RadioBanter - View Single Post - I wonder where they'll start the search to fill their needs?

September 14th 05, 03:27 PM

wrote:
Michael Coslo wrote:

wrote:

. . . . . . TV-free channels are already being used by non-TV
comms here and there but in every locale it seems to me that there's
gotta be at least a few TV channels still wide open and available.
Beats me . .

Lotta nonsense in this article, bunch of clueless politicians going at
it as usual.

That is because it is monumentally easier to blame the problem on the
bandwidth used by Television than it is to blame those actually
responsible.

That part of it is ignorable media fluff.

Fact is, if the trained communicators who can use the conditions of the
various VHF/UHF, and HF bands to their advantage are called in at early
notice, the emergency conditions can be handled quite proficiently. No
extra bandwidth needed.

Just trained and competent operators.

Don't agree. First responders are not "radio operators", they're
firefighters, medics, police at multiple levels and all the rest. Given
a big enough disaster like the New Orleans hurricane onsite FEMA
operatives, the Coast Guard, any number of military units from all the
services also land in the middle of it.

I must not have made myself clear Brian. The answer is not in freeing
up the BW now occupied by analog television. The answer for
communications in a disaster is trained and competent operators.

And the trained operators should be called in when the regular comms
first go out, not after a few days.

All any of 'em care about is to be able to squeeze their mic button and
make the right things happen right now so that they can get back to the
reasons they're where they are. Expecting them to competently
fiddle-fart with some 500 channel HT or another puts the onus on them
if they can't "get through". Ain't gonna happen, no way, nohow.

I agree. I even said that in another post (except I said "mash the PTT
button". 8^)

What I think should happen is the development and deployment of some
sort of "super" emergency operations centers staffed by highly trained
dispatchers who know how to seamlessly patch the first responder
specialists making the initial call into the specific specialists they
need to contact.

I doubt that there will be the money for that. Good idea tho'.

"Center Medic 23-7, I need a chopper to airlift, I have a patient in
critical condition." 23-7s exact location pops up on the dispatcher's
GPS/radar screen as does the location of a USGG chopper which is a half
mile away from the medic and his patient. The dispatcher punches a
button then and tells 23-7 he's plugged into the chopper. 23-7 tells
the chopper what he needs. "OK 23-7, this is Coast Guard Delta six, got
it. I'm two minutes out coming in from the southwest." Done.

Build these centers into long-range air-refuelable aircraft which can
be anywhere over the U.S within hours when they're needed and can
loiter over the area for days at FL 30. The military has had AWACS
birds with this basic type set of capabilities for decades. They work.
We need a few quasi-civil versions.

- Mike KB3EIA -