In article ,
Michael Coslo wrote:

While reading another thread about spectrum and emergency comms, a
thought came to me. Lessee if it makes sense.

Given that:


1. Spectrum is a finite resourece

2. Emergency comms (this term is used generically) is always interested
in trying to get more of that spectrum

3. One of the major shortcomings of present day systems is lack of
communications between the different systems in an area.


The cell phone industry deals with access to limited spectrum all the time.

Is is then a possibility that emergency comms might shift to a system
similar to cell phones? It seems to me that trunking is kind of an old
fashioned idea, and is ripe for replacement.

Even in our area we have a 10 year old trunking system that is going to
have to be replaced because it isn't working properly. One that was
supposed to last for 20 years.

But a cellular type approach might just work well for them. Before
anyone thinks I'm bonkers, I'm not talking about using cell phones, just
the type of compression/time sharing.

Now interopability is not necessarily so difficult.

This is just first thought conjecture, possibly impossible, so feel
free to rip into it.


- 73 d eMike N3LI -

The one thing that MOST folks seem to forget about EmComms is, that
"SOMETHING" caused the EmComm System to be activated, over the standard
regular variety PublicService Comms, and that same something that is
distrupting the regular stuff, is very likely, to take out some, if not
MOST, of the basic Comms infrastructure, in the effected area.

SO, Any EmComm System MUST as a RULE, be self-sufficent, self-powered,
and mobile, or at least portable, into the effected area. This is the
lesson of 9/11, and Katrina. When the towers went down 998% of the
PublicService Comms Major Remote Bases were lost, one, beacuse they were
on the Roofs of Towers, and two, because the Telco Infrastructure was in
the Basements of the buildings and went off line when they collapsed.
Basically the SAME thing happened in Katrina, the Telco infrastructure
was Flooded, and offline from the middle of the storm, on, and the winds
took out most of the Microwave Links, that backed up the Telco lines.
Without such interconnections, operational, Trunked, Cellular, and the
like, will NOT Function, PERIOD. What does function, is VHF & UHF
Simplex, VHF & UHF Repeaters that are Self-Contained, Self Powered,
including Antennas, that can be placed in Highsites, AFTER the majority
of the destruction has already past. Cop Shops with their own Base
Stations, powered by their own EmGensets, talking to cars and portables
out in the field. EmComm Designed Portable Repeaters including Antennas,
and PowerSupplies that can be Airlifted (Choopered) to HighSites in
the effected area, once the destruction has slowed or stopped.
This is where HAMS can, and do SUPPLY EmComm Capability. They can Bring
in the Mobiles and Portables that WILL WORK, without Telco
Infrastructure, and can have at the ready Portable HighSite Repeaters
that are EmComm Designed, and ready to function, once placed in the
effected Area. Public Service/Govt can also have Mobile Command Centers,
Mobile EmComm Centers, and Portable EmComm Repeaters that can be
activated and placed in strategic pre-planned Sites for their areas of
Service. In the EmComms Business, you can only depend on YOUR pre-planned
stuff, and sometimes some of that hardware isn't going to function, so
then you go to Plan B, which is you do with what IS working, untill
you get something better, working. Sometimes that is HOURS away,
sometimes that is DAYS away, and in the some cases it is weeks away, and
is supplied by the National Guard, if the hardware, isn't already in
IRAQ.

--
Bruce in alaska
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