NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH HANDOUTS

PROVIDING COMMS IN SHTF, DO YOU HAVE A PLAN?

Every neighborhood needs a comms guy to take care of items like this. If you are reading this, YOU are the one!

People might have FRS/GMRS radios in their hunting kit, but how many have anything but a wall wart to charge them with? Most I suspect.

Few people have solar setups to even charge a radio, so having a self-contained case with (5) radios and chargers running off a small panel will go a long way towards turning your neighbors into eyes & ears for you and your neighborhood.

Below is the setup I made for handouts when a grid-down SHTF scenario arises.

The key to the kit is the DROK buck circuit that takes the variable 17vdc from the panel and provides the 10.1vdc needed for the RT6 charging cradles.

I also found that the standoffs on the panel are crucial for not overheating the batteries & panel itself, allow plenty of air flow behind the panel.

I can also charge the whole setup with a 12vdc supply with the Anderson Powerpole connecter that is paralleled into the input side of the DROK.

I have a second DROK laying around somewhere that I plan to put in to get the amps up to 6A charging, one will charge (3) batteries fine, but current sluffs off on the last (2) cradles with just one DROK.

If I were to do this over again, I would use these UV-5R Ham Radios with extended batteries that can be charged from a 5v USB outlet and not worry about robustness.

It’s handout, beggars can’t be choosers!

Anyway, just a quick demo of my setup to get you thinking about one for your own community.

Besides two TAC channels on the VHF and one on UHF I program these standard freq in as well as surrounding repeaters. “SEA” = Marine channels.

US2SIM 146.52

US7SIM 440

MUR 1 151.82

MUR 2 147.38

MUR 3 151.94

GMRS 1 462.55

GMRS 2 462.575

GMRS 3 462.6

GMRS 4 462.625

GMRS 5 462.65

GMRS 6 462.675

GMRS 7 462.7

GMRS 8 462.725

FRS1 462.5625

FRS2 462.5875

FRS3 462.625

FRS4 462.6375

FRS5 462.66

FRS6 462.6875

FRS7 462.7125

FRS8 467.5625

FRS9 467.5875

FRS10 467.6125

FRS11 467.6375

FRS12 467.6375

FRS13 467.6875

FRS14 467.7125

SEA 01 160.65

SEA 02 160.7

SEA 03 160.75

SEA 04 160.8

SEA 05 160.85

SEA 06 156.3

SEA 07 160.95

SEA 08 156.4

SEA 09 156.45

SEA 10 156.5

SEA 11 156.55

SEA 12 156.6

SEA 13 156.65

SEA 14 156.7

SEA 15 156.75

SEA 16 156.8

SEA 17 156.85

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10.14.2024

This system is now retired, please have a look at the replacement here…