Comments on: Amateur Radio gets left in the dust again…

By: Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:48:42 +0000

Disagree. Properly designed networks can sustain a major failure. Plus, a lot of amateur radio operators would also have the same failings as official radio services during a large scale disaster. The only “secret sauce” for amateur radio is our distributed nature. Nothing much else (Irony: Hams making their oh-so-cool “mobile communications centers” they love to show off that suffer the same single point of failure as the radio services we’re meant to “back up”)

Perfect recent example in our neck of the woods was the flooding in RI. Large area affected, power outages, normal civilian communications paths disrupted, however RISCON kept ticking away no problem handling all communications in and out of the area for public safety.

Also, by focusing on 30 year old technology, we’re doing nothing to further our cause. Even if we want to push the “when all else fails” mantra, are we pushing something that works, but serves no useful purpose for 90% of the people who would use us? So, keep telling yourself that we’re relevant and keep doing your RACES training, but we’ll fade into obscurity if we keep putting our eggs in the EmComm basket.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:44:31 +0000

You seem to forget……power goes out, cell towers are jammed, so amateur radio is the only fail safe communications. When all else fails, amateur radio works.

By: Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:51:12 +0000

@Steve

Words cannot describe how much I love Ubiquiti networks. I think that whenever the NS3 rolls out, it’s going to be very interesting for HSMM, as it’s not going to have to deal with the high noise floor the Part 15 devices are creating down on 2.4GHz.

When they come out, I think I’m going to start poking at the head of my club’s technical committee to possibly buy some equipment and pop it on the club’s 85ft tower. If that works, well, maybe we could start working with EMAs in the area and establish a network of some sort.

By: Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:24:34 +0000

@Kelly

The question is, what would be better, a 1200 baud non-IP link or a (on the very low end) 1Mbps IP based link? I’ve used consumer grade APs on a Part 15 basis at client sites that “just work” (some going on 7+ years) There’s nothing suggesting that we couldn’t do the same.

The 14567 link is interesting. They’re at least “pushing the envelope” in certain areas, and while I think DSTAR should wither on the vine (another posting for another day), I’m glad to see some honest-to-goodness experimentation going on. I fully agree with their “report card” assessment too. But, to further my point, in 2001, they opted to deploy a 1200 baud non IP-based data network rather then trying to be forward thinking and looking at 9600 and 56Kb links. Also, 1996 called, they want their website back. (Tounge Firmly in Cheek!)

Also, I’ll fully admit, even my solution isn’t going to “save” emergency communications as we are seeing more and more resiliency built into existing systems that are design to survive major incidents.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:49:59 +0000

Hey…You can always put up a 3.5Ghz amateur only network using the Ubiquiti Networks NS3 and mesh software..only $87 a radio.

http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/ns3_ds.pdf

….but they have not started production yet! If they ever will..

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:56:58 +0000

Nice, but when the chips are down, a link that has near 100% uptime for a statewide area network over a 5-10 year period without more than 3 – 5 year visits, I would say the ability to transfer data and emcomm at 1200 baud kicks ass on the needs constant upkeep and low coverage techniques of other schemes. Sorry to say that you think the hobby is dead, but I think text messaging and other quick low bandwidth ways to communicate (think twitter et all) is the way to be useful.

Link for you:
http://www.14567.org

It is full of d-star, but it links old with new!