Paul Coats, a talented musician, inventor, arranger and more wrote to the Bass Sax Coop posse about his recent hurricane Gustav experience in Louisiana. It was such a compelling read that I asked him if I could post it here.

I am at a friend’s house that we are watching for them while they are away.  It is 5 blocks from our house, and they just now got power back on.  I’m basking in the air conditioning…. ahhhhhh!!!!

I just found out our ISP is up and running, too. So, things are slowly coming back. The "eye" of the hurricane passed directly over us.  It was strange, high winds (70-90 mph) coming from the northeast, then almost suddenly still.  The rain fell to a soft drizzle, then after a few minutes quit. 

We, and all the people up and down the street, took that opportunity to clear debris from the storm drains along the edge of the street.  We live on a intersection, so we had four corners, each with a drain on both sides.  Water was up over the curbs, but as soon as we pulled a little of the leaves and limbs out it started moving, and whooshed into a little whirpool.  In 15-20 minutes the streets were completely drained. 

About 30 minutes later, altogether the still of the eye was about 50 min – 1 hr.  Anyway, 30 min later the wind started from the opposite direction, coming from the SW.  It was not quite as strong, but still bad.

We had NO roof damage.  We had the roof reshingled last year with the top quality "30 year" shingles.  We had the windows covered with plywood.  Of course, this was already precut, marked as to which window each piece fit, we had used it in previous storms.  We had a large birch tree, about 15" dia trunk, break about 8′ up.  But it did not hit anyone’s house or anything else. 

Lots of big limbs and leaves in the yard, but other than the broken birch, nothing more serious. Worse was no power.  It got hot and sticky quickly.  We had ice chests, ice, etc, ate perishables first.  Grilled chicken, other meats as they began to thaw.  We picked up more ice, water, and military MRE’s (Meals, Ready To Eat) but will consume our food first.  Well, we cleaned out the fridge and freezer, got that carried off and tossed in the nearby school’s dumpster where it can stink over there.  Hah!

There are only a few stores open, running rental generators. My youngest daughter is at LSU (Louisiana State University) and is a certified EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), in other words, can work for ambulance services.  She volunteered for a "special needs" shelter (elderly, handicapped, ) set up at the university.  It turns out that she has met many people from our area that she knew.  I’m sure that just seeing a familiar smiling face is comforting to a lot of the people in the shelter.  She met the Louisiana governor, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and got a photo taken for the paper, interviewed for TV.  Hah!  She may be in USA Today.  Her 15 seconds of fame.

Scroll down to the 13th photo.  That is my daughter in the middle in the LSU jersey laughing at who knows what.  La. Gov. Bobby Jindal in the foreground. http://www.lsureveille.com/photos_gustav_whips_through_br%252C_campus

Anyway, we are all just fine, My house and outbuildings (storeroom, workshop) are in good condition, no damage whatsoever.  Just waiting for electricity to come back on.  We do have water, and sewerage is working, that is, the toilets flush.  The water heater is natural gas, so we even have hot water for showers/baths.

Wednesday, Sept 3.  Peggy says the cell phones have just switched from Roaming to our regular service.  And now we have electricity!  Very unexpected. Power in Morgan City just came back on (Wed, Sept 3, about 2 pm).  (We live in Bayou Vista, an unincorporated area outside of the MC city limits)

Thanks for asking… we will be fine.  And thanks for all the calls, offers of a place to stay.  That is really much appreciated.  Just knowing we have those kinds of friends is a great boost.

Paul

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What has been interesting, with the power off, is the total lack of RFI on the radio… radio frequency interference.  No power line interference, no computers (which are VERY noisy as far as RF), routers, microwaves, CD players, and all the other devices that make buzz and hum.  Tuning across the AM band was like FM with stereo mute engaged.  Between stations just NO noise.  Well, a little.  If I turn the RF gain and volume all the way up, I can barely hear a soft "shhhhh" between stations.

And even in day I was getting some quite distant stations.  For example, KTRH 740 khz in Houston, TX, is about 250 miles away, and came in clearly on my Grundig S350DL (same as Eton S350DL, Tecsun BCL-3000).
Local AM and FM stations are all off the air, though I did pick up quiet full strength carriers for some.  I was able to easily pick up various Lafayette, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge stations.  Those are all 70 or more miles away.

Shortwave is coming in well, too.  The total absence of RFI is a benefit, too. All of this experience is spurring me on to study for a ham license and also get set up for a quick-to-erect antenna system.  With literally no communications for a while, ham radio has really been shown to not be "out of date".

Paul

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I can not stress enough the importance of a good radio.  With no electricity there is no TV.  There are no local radio stations.  There is no Internet.  There is no news.  Our land line phones always worked, but we were lucky.  Many lost phone, too.  Cell phone was intermittent for us.  In some areas, neither worked.

Our Internet service was DSL.  If it had been cable, we would not have net until today.  Even though we had working phone lines, if the ISP has no power, they can’t run the servers, which was the case here until yesterday. 

So, all of those modern communication devices you assume are so reliable may not be.

I have gone through several radios which were lacking, and settled on the Grundig S350DL.  This radio is sold variously as the Grundig S350DL, the Eton S350DL, and the Tecsun BCL-3000.  Be careful about buying the Tecsun, there are some counterfeits out there.

• http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/0043.html
• http://www.radiointel.com/review-tecsunbcl3000.htm
• http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2431363

This radio is usually sold for about $100 USD new.  Sometimes you can find it a few dollars cheaper on ebay, but not by much.  The Grundig version is black only.  Red and Silver also available for Eton and Tecsun versions.

The Grundig and Eaton versions operate from 4 D cells, as does the Tecsun.  But the Grundig/Eton has an additional battery compartment UNDER the 4 D cells that accepts 4 AA cells.  It will not operate as long, but it will operate on 4 AA’s.  There is an AC adapter, a "wall wart", but that is useless if there is no electrical power.

I have operated this radio over the past year intermittantly with the same set of D cells in there now.  It has operated 8-10 hours daily since Monday (today is Thursday) and the battery meter still shows full power.  I have been told this radio will operate a very long time on a set of batteries.

It has a large speaker, I think 4.5", and gives excellent fidelity, clear, distortion-free sound, that can be heard all over the room.  This feature alone makes it a very good radio.

This radio receives AM, FM and Shortwave up to 28 mhz (10 meter band).  This includes the 60 meter, 49 meter, and other international broadcast bands.  It does not have SSB (Single Side Band) which most hams use now, even though it will receive the 80 meter, 40 meter, 30 meter, 20 meter, and other ham bands.

Note, it has KNOBS!  Tuning is analog, though the frequency readout is digital.  Knobs for volume, RF gain, treble, bass.  Switches for bands and narrow/wide mode filtering.

The important thing, unlike many other radios these days, this one does not require a manual to figure out how to turn it on and dial in a station.  Anyone in the family can pick it up and find a station.

The built in antennas (telescoping whip for FM and SW, internal ferrite bar antenna for AM/MW) are more than adequate, but external antennas may be connected to rear panel terminals.

Are there better radios?  Of course!  But for this purpose and price, I doubt you can find better.

I was able to get news from any number of AM and FM stations 70 or more miles away.  I could hear a Houston AM station during the day… 240 miles away.  Of course, at night the dx rolls in, but even in day, this is an excellent radio.

Paul Coats

Listen to Paul’s MP3’s and view saxophone photos at: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/tenorman1952
Paul Coats is the sole US importer of SAXRAX products from http://www.saxrax.com