[Ansteorra] Walkie-Talkiers and Cell Phones

ke5zw at wt.net ke5zw at wt.net
Mon Sep 18 21:49:58 PDT 2006


Greetings.....

As one that does this type of work (radio communcations) for a major state 
agency, I can speak here from experience.

I have provided communications for 2 major events in past years,  
Ansteorra 20th year and 25th year celebrations.

In the perfect event enviroment, one would not need mundane type 
communications, but in todays events, with the amounts of space that are 
covered (such as the Canton or Ravensfort site), the use of radios is 
absolutly invaluable! and saves many, many, many steps and makes the logistics 
of an event MUCH easier and efficent.

Now, before anyone gets their knives out and comes after me about period-ness 
and such, I admit that there are times and ways to either not have the radios 
present (such as court) or at least minimize their visibility as much as 
possible.

There are ways to do that (and I will discuss that in a moment) but sometimes 
it just is not possible, so much like the pimple tents, we need to understand 
the usefulness of the item and over-look it.

In planning any event today, the event team needs to be thinking about 
communications on site. Some events may only need an FRS radio or two that can 
talk across the field to the gate, while like Ansteorra 25th year, we had 2 
UHF commercial repeaters, 40+ portable radios and base stations at the hall, 
Medical Control and one other place. We were able to talk from anywhere on 
the site to just about anywhere in Canton (including inside Wal-Mart) with 
ease. 

This made the logistics and operation of the event much easier. It was most 
useful for the medical issues and security isssues.

As I said before, most events don't need this level of communications. But a 
few FRS radios or even some commercial UHF or VHF radios will make your event 
run much smoother.

In planning this, keep in mind not everyone needs a radio. A basic list would 
be.... the Gate, The Event Steward, The Kitchen or Feast Steward, Medical, and 
security (if you have such). You can grow from there if need be. 

In most cases, the FRS radios are fine. But I would recommend getting ones 
that are of a good quality (not Radio Shark....uhhh, I mean Shack) but ones 
made by Motorola, Midland, Kenwood or such. 

First of all, with the FRS radios, turn off the ringing, beeping or whatever 
tones they make when you key up the radios and use the "Quite Tones" so that 
you only hear who you want to.

If the event is large, complicated or just needs better communications than 
what the FRS (Family Radio Service) radios will provide, then I would suggest 
you check around in your group and see if you can find an Amateur Radio 
Operator or someone that has radio related knowledge to help obtain some 
commercial type radios. You can rent them from many radio shops for not too 
much for a weekend.

As for the period-ness of the radios, you can help that by making pouches for 
them to be carried in, place them in a bag or under a tunic, out of sight, use 
a speaker mike that can be hidden under a collar or even a mike/ear piece set 
up much like what the Secret Service uses that has the ear piece that hides 
very well and a mike that is placed in the cuff of a shirt.

At one time, I had a belt favor / pouch in the pattern of the crown I was on 
entourage with that was large enough to hold a radio and I ran a ear piece up 
my shirt to listen for folks calling me. Worked pretty good, had a low level 
of visibility.

Radios are not evil, they will save many steps and help find people that need 
to be located in a moments notice rather than running helter-skelter looking.

Its all in the presentation and creativeness of the users.

If someone would like, I could teach a basic radio class at a kings college or 
event. Just let me know and what level is desired.

In Service,

HE Niklas Vasilevich


Quoting Hillary Greenslade <hillaryrg at yahoo.com>:

> Walkie-Talkies tend to work better at events were cell phones will 
> not have good reception, such as at sites with high trees.  My cell 
> will not work at Gulf Wars, unless I'm out in an open field, such as 
> near the tennis courts or battle fields.  
> 
> If you are coordinating an event or are a Seneschal for a group, 
> don't depend on everyone having the same reception access as yourself, 
> if you have great reception. Walkie-Talkies may still be the best use 
> of site communication at many events.    
> 
> But Lorraine raises a good thought - learning good communication 
> standards for using Walkie-Talkies and Cell phones at events.... 
> sounds like a good class - 'Event Communication Protocols', 
> anyone qualified to teach it???   If so, offer it at the next 
> Round Table or King's College.  I'd be interested in taking it!
> 
> Cheers, Hillary
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________


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