Before you purchase a used radio try to make yourself aware of what sort of track record the radio or amateur radio product has. I highly endorse a web site called "eHAM".  That's a site that invites hams to provide reviews of their new or used amateur radio equipment including antennas.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/

eHam should be your first stop to see what others have to say about used or new equipment. It can give you a heads up about products that have certain flaws in design that may only show up under physical stress of use, or sensitivity to being in direct sunshine, and other things that you may not have even considered. Some manufacturers provide highly inadequate warranty service or technical support. You need to know that and eHam is the place to go.

Power

The 35 Amp AGM battery I have for portable use is a small recreational vehicle battery used in motorcycles, ATV's, that sort of thing. It's powerful enough for any of my temporary mobile needs. It's sealed and I don't have to worry about adding water or gassing that would smell up my radio room. AGM batteries are what are being used to replace the gel cell batteries we were used to using for similar applications but are more efficient.

I also have a sealed 110 Amp AGM battery for my radio room that is used to power up my HF gear and other equipment requiring 12 volts to operate. It could even power a linear amp providing I didn't spend too much time talking. Both batteries are charged simultaneously and maintained by a relatively low power intelligent charger designed to work with AGM batteries. I find it much better than using the regular big AC power supplies and it's there, too,  if the lights go out. My large battery is connected to an MFJ-1126 40 Amp distribution panel and it has Anderson Power Pole connectors on the front. All of my HF and mobile radios now have Power Pole connectors on them as do my vehicles. I can move my dual band Icom 208H from home to truck in only about 2 minutes.

Take a look at this for some ideas:

http://home.comcast.net/~buck0/app.htm

http://www.qsl.net/w2vtm/powerpole.html

In the brochures a tool for installing the connectors is mentioned but I'm not a fan of that method. I've heard of too many failures of wires pulling out. I prefer to use a small soldering iron to install the connector onto the cable. Whatever you do be careful about how you solder. If you are at all shakey get someone else to do the job, you don't want any solder to get onto the contact end. The contacts are silver plated and the solder flows on very well. One good thing about soldering the connectors is that I can reuse them whereas if I crimped them I'd have to cut them off and throw them away.

For the home you can also use a power supply for your radio power needs. There are two basic types, one we call analog and the other switching. Once again we have important decisions to make. Analog supplies are heavy for the ammount of current they can source. They have large iron core transformers in them. The good thing is that they are a quiet source of power, they do no produce electrical noise on their output side (not usually anyway).

Switching supplies are quite light in weight. If you have had a series of microwave ovens over the past 30 or more years you may have noticed that the old ones weighed quite a bit and were a bit of a chore to move around. The new microwave ovens are so light that if you accidentally slam the door the whole oven moves backward. That's because the old ones were using old technology requiring an iron core transformer. The new power supplies using switching technology and I won't get into the details other than square waves are produced in the switching process and whenever you create sharp voltage and current transitions you generate RF noise. Well made, military grade, switching supplies have excellent filtering on leads going in and out of the power supply boxes so no nasty noise gets out. Cheap power supplies often have noisy RF leakage that can disrupt HF communications. I have even heard of switching supplies that have generated enough noise to cause FM radios to desensitize and become deaf.

Generators

If you choose to have an AC power supply to run your equipment then you need to have some sort of backup power in case you lose power from the grid. I recently purchased a Champion 3KW generator (4KW peak), with wheels, from Canadian Tire when it was on sale ($300), virtually the same price for the same generator at Costco at their regular price. I have tried it out and it seems to work quite well. Pretty amazing what those industrious Chinese are cranking out these days. Costco also sells a 2KW generator (no wheels) for about twice the price of its bigger brother but it's way quieter and it has inverter circuitry to provide perfect 60 Hz frequencey output and constant voltage. It would be perfect for any of your electronics except for a big linear. That may load it too much. It can run a medium size microwave or other loads. It could take care of camping needs without slurping too much gas or making you an enemy of other campers. With a computer, a multimedia projector, a screen, and some good movies you could be a hero with the kids while camping in the back woods.  :-)

  Antennas

Mobile Antennas -

You will want an antenna that suits your needs. The ideal location for best signal distribution is square in the middle of your roof but this is impractical for most of us. Parking in underground parking or on board ferries there is a high probability that our antenna may be wiped off. Short antennas like 1/4 wave whip antennas are alright around town but the gain of the antenna is low. The best mobile antenna seems to be either a 1/2 wave or a 5/8 wave whip and they are usually mounted on a fender (various ways) or on the front lip of a trunk lid. Some antennas made by Diamond Antenna are designed to release and lay down if you wish to go into underground parking or on board the ferries.

The 2m whip mentioned in the above paragraph can be mounted on a magnetic mount and I enjoy using one.  I just used mine on a vehicle used in the Royal Victoria Marathon. I got power for my mobile radio through a cigarett lighter plug and set my transceiver onto low power. With the significant gain of the 5/8 wave whip I was able to stay in touch over the whole route. After the race was over I was able to take my equipment out of the lead car in under two minutes. Very handy. Since writing that item about plugging into the lighter socket I have hard wired with a pair of flexible 10 ga. wires to my battery terminals via a pair of fuses. The wires come to a space between the seats, same place as my antenna connection. The ends are fitted with Anderson Power Pole connectors same as a pair coming out of my radio. I don't leave my radio in the vehicle. When I take it out it's only temporary. Most of the time it's hooked up in the ham shack via the same sort of power pole connectors.

http://www.andersonpower.com/products/singlepole-connectors.html

Another thought about roof mounted radios is regarding resale value of the vehicle. If you have an older vehicle a hole in the roof with a snap in plug will likely not reduce the value appreciedly whereas a hole in the middle of a newer vehicle may turn a prospective buyer right off. Many of the new fender or trunk antenna mounts can fasten on in such a way that there is little evidence left behind after the antenna has been removed.

