Dan Keller's Amateur and Scanner Radio Site

Call sign KG6OIE

Why amateur and scanner radios?

Emergency preparedness:
- San Francisco's Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) -- volunteers trained by the SF Fire Department but organized by themselves in each neighborhood
- San Francisco Auxiliary Communications Service (SF ACS) -- volunteers who supply communications assistance to the agencies of the City and County of San Francisco especially during disasters
- Here is ACS's band plan for the 2-meter radio users and ACS's radio plan Appendix VIII rev 3 and ACS's radio plan Chapter 8 rev 3.
- San Francisco Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) -- "licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes"
Know what's going on around you:
- At big events like Burning Man which has its own Burning Hams radio site
- During disasters, listen to the emergency services
Chat with like-minded folks (hams are, well, hams) -- e.g. the San Francisco Amateur Radio Club (SFARC)
Fool around with technology (we geeks think that's fun)

Why this web site?

To share what I've learned about using radios

To share the quick-reference cards I've helped to develop.
The manufacturers ought to provide these! Better yet, the manufacturers should employ user interface design experts when they design these products. The cards are my remedy for the neanderthal user interfaces on these powerful but absurdly hard-to-use devices.
For the tasks most commonly done with each radio, the quick-ref cards show the button-press sequences (and remedies for errors). Unless you use the radio a lot, it's hard to remember how. Print these on 3x5 cards and carry them with the radio if, like mine, your memory of how to operate these miserable monsters is Swiss cheese.

My Radios

Ham (receive and transmit)

Yaesu VX-7R (3 bands, 5 watts)

This is the most popular radio among San Francisco NERTs.

VX-7R User's Manual

Quick-ref cards (Microsoft Word)

Contents
Features
Set the Power Level
Tune with the Knob (VFO)
Set the Squelch
Select Bands
Tune to a Specific Frequency
Tune to a Repeater Frequency
Store a Frequency in Memory
Tune from Memory (MR)
Override the Simplex/Repeater Mode
Scan the Stored Frequencies
Light the Display Backlight

Scanner (receive only)

Uniden BCD396T (digital, trunking)

BCD396T User's Manual

The easiest way to program and operate this radio is with a PC and the ARC396 software by BuTel.

Quick-ref cards

Contents
Features
Search a search range
Create a new system on the keypad
Store a frequency to scan using the keypad
Store a frequency to scan using the PC
Backup the radio's memory onto the PC
Listen for Close Calls
Listen for ham activity
Download frequencies and talkgroup data from radioreference.com and install as a new system
Listen to a particular agency (trunked)

Glossaries
Scanner Radio Glossary
Ham Radio Glossary

Some SF Bay Area repeaters (MS Excel format)

SF PD codes (formatted for quick-ref)

Police "Ten" Codes
Complaint Codes including the infamous 5150
Unit ID Prefixes
Unit IDs
Abbreviations
Police "Code" Codes