Good morning!
Whilst making my yearly visit to the Sioux City Hamfest, I happened upon a VERY impressive display in the building where the Flea Market was being held.
The STARCOMM (Siouxland Tristate Area Radio COMMunications) group was proudly displaying their mobile command post vehicle.
Inside, one finds all of the latest radio equipment, along with 4 well-designed dispatch positions. The 4 Zetron dispatch consoles tie into the radio field in the back of the vehicle, giving the operators communications abilities on whatever systems they happen to be required to communicate on.
The Officer giving the tour made mention of a "Play Book" - a compilation of radio system data that allows the assigned Radio Tech to configure the radio field to interoperate with any system they might be near. For example, if the vehicle gets assigned to New Orleans, the Radio Tech whips out the Play Book, does his magic on his laptop, and the command center can talk to ANYTHING in the New Orleans area. Using the routing capability they have in the unit, they can cross patch non-trunked unalike systems, allowing them to communicate.
They also have a somewhat unique feature called MoSat - a Motorola Satellite communications system. This is something, in addition to the rest of the vehicle, that the Iraeli military has come to see, as they're considering something like this unit for battlefield applications.
Power-wise, the unit has TWO generators - an Onan "Quiet Diesel" that runs the RF and computer gear, and a small Onan in the front that runs the lights and other general electronics!
Overall, the STARCOMM people have done an EXCELLENT job in building this command post. It was a very interesting tour.
73's
Whilst making my yearly visit to the Sioux City Hamfest, I happened upon a VERY impressive display in the building where the Flea Market was being held.
The STARCOMM (Siouxland Tristate Area Radio COMMunications) group was proudly displaying their mobile command post vehicle.
Inside, one finds all of the latest radio equipment, along with 4 well-designed dispatch positions. The 4 Zetron dispatch consoles tie into the radio field in the back of the vehicle, giving the operators communications abilities on whatever systems they happen to be required to communicate on.
The Officer giving the tour made mention of a "Play Book" - a compilation of radio system data that allows the assigned Radio Tech to configure the radio field to interoperate with any system they might be near. For example, if the vehicle gets assigned to New Orleans, the Radio Tech whips out the Play Book, does his magic on his laptop, and the command center can talk to ANYTHING in the New Orleans area. Using the routing capability they have in the unit, they can cross patch non-trunked unalike systems, allowing them to communicate.
They also have a somewhat unique feature called MoSat - a Motorola Satellite communications system. This is something, in addition to the rest of the vehicle, that the Iraeli military has come to see, as they're considering something like this unit for battlefield applications.
Power-wise, the unit has TWO generators - an Onan "Quiet Diesel" that runs the RF and computer gear, and a small Onan in the front that runs the lights and other general electronics!
Overall, the STARCOMM people have done an EXCELLENT job in building this command post. It was a very interesting tour.
73's
