My Humble Opinion...

by Clark Jones, KI7TU
www.ki7tu.com

Copyright 2011 by Clark Jones.

The Amateur Radio Council of Arizona (ARCA) recently had their trailer stolen, despite some very strong locking devices installed on it.  That got me to thinking about the security of the trailers that I know that several ham radio clubs own.  I'd like to offer my thoughts on how your group might make your trailer less likely to get stolen, and maybe even more likely to be recovered if it is stolen.

My first thought is to make your trailer conspicuous.  It needs to have high visibility, and also a unique appearance.  (If you need stealth to keep an HOA happy, try using a tarp, tied on in such a way that the trailer isn't going to get more than a few feet without shedding the tarp.)  Some text of some sort, in large (say 24 inch high) letters, is a very good idea.  If your club has a call sign, that's a good possibility to put onto it.  Another is the club's web site address.  If your trailer is metal, think about outlining the letters with welding bead.  That can make them extremely hard to get off.  And don't forget to put some identifying marks (call sign or club initials) on the roof of the trailer, again in very large letters.  If you do mark the top of the trailer, try to get a picture of it from above.  That opens up the possibility of posting "missing trailer" signs where private pilots might see them.

The next thought is that in amateur radio we have this wonderful thing called APRS.  If you're not familiar with the Automatic Packet Reporting System, it's basically a microprocessor that periodically transmits some data through packet radio.  The most common is position data from a GPS receiver.  Many of the APRS controllers can be programmed to constantly look at the GPS data, but only report at long intervals (say a couple of hours) when they're stationary, but switch to more frequent reporting (say once a minute) as soon as they notice that the position has moved by some amount (such as 100 feet) since the last report.  An inconspicuous APRS system with a gel-cell battery and small solar panel could help in getting back a stolen trailer.

One other idea is an alarm system that's loud enough to get the neighbors to call the police - maybe with an accelerometer set up as a tilt meter along with sensors on each trailer door.

Although one of the above ideas is better than nothing, doing all three of them could help you keep your trailer yours.