As a proud member of the County Office of Emergency Services, our role during a disaster is to provide emergency communications. We are the largest in the United states and are larger than each of the nine smallest states. County OES also has the distinct honor of being perhaps the best trained force of disaster responders in the entire country as well.Our ECS members have performed over 7,500 man hours in 2007-2008 during our infamous raging forest fires. In fact, my own mountain home was evacuated for 7 days last year as the Butler II fire burned within 1/4 mile of my back door. Our members attend FEMA training many times each year and we are proud to say that our unpaid professionals possess disaster skills often without parallel. From EOC operations to direct fire line communications and video services, we have set a standard for similar agencies around the country.

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My primary mobile radio is a Yaesu FT-8900. Working nicely with the 8900 is the VX-7R hand-held. Protected against water ingress by a wide array of rubber gaskets and other weatherproofing techniques, the VX-7R is rated for 30 minutes of submersion at a depth of 3 feet (JIS-7), plus a tough magnesium body with rubber bumper pads, making it ideal for outdoor use. Plus you get Dual Receive, 50/144/430 MHz operation plus wide-band receive coverage, a full color status indicator Strobe, and an "Internet" key for quick access to the exciting new WIRES™ repeater-internet linking system.

Okay - there's the sales pitch. In one sentence, the battery performance is poor. Extending the battery life, or using alternative power, have been discussed at places like http://eham.net -> http://www.eham.net/forums/EmergencyCommunications/4961 and some good ideas gleaned. Yet still, the battery performance of the VX-7R remains its weakness, especially for disaster communicators. I have found an excellent solution that I would like to share with you.