Travel vaccination

Travelling with children can be challenging, but planning ahead can reduce parental stress.

Anyone travelling overseas should visit their doctor or travel health clinic to find out what vaccinations they need. Even if you think your travel destination is safe, keep in mind that disease outbreaks can and do happen. Always check.

Make sure you and your children are healthy before you start traveling.

Vaccinations provide protection against diseases you might meet along the way. For some countries no immunizations are necessary, but the further off the beaten track you go the more necessary it is to take precautions.

Plan ahead for getting your vaccinations: some of them require an initial shot followed by a booster, while some vaccinations should not be given together. It is recommended you seek medical advice at least six weeks prior to travel.

Most children from Western countries will have been immunized against various diseases during childhood but your doctor may still recommend booster shots against measles or polio, diseases still prevalent in many developing countries. Apart from these, special vaccinations are not normally given to children under 12 months of age. Talk to your doctor.

The possible list of vaccinations includes:

Smallpox: Smallpox has now been wiped out worldwide, so immunization is no longer necessary.

Cholera: Not required by law but occasionally travelers face bureaucratic problems on some border crossings. Protection is poor and it lasts only six months. It is contra-indicated in pregnancy.

Tetanus & Diphtheria: Boosters are necessary every 10 years and protection is highly recommended.

Typhoid: Available either as an injection or oral capsules. Protection lasts from one to three years and is useful if you are traveling for long periods in rural, tropical area. You may get some side effects such as pain at the injection site, fever, headache and a general feeling of being unwell. A new single-dose injectable vaccine, which appears to have few side effects, is now available but is more expensive. Side effects are unusual with the oral form but stomach cramps may be one of these.

Infectious Hepatitis: The most common travel-acquired illness which can be prevented by vaccination. Protection can be provided in two ways - either with the antibody gamma globulin or with a new vaccine called Havrix (currently unavailable in the U.S.). Havrix provides long-term immunity (possibly more than 10 years) after an initial course of two injections and a booster at one year. It may be more expensive than gamma globulin but certainly has many advantages, including length of protection and ease of administration. It takes about three weeks to provide satisfactory protection - hence the need for careful planing prior to travel. Gamma globulin is not a vaccination but a ready-made antibody which has proven very successful in reducing the chances of hepatitis infection. Because it may interfere with the development of immunity, it shouldn't be given until at least 10 days after administration of the last vaccine needed; it should also be given as close as possible to departure because it is at its most effective in the first few weeks after administration and the effectiveness tapers off gradually between three and six months.

Yellow Fever: Protection lasts 10 years and is recommended where the disease is endemic, chiefly in Africa and South America. You usually have to go to a special yellow fever vaccination center. Vaccination is contra-indicated during pregnancy but if you must travel to a high-risk area it is probably advisable. Check with your doctor.

Meningitis: This vaccination is recommended for visitors to Nepal and for visitors to some areas of Africa and Brazil. It is given as a single injection and gives immunity for up to three years duration.

Tuberculosis: TB is widespread throughout the developing world. Most Westerners will have been vaccinated at some time during their school years. For children vaccination is not deemed necessary unless they will be spending prolonged periods (say up to a year) in an area of risk.

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002

XGK™ Expedition

The number-one rule if you travel with little children in south east Asia, don't drink water, and that includes ice. If you don't know for certain that the water is safe always assume the worst.

The simplest way of purifying water is to boil it thoroughly. Vigorously boiling for five minutes should be satisfactory; however, at high altitude water boils at lower temperatures, so germs are less likely to be killed.

The MSR stove is a "must have" equipment, it cost ~ USD$ 130,-

One choice for extreme conditions around the world, the XGK is hands-down the most reliable stove in extreme conditions and high altitudes.

Minimum Weight: 12oz (335g)
Packaged Weight: 17oz (480g)

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002

Surefire

Surefire 9P and 6P flashlight		Surefire 12ZM flashlight

All Surefire lights are incredibly bright, with smooth, pure white beams. Compact, lightweight and convenient to carry in a pocket, pouch or purse, instantly accessible for routine or emergency situations

The Surefire 6P flashlight use a standard long life P60 Lamp Reflector Assembly produces an amazing 65 lumens of white light with approximately 1 hour of runtime.

