isolates the home & grid.
Those wall-mounted transfer switch boxes have to be installed by an
electrician and hence they cost a pretty penny just to isolate the grid.
That's why it's so neat that PG&E will provide to people in the highest
fire danger area and who are therefore subject to the EPSS shutoffs a free backup power transfer meter which isolates the grid & provides the cord.
<
https://www.avpsn.org/>
The cord is, naturally, a female on the end that attaches to the meter.
The cord is also fused (I think it's fused at 30 amps) on both lines.
<
https://www.avpsn.org/images/images/LED_Indicators_for_PGE_Backup_Power_Transfer_Meter.jpg>
The only problem people have with the beefy cord is it's only 20 feet.
But we can't find the proprietary four-pronged connectors that PG&E uses so we'd have to cannibalize the cord (or make a connection) which we won't do.
It's bad that we need it but when we need it, it's nice to have this.
<
https://www.avpsn.org/images/images/power/pge_transfer_meter_operaton.pdf>
Hmmm.... that's EXACTLY the point on the FM radio, isn't it?
*It's better to have it for when you need it than to not have it at all!*
Back in the day (got my first ticket in 1956) you had to pass a
written AND a Morse Code test. Guess not anymore...
No Morse Code anymore.
Last I listened to the ham CW (Continuous Wave = Morse Code) bands they
were dead. I suspect most all the CW ops I used to work are now dead too...
I never listened on CW and I listened a bit in the very beginning to the repeater traffic but now it's only there for emergency or hiking use.
But you do have to pass the written test. The way I passed the test
was I put on my iPad a zillion free HAM radio tests, which contained
the EXACT QUESTIONS to the exams (so it was easy).
They had study books in the old days, but pretty much the same thing.
The good part was EVERY question is covered in these tools, verbatim, even
down to the specific letter (A,B,C,D) of the multiple-choice questions.
The bad news is some of the tools cost money and I never buy programs for
the smarphone or for the iPad, on principle of privacy alone.
Of course, now the FCC knows EXACTLY who I am and where I live! :)
I don't know if the repeater we mostly use has that [autopatch],
Probably not. No reason these days with cell phones.
I don't know. In the beginning they were doing radio checks where they got people on the other side of the valley - which is a good 30 or 40 miles.
but we have gotten people from extremely far away on the radio.
Depends on the repeater location and height. I could work hams in Tucson
from Phoenix cause the repeater was on our South Mountain and had line
of sight to both cities.
We have plenty of LOS out here...
Most mountains out here are about 3,000 to 4,000 feet, and much like it is
in Phoenix, the mountains are surrounded by the valleys (so to speak).
We get our WISP (wired) internet service over the air from miles away.
<
https://i.postimg.cc/VvqLKQtQ/wifi.jpg> Typical range is about 10 miles
We're so used to it, that we even hook up powerful radios to our laptops.
<
https://i.postimg.cc/vT0Krpfc/laptop-nanobeam-horn.jpg> Laptop to horn
What's interesting is that for less than people pay for a home router, we
get access points that can go for miles & they can only go 300 feet or so.
<
https://i.postimg.cc/YqTk0q1T/ap.jpg> Cellular repeater & home Wi-Fi APs
They're kind'a big though... :)
I don't play with it [ham radio] all that much. Mostly I bring it on
my backcountry hikes, where it's my emergency backup in case I break
a leg or get bitten by a rattler or whatever.
Depends on the backcountry and where the repeater is cause 2 meter
repeaters generally require line of sight to work.
You bring up a good point that when we hike, it's so mountanous and riven
with gullies, gulches and steep ravines, that I liken hiking to a war.
You can easily enter into a ravine on your own terms, just like you can
easily enter a war on your own terms - but you can't get out on your own
terms - you can only leave a steep ravine on the terms of the ravine.
Which is basically first a stream and then a lake and then civilization.
The mountains out here aren't old like they are in Phoenix (whose mountains were taller than the Himalayas at one point). Your mountains eroded to fill
the valleys where our mountains are hundreds of millions of years newer,
and hence more riven with gulches and gullies as yours have worn through.
An FM radio isn't needed on hikes as much as a HAM radio would be;
but if there was an emergency
I see no value of an FM radio on a hike. A ham radio and/or cellphone
makes more sense for the type of emergency likely encountered there.
