GoA "Sputnik" MTR

[Jay911]

Saw this on a Facebook post from a helicopter company that contracts to Wildfire Management a lot. This device was set up on Sunkist Mountain (BC) yesterday to provide "radio/phone/video service" in aid of the Sage Creek fire.

Anyone got any comments on this? Does it have Firenet channels or the Fireline mobile repeaters? How about the phone and video - I see two security cameras on the opposite end of it, on the antenna mounts. Does it have an actual cell site/repeater/extender included or what are they calling "phone"?

 

[kayn1n32008]

GoA "Sputnik" MTR

Saw this on a Facebook post from a helicopter company that contracts to Wildfire Management a lot. This device was set up on Sunkist Mountain (BC) yesterday to provide "radio/phone/video service" in aid of the Sage Creek fire.



Anyone got any comments on this? Does it have Firenet channels or the Fireline mobile repeaters? How about the phone and video - I see two security cameras on the opposite end of it, on the antenna mounts. Does it have an actual cell site/repeater/extender included or what are they calling "phone"?

My WA guess would be that, repeater wise, is set up to use one of the BC A1-3 repeater channels.

It may have a sat-phone interfaced to a repeater interconnect. It also appears to have some sort of microwave dish on it.

FYI The new P25 capable Codan repeater exciters are now put out up to 10w on VHF. I’m guessing that’s what you would find in that box if you opened it up.


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[Jay911]

Here's a cropped & zoomed (by me) pic of the other end of it. Besides the dish and dipole, there's some other kind of antenna and... the black thing is perhaps an anemometer for the weather station (I presume that's what the white louvered bit is on this end)?

 

[Chronic]

What does the sign on the other end say , might give clues to Mfg

 

[Jay911]

I believe that's the standard Government of Alberta logo, not sure of what specific words are on it because they keep changing names. Could be Alberta Environment & Parks, Sustainable Resource Development, Environment & Sustainable Resource Development, and several other monikers.

I would just about guarantee it was built in-house from the looks of it. That's also the Alberta way.

 

[kayn1n32008]

I would just about guarantee it was built in-house from the looks of it. That's also the Alberta way.

Pretty sure BC builds in-house too.



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[BC_Scan]

Thats cool, I know that my scanner is lit up on BC Forestry channels right now, but so im wondering if it is a link (or temp) setup as there are a few transportable pairs we use here , I hear all the local call signs but am not clear if other jurisdictions bring their own comms or not, I would imagine for the BC dispatch it would be a nightmare to have to listen in on all these nets, im thinking the smarter thing to do is bring your own equip, here is the freq list and at begining of a deployment they are all on the same net.
There is A1-A2, B1-B3, we would need some one from the interior to chime in here, as what I hear is west coast related.

 

[beeperboy]

Hey, that's me in the pic!!!

 

[beeperboy]

Sputnik grabbed this pic about 9PM yesterday. The fire was within 1/2 mile of it. I thought we might lose her last night.

 

[beeperboy]

Sputnik just nailed the pic of the week. Tanker dropping retardant. You can see the bird dog in the upper left as well.

 

[Jay911]

Nice!

 

[beeperboy]

We designed and built it in Calgary. We felt it was necessary to build this after the Waterton fire last year. It has 800 Ah of batteries and 480W of solar. It can run for two weeks autonomously without sunlight. It has a Codan VHF Fireline repeater, that is linked ROIP back to control centre. It has a weather station (still adding devices to expand capability), and a SCADA monitoring package.

A cellular 3G/LTE modem provides the ethernet backhaul, as well as a wireless P2P ethernet backhaul (the microwave dish) for when we have no cellular service. We would use the nearest Firenet site as a donor. We can also use the wireless P2P link to drop wifi into areas that have no cellular service for the fire crews and pilots. Two cameras provide real time video feed back to Edmonton and Calgary.

It is trailer mounted for hilltop sites, and as you see in the pics, it can be slung into remote areas. The first deployment was at the McLean Creek fire this summer. We can deploy it in less than an hour. We just wish now, that we had several of them.

 

[kayn1n32008]

We designed and built it in Calgary. We felt it was necessary to build this after the Waterton fire last year. It has 800 Ah of batteries and 480W of solar. It can run for two weeks autonomously without sunlight. It has a Codan VHF Fireline repeater, that is linked ROIP back to control centre. It has a weather station (still adding devices to expand capability), and a SCADA monitoring package.

A cellular 3G/LTE modem provides the ethernet backhaul, as well as a wireless P2P ethernet backhaul (the microwave dish) for when we have no cellular service. We would use the nearest Firenet site as a donor. We can also use the wireless P2P link to drop wifi into areas that have no cellular service for the fire crews and pilots. Two cameras provide real time video feed back to Edmonton and Calgary.

It is trailer mounted for hilltop sites, and as you see in the pics, it can be slung into remote areas. The first deployment was at the McLean Creek fire this summer. We can deploy it in less than an hour. We just wish now, that we had several of them.

Are you guys using Alberta fireline frequencies in BC?


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[beeperboy]

Are you guys using Alberta fireline frequencies in BC?


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No. They are using BC freqs