Connecting sites together with Ethernet?

[BrienD]

I am wondering if anyone has any experience tying different campus’s together over Ethernet.
We have simplex vhf radios at each campus and I want to tie them together in one system in an emergency.
We have the network now so I am looking for a bridge to tie the radio to the network.
It sounds like it well work in my head.
Thank You
Brien

[RADIOMAN2002]

Simplex is going to be tough, we have tried a couple of CSI LTR/Repeater panels, and they do work analog over IP. Other than that you are looking at going digital with Motorola/Kenwood/or Icom. They all have IP connect repeaters that work right out of the box.

[FMROB]

You can use a multitude of different products. One good one that comes to mind is the JPS/Raytheon equipment. The ACU-1000 linking unit will allow this, and maybe the NXU units running in multicast will work. Very simple to set up and they even have factory made cables for most mobile radios to make life simple. Call them up and speak to Beny Hillman. Run the scenario by them, and I am certain that they can find something to work with.

[Bill_G]

+1 on the NXU's. They can be point to point, or multipoint if the network passes multicast packets. We did this for a large company with offices around the world. It blows up if the frame errors get too great, but otherwise flawless. We've also done it for hospitals with multiple locations in an area across their enterprise network. This is a totally doable project.

[Astro Spectra]

For a tight budget try this:

http://www.remoterig.com

http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-010886

You'll have to make up your own cables to hookup two radios back to back rather than a control head to radio type connection but you can't beat the price.

[Jim202]

You can use a multitude of different products. One good one that comes to mind is the JPS/Raytheon equipment. The ACU-1000 linking unit will allow this, and maybe the NXU units running in multicast will work. Very simple to set up and they even have factory made cables for most mobile radios to make life simple. Call them up and speak to Beny Hillman. Run the scenario by them, and I am certain that they can find something to work with.

If your even thinking of the ACU-1000, then you need to look at the RIOS gateway options that the Sytech Corp. has. They are easier to use, offer more features, can interlink multiple gateways easily, offer the ability to remotely change channels - zones - talkgroups on selected radios, and cost less.

Take a look at: www.sytechcorp.com for more info.

Jim

[RADIOMAN2002]

I am assuming that all of these products are for repeaters and not just for simplex?

[Bill_G]

Yes. The OP says VHF simplex, but that shouldn't be a problem. One site receiving (COR) should key the other sites, and when COR drops, they will too. There will be no hang time. Network latency and receive buffers will add tens of mS of delay, but that will not be noticeable in use. It should fly like a big bird.

[BrienD]

First off thank you for the help.
I do have a ACU1000 in our moble command post and it works well.
In my other job I work for a school district and my boss is looking for a way to link schools during a lock down “man with a gun” event.
The NXU unit may do what I am looking for.

[a_j_b]

NXU's I hear work great.

Icom's system division released an analog audio IP linking device that uses TCP/IP Multi-Cast to one or many sites and looks to be pretty easy to configure. Probably at a fair price too. It was shown at IWCE and called the VEPG2.

[Wile E. Coyote]

We use several NXU's with no issues. However, I have to say it...

The NXU only creates a link as strong as your network. That is why we only use the NXU on non mission-critical systems. Sure, everyone's IT department says that they have a rock-solid system. In reality, most are not stable 100% of the time.

If you trust your network and IT department's redundancy plans, then go for it!

WEC

[alex]

The NXU only creates a link as strong as your network.[/b] That is why we only use the NXU on non mission-critical systems. Sure, everyone's IT department says that they have a rock-solid system. In reality, most are not stable 100% of the time.

Some of these problems you described by asking for certain things from the IT department or networking contractor... You can implement QOS and VLAN's which allow for certain traffic to be given priority over other traffic on the network. This will help manage what goes out over the connections and what priority is given. There is a lot of this work being done in the P25 system world to ensure packets get to where they need to be on time and with no errors.

Alex