Batboard

Hi, all. The local Ham club that I am a member of is interested in setting up a communications trailer. Probably have capabilities for all Ham bands, as well as VHF public safety and 800Mhz with some trunking capabilities. Would anyone be willing to send me some pictures of any such equipment in your areas to give us some layout ideas? The exact purpose of and equipment in your particular setup are not a big concern, we just want some layout ideas. My e-mail address is at the bottom of this post. Thanks!

http://www.armymars.net

Look under "Response System" for pics, including construction progress photos...

73,
john
N3SKO/AAT3BF/AAA3DE/AAM3O/AAA9AC

As a first step, you might want to contact all local public safety departments and local government and EDUCATE them on what you are building and why. Also, make sure they know it will be available for their use in emergencies or "situations." Let them know it's capabilities. "Interoperability" is the key. With a cellphone and a Zetron or other encoder, you could essentially be a small backup if their dispatch goes down. Also, you might want to try to get letters of authorization from the frequency license holders and copies of their licenses if you put public safety freqs in the radios.
Who knows, you might just get some small donations from them.

jim wrote:As a first step, you might want to contact all local public safety departments and local government and EDUCATE them on what you are building and why. Also, make sure they know it will be available for their use in emergencies or "situations." Let them know it's capabilities. "Interoperability" is the key. With a cellphone and a Zetron or other encoder, you could essentially be a small backup if their dispatch goes down. Also, you might want to try to get letters of authorization from the frequency license holders and copies of their licenses if you put public safety freqs in the radios.
Who knows, you might just get some small donations from them.

That is exactly how I went about it. As a result, the National Guard gave me authorization for their 800 Mhz talkgroups along with Police Mutual Aid and state EMA. The local trauma center donated an 800MHz radio for Fire and EMS statewide (both Astro Spectras, APCO25). My employer (Conectiv) donated a power company radio. American Red Cross, a low band.

john
N3SKO/AAT3BF/AAM3O/AAA3DE/AAA9AC

Letting others know what we are doing sounds like a good idea. We are already working closely with the local chapter of the Red Cross, and some-what with local law enforcement, but I don't know that they are aware of our plans. Thanks for the idea!

We are definitely having a great time working with the Army National Guard and Reserve units. In fact, next month we are rolling the Emergency Commo Unit down to the 261st Signal Brigade to work on HF interoperability issues. Testing some satcomm/voice over ip/HF patching gear in conjunction with the 261st and FEMA.

john
N3SKO/AAT3BF/AAM3O/AAA3DE/AAA9AC

When selecting radios, please be aware of NTIA regs that are coming into play on the federal frequencies. If you plan on interfacing to MARS/CAP or other federal this will be an issue. The federal timetable is way ahead of the FCC's. CAP is converting and I have heard that MARS will have to also. (Our Chief told us this will happen but has not given us any details yet.) This means that you will not be able to use (most) converted ham gear or the older commercial gear much longer. (I'm using analog Spectras and we have Mitreks in use around the state.) In fact, on CAP you must meet NTIA WIDE requirements now. It would be nice to have P25 radios but at a very minimum narrow fm. Kenwood has a new radio the MIGHT meet the new specs, it has a 2.5ppm oscillator in it and does narrow. At any rate it would probably be a good choice for the ham band.

Doug
NC5P/AFA6DL/AFF6NM

One thing that I have been looking for - commercial radios (138-174 and 406-470 MHz) which can operate both wideband-narrowband AND are easily reprogrammable. Reprogramming is a must when you deploy into an area and need to interoperate with other agencies.

I have the 800 MHz mode covered reasonably well with a pair of Astro Spectras which have the ITAC channels in them. Many agencies in the Mid-Atlantic have compatibility worked out.

Right now, I am seriously looking at the Vertex VX3200 and the Bendix-King radios because the required RSS is easy to obtain. I would really like the new CDM radios IF I was able to legally obtain the RSS for a reasonable price...

john
N3SKO/AAT3BF/AAM3O/AAA3DE/AAA9AC