We just finished the 2018 Stagecoach Run. This is a 100-mile run from Flagstaff to Tusayan along the Arizona Trail. Yes, people run 100-miles. I’ll do another article on the race itself. This article is about emergency communications.

Last year I did this race from the Watson Tank aid station. I used the equipment described in this series of articles. It worked well, so I expected no problems this year.

This year I planned to use my TYT-7800 cross-bander to assist in communicating according to the band plan. I was going to use the Baofeng UV-2501 as a back up. There is a saying, however, about the best laid plans. An equipment failure caused me to MacGyver-up.

On the WARC Facebook page, I described an incident on Wednesday, August 8. I was assigned to conduct the ARES net. I intended to use a mobile on vehicle power as an emergency power test because I was on a camping trip. As it turned out, my power cord broke for the mobile and I did not bring my spare. I was a bit frustrated until I remembered that I always carry an antenna adapter to attach my HT to my vehicle mag-mount. From my location in the Kaibab Forest, I could not get into the 146.980 repeater on Mount Elden with even the extended antenna. I connected my BF-F9 (pictured is the Baofeng UV-82HP) to my mag-mount and was able to get into the repeater and conduct the net without a problem on the ultimate emergency power source. The HT warmed up some, but performed good. I also carry one in my go kit. You never know when you will need it.

As I traveled to the 2018 Stagecoach Run Watson Tank aid station, my power cord that fits in the accessory port fried. I switched to simplex and, apparently, the radio switched to high power. I normally run on a low power setting. This probably fried the power cord.

I thought I had it covered as I has a spare power cord. I found out, to my dismay, that I did not have a ready spare. I did, however, have an old power cord that was previously damaged and that I previously fixed. That fix broke and I had to redo an old fix that I used before. The problem was that I did not bring the proper material to fix it.

I needed connectors. The type used to splice wires together that I call blade connectors. They are commonly found at hardware and auto parts stores. I thought I had some of these, but did not. One of the members of the aid station fortunately had some. I connected some on the ends of the accessory plug and slide them into the power cord for the UV-2501.

Some of these connectors are tight and they are hard to remove from the power cord when you get a replacement. These connectors went on and off without a problem. So I can use this power cord in an emergency.

I set up the equipment as I did before. We were able to communicate through the Bill Williams Mountain Radio Club 146.780 repeater.

Another problem was the adapter for my Baofeng-to-mag mount antenna broke. It was the type with the pig tail which I usually do not use. The simple recommendation is use the straight adapter, which I normally use I did remember to take extra adapters, so this was not a problem.

This is what makes working community events important. People seem to go on with life ignoring the possibility of disaster. Until Florence hits. Until a major snow storm hits knocking out power and phone for days and preventing travel. Until the day when you need to call for help.

Every problem in a non-critical situation is a chance for you to learn how to toughen up your system when it is needed in a critical situation. You can also pay attention to the situation around you and see what worked and did not work in the communications link. Did some stations have to use a repeater instead of simplex? Did batteries die because some did not charge them up the night before?