Agree. An FM radio is useful in emergencies when you want to know what's
going on, which is why a phone with it is always better than one without.
my call sign is of the KMxxxx type,
I'm gonna guess that your call is KM6xxx if it goes by the old ways I remember. 6 is for the 6th district which is (was?) CA.
Yup. I didn't want to give too much away but yes, it's a KM6xxx while the
call sign I contact most is AB6xx where I was unaware how numbering worked.
but some of my neighbors are ABxxx (notice only 5 characters for
them but 6 for mine).
4 character calls used to be reserved for the Extra Class (highest) ham license. It was a status symbol. Regular 5 character calls (like mine - W7xxx) were for everyone else (Technician, General, and Advanced).
Except the Novice license which had an extra "N" inserted until they
upgraded and lost the 'N' (they only had a year to upgrade). They ran
out of the 5 character calls in the 60s IIRC so started the 6 character licenses. But things are likely different now, and I've not kept up.
Ah. Thanks for that background detail. The guy who set up the group buy for
the entire neighborhood is the one with that call sign. He's written books
on the subject so I simply paid him my fifty bucks ($25 for me and for my
wife) and my wife and I studied on the iPad and took the test en masse.
The only reason I wanted the HAM radio was for emergency purposes.
Just as that's the main reason my cell phone has an FM radio inside.
all of us have either a T-Mobile, AT&T or Verizon femtocell
(connected to the router) or a two-piece cellular repeater (I have
both) so that our signal strength is perfect inside the house even
though we're miles from the nearest cell towers.
My Verizon is two bars in the house but I use WiFi calling and that
solves the problem. Calls are then like a landline.
Long ago, before 5G, T-Mobile would give people, gratis, in order:
a. First, a wi-fi capable router (which is what you're using & I have)
b. Then they started giving out the cellular repeater (which I have)
c. And finally, they gave people the femtocell (which I also have)
Each has an advantage that the other doesn't provide, just like having an
aux jack, portable memory slot and FM radio in a cellphone gives you.
A. A portable memory slot enables portable memory (which is nice)
B. An aux jack enables wired headphone use (which is nice)
C. An FM radio enables emergency information (which is nice)
Just like I have all three basic hardware features (Wi-Fi router, cellular repeater, and cellular femtocell) each of which adds functionality...
I have all three features in my free Samsung Galaxy A32-5G smart phone.
a. AUX Jacks are in 75% of current Android models; *0% in current iPhones*
b. FM Radio is in 50% of current Android models; *0% in current iPhones*
c. Portable memory is in 71% of current Android models; *0% in iPhones*
We are so far in the boonies, that we don't have the option of
cable, so we get all our Internet over the air from a nearby
mountaintop too. Which makes us pretty self sufficient in an
emergency...
My cable is pretty good but when it does go out the WiFi calling is too
dumb to know it. It's apparently programmed to switch to the cell when
it loses the WiFi signal but not when the WiFi is good but the Internet
is gone. So a dead phone IF I don't happen to be online and catch it...
Most of us have the same Wi-Fi-calling needs I would think, even as my
signal inside the house is probably better than most due to the fact that I also have two separate towers in the home (a repeater and a femtocell).
I just snapped these screenshots for you as I have a one-tap shortcuts
folder which contains a single-tap jump to the relevant Wi-Fi setup.
<
https://i.postimg.cc/P5Kb99jy/wificall01.jpg> Roaming & Network Settings
There are all sorts of Wi-Fi switching settings in Android that I'm not
sure myself which are the most efficient settings. Maybe you can advise?
<
https://i.postimg.cc/xTDPzL5v/wificall02.jpg> Wi-Fi Calling Priorities
Notice also that in Android "Developer options" there's more, e.g., you can prioritize "Wi-Fi Safe Mode" which prioritizes Wi-Fi over stability & you
can set "Mobile Data Always Active" which keeps mobile data active even
when on Wi-Fi which they claim is "for faster network switching".
<
https://i.postimg.cc/g0TVkhr6/wificall03.jpg> Wi-Fi Developer options
As always, anyone who knows more about those settings should let the rest
of us learn from them as I don't know which ones to set at what myself.
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