 Further to this is that if you have a dual band radio you will need a dual band antenna. There is quite a sellection to choose from. I won't elaborate beyond what I have mentioned. My favorite antennas are ones which mount on a right angle mount on a fender. I'm not fussy about mag mount antennas but do use them in situations like when I had to be a communications person in the lead car of the Royal Victoria marathon. I plugged into the cigarrette lighter socket, put up my 5/8 wave mag mount, and was ready to work. It must now be evident that what you equip yourself with should be related to your actual needs. That's the tough part, knowing how to be prepared for every eventuality.

 Base Antennas (Fixed Station) -

 The radios I am recommending are dual band radios with the VHF 2m band and the 70 cm UHF band. This is a pretty common package and so dual band antennas are also common and easy to purchase.

Comet  and others makes several dual band base antennas and most have a fibre glass shell to protect from the weather.

- Comet GP-3

-Comet GP-6 dual bander with 6 dB of gain

-Comet GP-9  dual bander with almost 9 dB of gain (about 20 feet long)

These Comet antennas get progressively more pricey as their capabiliites go up and taller.

So far so good with the Comet GP-6 and GP-9's my group have been using. Very good reviews on the GP-9 from a lady friend who has a Yaesu VX-7 5w hand held radio and who regularly goes on a simplex net and often leads it. She's as solid as any one of us using our mobile radios.This lady regularly works a repeater approximately 100 Km away using her Comet GP-9. I think that's terrific.

See details on the NCG Comet antennas at:

http://www.cometantenna.com/products.php?CatID=1&famID=5&childID=4

Another dual band base antenna that may prove to be better than the ones in the Comet line is the Diamond X200A. It too is a dual bander and eHam reviews look very good for it.

http://rfparts.com/diamond/Product_Catalog/base_station.html

Last but not least is a simple but very good antenna made by Arrow Antenna. The one I'm thinking of is the J146/440 solid element, open stub, j-pole antenna. It's a dual band 2m, 70 cm antenna. Very economical yet works very well. Very sturdy construction. Can often be mounted on toilet/drain vent pipes on roofs and the coax run through a roof air vent, the whole thing becoming a stealth antenna installation. They have been installed in many restricted covenant building locations without complaint. If the building roof is a peaked one with duroid shingles the antenna can be totally stealth, it can be mounted in the attic.  Look in the Antenna page of this site and look for instructions on building an equivalent to the Arrow J146/440. One thing to realize is they do not have high gain and so may not be adequate for your emergency simplex operation needs.

http://www.arrowantennas.com/

Check with your ham radio supply store/s for pricing and suggestions. They want you to be a happy customer so that you will return. Consider the breakdown possibility and need for repair.

Icom has a depot in Richmond.

Radio World has a repair facility in Toronto and do service on the equipment they sell.

If you want a great price on a Yaesu and fast service is not a consideration then you may consider US stores like HRO in Portland Oregon. They have some great prices. Be warned about any Japanese made radios sold in the US like the Yaesu and Icom models. Canadian shops will generally not honour the warantees if purchased out of Canada. The equipment will need to go back to the US for service.

Check out swap and shop listings on line and used equipment on eBay.

O/K so much for the antennas you can purchase. Lots to choose from. Don't think that you can't come up with some pretty decent home built antennaas yourself. If you choose to build your own (See the antennas section of this web site) be careful. You can wreck the final in your radio by transmitting into a bad load. The best solution is to be a part of a group or even to have a friend who has an antenna analyser. You can use that to determine if the antenna is correctly tuned or not and if not then it can assist you in getting the antenna to the right resonating  length. In my case I won't lend out my analyser but will go along with it to help someone. I've seen too many club owned analysers smoked by beginners who thought that transmitting into them would tell them the power output of their radio. Yes, it happens time and again unfortunately.

Why do I Need Certification to Operate in an Emergency ?

There are several reasons. Under normal circumstances your equipment could be confiscated and you could be fined. Outside of that there are operating protocols used by certified radio amateurs that are followed, if not by law then by convention - standards that we all have agreed upon locally and internationally. If you get on the air and start jabbering without using correct protocols you would imediately be recognized as a fraud, even during a disaster and may be looked upon with skepticism . This means that if you are actually trying to report a life or death problem you may be looked upon as the boy who cried wolf. It does not hurt to take a full size course, actually learn how you are expected to behave, how to talk, how the radio and antenna and feedline works. Become a respected member of the amateur radio community.

Doing Your Part

Consider joining your local municipal or city emergency preparedness group. It speaks volumes about who you are and your intent when you become a conscientious volunteer.

Have you joined RAC (Radio Amateurs Canada) ?  That is the Canadian agency responsible for being our liason with government and with other amateur radio groups here and around the world. If you subscribe to them you get to be a member plus they send you a bimonthly magazine called TCA (The Canadian Amateur).  Cost of membership is running at $52.50 a year. By subscribing you are helping  to support a very useful small organization that helps all Canadian hams.

www.rac.ca/store/membership-form-e.htm