Great stuff and unique info on the web. Thanks!
I guess that you don't need to know all the voice channel frequencies, just the control channel ones ... then a trunking software follows the calls.
Do they have several control channels/sites? I would assume that they can not cover the whole track with just one site.
Let's start with the easy one. If you have a TETRA receiver that trunk tracks (SDR or AOR with upgrade) then yes that's correct, it will automatically use te control channel and track voice calls across the Riedel network.
Site coverage is a bit of a yes and no answer ! This is where it gets more complicated to explain.
For most uses the Riedel TETRA Network operates like a traditional trunked radio network. In this mode its simply connects one radio to other radios. The whole system is normally run from a single site at the FOM compound, one control channel. Coverage is for most of the circuit. F2 teams and F3 teams use the system like this. Each user has a TETRA terminal (eg a handset) that transmits on a uplink channel and this gets repeated on a downlink channel, just like a normal radio system. The F2, F3 and Safety/Medical cars have TETRA radios.
For F1 though, think of it like a really big IP network with lots of devices connected at the track and beyond. Most devices are physically connected to this IP network. Some devices have a wireless connection to the network. The Riedel TETRA system connects into it as well. But most of the voice comms dont originate from a TETRA radio terminal at all. The team have a comms panel they plug into when static in the pits or on the pitwall. A lot of the pitcrew now have an Extended DECT-based Intercom system to connect in, and this provides multiple duplex voice channels. But these intercoms dont have great range, so some pitcrew still use TETRA handhelds for working in and beyond the garage. This is now the main role of the TETRA network for the F1 teams. In this case, the TETRA network is just being used as a gateway into the teams IP-based network. The TETRA network rebroadcasts car and pit channels audio, and allows the pitcrew access to the voice network via their TETRA hanheld radio.
The F1 cars don't have TETRA radios. The driver voice is combined into telemetry data links that also carries the TV video and sound. This is transmitted on microwave frequencies and received by an extensive setup of antennas placed all around the circuit for best coverage. These receivers are also linked via hardwire fibres back into the FOM hub, and its from here the driver voice is rebroadcast out over the TETRA network.
thestreamable.com