The Surefire 12ZM flashlight is extremely powerful, it cannot be overstated how well this tool works. A phenomenal control tool!
A newly developed 12 volt Turbo-Head. Powered by four 3 volt DL123A Lithium Batteries, this small and powerful light emits well over 500 Lumens of light. Enough concentrated light that even with your suspect's eyelids closed during daylight hours, it produces a "blinding effect" and forces the head to turn. It is extremely effective neutralizing your threats ability to function in low-light conditions.

As a flashlight aficionado, I've tried many flashlights through the years, and have found that Surefire flashlights are far superior to other brands.

Enough concentrated light that even with your suspect's eyelids closed during daylight hours, it produces a "blinding effect" and forces the head to turn.

For law enforcement, Surefire lights have practical uses for ordinary citizens like me or for travelling. I carry the 6P and the 9P (with high intensity lamp and tip-off beam shaper) at night, not only for its superior illumination, but to potentially defend against attackers and offers a safe alternative to stun guns and/or handguns.

Originally designed to meet the demanding needs of law enforcement and military special operations units. Perfect for any application that requires maximum light with minimum size.

It is a "must have" equipment.

• Small size, designed to be easily carried .
• High light output.
• Flawless beam, always in focus.
  

The 6P is only 4 3/8" long and uses 2 readily available Duracell DL123A lithium batteries and the 9P uses 3 Duracell DL123A lithium batteries.

Surefire lights are not cheap, but it is worth to mention here,

• The Surefire 6P flashlight cost ~ USD$ 90,- (65 Lumens - 60 Minutes or 120 Lumens for 20 Minutes)
• The Surefire 9P flashlight cost ~ USD$ 125,- (105 Lumens - 60 Minutes or 200 Lumens for 20 Minutes)
  
• The Surefire 12ZM flashlight cost ~USD$270,- (500 Lumens)
  

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002

Roll-up Solar Cell Recharging System

These panels are completely flexible, waterproof and extremely durable. The panels can be mounted on curved or bendable surfaces where rigid panels won't work. When not in use, just roll them up. The panels are construed of amorphous silicon alloy which is deposited on a sheet of stainless steel, then sandwiched between EVA rubber and Tefzel. Their internal construction makes them less affected by partial shading, so their output is more consistent in real-world (i.e. shadowy) conditions. There are three models available: 5 watt, 10 watt, or 32 watt panels. The optional cigarette plug adapter allows you to charge many devices with ease.

I've found these solar panels to be an indispensable item for camping trips and extended trips far from those familiar AC plugs.

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002

HAICOM HI-302

The HAICOM HI-302 Compact Flash GPS Receiver is a all-in-one GPS solution which uses the CF card slot of the Pocket PC. The GPS antenna is mounted on the CF card. Therefore an additional antenna isn’t required and the HI-302 card can be used as a personal navigation unit while walking on the street as well as a car navigation system for route planning and tracking.

Package Volume

The Haicom HI-302 package contains the following hard and software:

Hardware

Millenium Routeplanner from TomTom (Europe or USA)

Installation

The installation of the HI-302 CF card is pretty easy, it’s plug and play for Pocket PC and Pocket PC 2002 (which is already supported). No additional drivers for the GPS receiver are required, also you don’t need any programs to install first to work with the CF GPS receiver. If you are already using the latest Pocket Streets version (see here for the GPS fix) you can start positioning your current location right after plugging in the HI-302 card.

The current location, on the Pocket Streets map indicated with a crosshair and longitude and latitude information on the bottom.

With GPS Information, a small program included in the package on a 3 ½” floppy disk you are able to receive your current position with longitude and latitude. However, GPS Information also provides you the current time and date, based on the GPS signal, your speed in KM/h and the altitude of your current position. Also it indicates you the information which GPS satellites are currently available and which are used to by the Haicom card.

All GPS information are available: the current position, the speed and direction you go and the altitude of the current position. Also available some more detailed GPS satellite information.

