New Radios for Burning Man

[kc9rzj]

MURS at BRC

I can speak from experience, ( I have been inside the dispatch center at BRC, and work on the Emergency Services medical team) as of 2015, MURS is still monitored. I am currently working with a couple other camps to get a way for their art cars to summon help in the Deep Playa. I will send an email to the communications supervisor tonight to confirm MURS is going to continue to be monitored.

 

[mrhabilis]

To KC9rzj, I have already received a reply from Kate G. (Chief of Emergency Services, Black Rock City) who said (in part), "...ESD does monitor the MURS channel 5 during the event [..and..] as far as we know this will remain unchanged". I also sent an email to the ARTery, but unfortunately, I have not yet received a reply, so I don't know if they monitor MURS channel 4, as my earlier research has indicated.

Also to Stingray327, Burning Man takes place in the Black Rock Desert, just 10 miles NNE of Gerlach NV. Even though "Black Rock City" only exists for about 1 week each year, you can find it on Google Maps, just search for "Black Rock City, NV" and it will pop up (sort of like 'Brigadoon').

To mmckenna, our "Art Car" is not enclosed, it is a modified golf cart with no top (you can see it at Mobility Camp - Improving Access at Burning Man | Radical Inclusion by Radical Accessibility in Black Rock City – scroll on down for more!), but still, an external antenna is a great idea. Simply raising the height by a couple of feet should greatly extend our range and reliability. I have yet to find any GMRS radios that have std antenna connectors. So far, the only GMRS radios that I have found all have fixed antennas, but I will keep looking. I have found some radios that can be configured to operate within the GMRS frequencies PLUS have detachable antennas (like the Baofeng UV-5RTP) but those may be too complicated for some of our people to operate.

Thanks, -Phil K. in Indiana

 

[Rred]

Of course there are those handy, universal, inexpensive CB radios that require no license and are intended for simple use in cars and other vehicles, complete with many antenna options,

But CB, MURS, or any unlicensed equipment will all suffer from the same problem: There's no exclusive use, so on any random day and time, it may be useless because three other groups are also saying "I got here first!" and using it.

One more reason to go with an exclusive license for the venue, and a more expensive "bespoke" service.

 

[sfd119]

I can speak from experience, ( I have been inside the dispatch center at BRC, and work on the Emergency Services medical team) as of 2015, MURS is still monitored. I am currently working with a couple other camps to get a way for their art cars to summon help in the Deep Playa. I will send an email to the communications supervisor tonight to confirm MURS is going to continue to be monitored.

I highly doubt a Local, State, or Federal dispatch center would monitor MURS. There is simply too much radio traffic going on to worry about MURS where anyone can jump on the freq.

 

[N4GIX]

I highly doubt a Local, State, or Federal dispatch center would monitor MURS. There is simply too much radio traffic going on to worry about MURS where anyone can jump on the freq.

What a very strange comment to make, given that the person you quoted was personally present when MURS was being monitored... :roll:

 

[Rred]

Sure, there must be plenty of local, state, and federal dispatch centers within MURS radio range of Black Rock City. Dozens of them, not counting the event staff crews, for sure.(G)

 

[mmckenna]

Sure, there must be plenty of local, state, and federal dispatch centers within MURS radio range of Black Rock City. Dozens of them, not counting the event staff crews, for sure.(G)

While there are federal and local agencies at BRC, they run their own services. What the Black Rock City guys do for there own internal operations isn't dependent on the local agencies. If you read up on the whole Burning Man thing, you'll see they build an entire city in the middle of the desert. They do their best to supply fire, medical and a level of public safety on their own. Monitoring MURS may be part of their normal operations. The Federal, state and local agencies run their own thing.

 

[Rred]

Understood that there's plenty of formal activity there, but there are no "dispatch centers" in the usual sense of the word. As in, a building, and 24x7x365 staff, and landlines, and all that good stuff. There are plenty of operations but what each one does? Is a field operation for a special event, so what they choose to monitor or ignore in any one particular year, is somewhat differently structured than your usual dispatch center, in a Cat5 hardened EOC bunker more often than a field tent or a prefab on a trailer.

If any formal entity, even a large group of attendees, contacted any of the safety/response teams and said "Hey, we're gonna be using SMURF radios, would you be able to monitor one in the operations center, just in case?" you probably wouldn't need the state legislature, the union rep, and the budget committee all to convene and get an answer.(G)

 

[kc9rzj]

I just got an email from the Communications Supervisor (Bryan A). He was waiting until a meeting with some other powers and brought up the question of MURS. For the foreseeable future, they do intend on monitoring Channel 5, there is also a PL tone of 97.4. In past years, the antenna for receiving MURS was at the dispatch center near Point 1. This year (2016) it was moved to a new location that made the coverage for the city and deep playa much better.

 

[com501]

I ran communications for BurningMan for 17 years until I retired. There is a dispatch center at BM. It is a combined dispatch center staffed 24x7 by BM and Federal employees. There are telephones, a private cellular system, satcom, airport radios, EMS, FIRE, Air Evac, and LE all in one building. All BM comms are deployed by a rental contractor to provide BM event comms, fire dispatch, EMS, and Air Evac responsibilities. LE comms are provided by BLM at the same dispatch center. All emergency and LE comms are encrypted. MURS IS MONITORED in dispatch during the event. This is a ORG commitment to the community and is outlined on the BM website.
Anyone wanting to communicate at BM is warned. ANY commercial frequency radios need to be coordinated through the Comm Leader, whom this year is Bryan. Sierra Electronics is Sparks usually supplies several camps with radios (The Yurt people come to mind) and they can have them ready for you to pickup as you go through town.

You should make your arrangements SOON, and there is usual nothing left in town for any services once the early arrivals hit the local area. Food, Water, supplies and radios go fast.

On Playa, there is literally nothing. There is no telephones. There is no cellular coverage once the events starts as the (sparse) coverage in the area is completely overwhelmed. The local cell company does not have LTE, is only 3G and has - count them - 6 channels available for voice. Most of the year the area around the event has a higher population of wild horses than it does people.

Hopefully everyone got a ticket who wanted one, and everyone have a safe and wonderful event in 2018.

 

[kd7kdc]

How convenient the government pricks make the attendees “coordinate” frequencies.
Im guessing that any attendee radios capable of encryption are not allowed.

 

[KB7MIB]

First, the OP started this thread in 2016, and it needs to be locked down.

Second, "goverment pricks" didn't dictate anything. The Burning Man organization did, in order to prevent chaos and interference across the commercial radio spectrum.

John
Peoria, AZ

 

[com501]

Correct. After all, it's our party, our rules. And many folks use encryption out there, it's not illegal.

 

[mikewazowski]

I ran communications for BurningMan for 17 years until I retired. There is a dispatch center at BM. It is a combined dispatch center staffed 24x7 by BM and Federal employees. There are telephones, a private cellular system, satcom, airport radios, EMS, FIRE, Air Evac, and LE all in one building. All BM comms are deployed by a rental contractor to provide BM event comms, fire dispatch, EMS, and Air Evac responsibilities. LE comms are provided by BLM at the same dispatch center. All emergency and LE comms are encrypted. MURS IS MONITORED in dispatch during the event. This is a ORG commitment to the community and is outlined on the BM website.
Anyone wanting to communicate at BM is warned. ANY commercial frequency radios need to be coordinated through the Comm Leader, whom this year is Bryan. Sierra Electronics is Sparks usually supplies several camps with radios (The Yurt people come to mind) and they can have them ready for you to pickup as you go through town.

You should make your arrangements SOON, and there is usual nothing left in town for any services once the early arrivals hit the local area. Food, Water, supplies and radios go fast.

On Playa, there is literally nothing. There is no telephones. There is no cellular coverage once the events starts as the (sparse) coverage in the area is completely overwhelmed. The local cell company does not have LTE, is only 3G and has - count them - 6 channels available for voice. Most of the year the area around the event has a higher population of wild horses than it does people.

Hopefully everyone got a ticket who wanted one, and everyone have a safe and wonderful event in 2018.

With that, I'm going to close the thread. For those of you attending the event, read the above and pay particular attention to the last sentence.