TomTom’s Route Planner is a award winning road map and route planning application for your Pocket PC. It combines the latest and most accurate road information with a fast and easy to use interface. From cross-continental voyages to local trips, Route Planner Millennium has the knowledge and the design to support you at every turn. Route Planner can act as an electronic map in the same way as the old fashioned paper maps, but, unlike paper maps, Route Planner can plan the route for you. Simply tell Route Planner where you are either by tapping on the map in the ppropriate place or by entering the name of the city or location you are in. Then, in the same way, tell Route Planner where you want to go. If you want to go via any places of interest you can specify these as well. You can even tell Route Planner where you don't want to go and let it work around these areas. Once the route is calculated you are ready to set off. It's as easy as that. After getting the suggested route from Route Planner attach the Haicom card to your Pocket PC and your position on the map will be updated as you move. You need never get lost again because Route Planner will know where you are and where you want to go.

TomTom Route Planer overview with the current position and additional information on top like available GPS satellites, current speed in KM/h (yes, it’s 213 KM/h in that case) and the driving direction.

Using the HI-302 Compact Flash GPS Receiver

Figure 1.		Figure 2.

Figure 1.

As told before, the Haicom card can be simply plugged into the Pocket PC. Depending on the application it can take more or less time, that the card is powered up and receives the GPS signals. A LED on the left side indicates if the card is running proper and if it is receiving GPS signals the LED blinks.

Figure 2.

As it is a complete CF card including the antenna, you don’t have to lay any additional cables through your car. However, this depends on the position of your Pocket PC. If it is not possible for the card to have a direct view to the sky, it will not work proper. Therefore Haicom adds an external antenna into the package which is available separately. This antenna is designed to use within the car. It have an extra long cable, that you can mount the antenna wherever you want. Also the magnet on the bottom gives you the possibility to place the antenna in a save way. The cable of the external antenna must be simply plugged into the GPS antenna on the CF card, from this point the external antenna is active only. This is a great and an easy add-on if you think on rental cars.

Outside the car the GPS card works best for sure without the external antenna and this is the strength of the Haicom HI-302. You can use it for personal navigation while walking through foreign cities or biking through foreign areas (like me in the Alps ;-). With the Haicom GPS card, you always know, where you are. However, I haven’t extended tested the battery capacity right now but it worked at least 3 hours last time with the HP Jornada 565. Because the CF card haven’t it’s own battery, it uses the power of the Pocket PC which brains the battery faster for sure.

A weakness is - from time to time - that the cold start of the GPS card could takes up to 90 seconds. This is a pretty long time and sometimes I thought the card isn’t working proper. However mostly (to be honest, all the time) it did a great job in this test and if you boot the card from the warm or hot modus (like switching on the Pocket PC) the response time is even faster up to 5 seconds!

Final Conclusion

If you are looking for a all-in-one solution which upgrades your Pocket PC into a navigation system, the Haicom HI-302 Compact Flash GPS Receiver might be the right solution for you. Not only that it is a very compact CF card based GPS receiver, it’s also flexible enough to accept an external antenna which makes it as the right receiver for any kind of situations. Doesn’t matter if you are using it for personal navigation by walking only or as a car navigation system. It’s easy to handle with it’s plug and play and it is Pocket PC 2002 ready. Another strength is the included software. GPS Information by itself is a nice tool, not only because it shows you the current position with longitude and latitude but also because the speed (which seems to be very accurate as well compared to my car tachometer) and the altitude option. Now you can also track where you are while you are bike through the mountains or on your next ski trip. Also the accessories like the small leather pocket with the belt clip is a very nice add-on to carry your equipment in a save way. The positioning seems to be - like the speed - more than accurate, based on my car GPS system and the displayed location on the map was always the same I was in real life. The only weakness I found was the battery usage but this is always the problem of external cards, doesn’t matter if it is a GPS card or a Modem or LAN/W-LAN card. And with it’s 3 hours I’ve seen in real-life it’s quiet enough for such a portable system. However, Haicom also offers additional car chargers for different Pocket PC types. If you want to use your Haicom card within your car as well the usage of an additional power cable really makes sense!

The Haicom HI-302 Compact Flash GPS Receiver is available for 200 – 270 US$. Please ask your dealer about the availability. Unfortunately the Haicom card can not be ordered today online at Haicom.

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002

Yaesu FT 817

The FT-817 is the cool, new, tiny, MF - UHF low power amateur radio transceiver from Yaesu. If you're interested in more information about using the FT-817, however, I'd recommend joining the FT-817 group at Yahoo. This group has an FAQ which is worth reading if you're a new or prospective FT-817 owner. It contains answers to most of the questions you may wish to know.

Thoughts on the FT-817
Many reviews of the FT-817 have been published on the Web and in magazines like QST and RadCom. I'm not going to add another.

Good points
Small size. This is probably the FT-817's most important attribute. There's nothing smaller, apart from FM-only HT's and one-or-two band QRP CW-only radios. It's small enough that you can slip it in your rucksack or even a pocket just in case you feel like having a few QSOs while you're out.

"All-band" coverage. The FT-817 covers all amateur bands from Top Band to 70cm. It also has pretty extensive general coverage capabilities. This makes it an ideal "do-anything" radio, suitable for whatever kind of operation you feel like doing.

Antennas
Several small portable antennas are now available which allow you to easily get the FT-817 on the air out in the field. I have tried the ultimate portable antenna ATX Walkabout and the Miracle Whip.

The Miracle Whip antena

The Miracle Whip is the smallest and lightest portable HF whip antenna I have tried. It comprises a 4 foot whip mounted atop a small plastic box with its built-in variable matching transformer avoids the need for an ATU, but it isn't the most efficient antenna you could use. In my opinion, the easy tune-up of the Miracle Whip, coupled with its ability to work without a counterpoise, makes it the ideal portable whip for casual operating with the FT-817.

Antena Tuner

I used this Z-11's tuner as a companion for my Yaesu FT-817 and have found it to be highly reliable and simple to use. It's been able to tune up anything I've used for an antenna (long wire, home-made wire vertical, various odd-length dipoles). The autotune feature when I switch bands is just wonderful.
What a wonderful tuner! Matches in seconds and really works slick.

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002

PTC-IIpro Radio Modem

Long distance communication via pactor

Is it possible to send an internet email over HF Radio ? Yes!

Receiving mail has always been a problem for travellers or blue water cruisers. When your mail finally does catch up with you it is invariably weeks or even months-old news, not to mention the mail that never gets there.

Mobile user, whether on the high seas, jungles of a remote region or traveling, has the ability to provide family and friends with the state of their safety and well-being along with the joys of their travels. Mobile users may post their positions on a map and gain access to a host of global text-based and graphic weather information and other helpful material whenever or wherever they need it.

The ability to use these facilities is especially valuable in an emergency when local communications is disrupted and where accuracy of information is paramount.

The best means of communicating long distances I have found is a digital mode called pactor. There are other digital modes that are also very good, but pactor is the one I am familiar with. Just as Morse code is more readable than voice, this digital mode is also much more readable than voice, and because it is computer driven using sophisticated encoding and error correction methods, it is much faster than Morse.

Requirements for this kind of communication :

• A computer-aided HF radio, for example Yaesu FT-817
  
• The use of one of the SCS PTC modems to interface the computer with the transceiver.
  
• An antenna system that can handle the bands used.
  
• A computer with at least a 250 MHz processor and at least a 6 GByte hard disk and Windows ME, Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP pro (Winlink 2000 will not work with Windows 98 or earlier.)
• A valid Amateur Radio Operators License.

Pactor is commonly used in this part of the world by people living on yachts to send and receive email via landbased internet gateway stations. Pactor is a bit more complicated than Morse or voice because it requires a computer, a TNC, and some special software, but once set up it is easy to use.

First you have to set up a pactor mailbox where you could receive messages.

Winlink 2000 email network.

Winlink 2000 is available to any properly licensed amateur radio operator. As such, you simply log into one of the participating network stations (PMBOs) using the client software, AirMail, and you will have established yourself as a registered Winlink 2000 user.

Airmail is a messaging program (similar to Microsoft Outlook in appearance) specifically designed for connection to a HF radio mailbox station. It is required for a radio user to connect to Winlink 2000 over the radio. Once connected to a compatible station, message transfer is completely automatic. On the ham bands, Airmail can transfer messages automatically with any station supporting the BBS or F6FBB protocols, such as Winlink 2000, F6FBB, MSYS and other Airmail stations.

Airmail also has an option for an Internet connection to the various participating Winlink stations via a Telnet client module. The Telnet option works just as if Airmail was using radio, only, it is obviously much faster. When used with Winlink 2000, Airmail also contains position reporting capabilities, and a propagation prediction program for contacting each of the participating Winlink stations from anywhere on the Globe.

Tue, 29 Oktober 2002