BillTheCat
Member
Why did it take so long to get things going? Why? Well, a significant part of the problem lies in the actions taken after September 11. It has to do with a total collapse of the communications infrastructure. Forget about having a single individual in command of the situation. With out communication, there cannot be command.
After 9/11, Homeland Security, a new office of the government, decided that communications (radios, etc.) had to be capable of communicating with other departments. The U.S. has spent many billions of dollars to replace all the major police, fire, sheriff, ambulance and other services with 800 MHz Trunking radios all across the country -- including the gulf coast. These use "talk groups" to enable one department to communicate with another department when necessary but can be turned off to keep traffic to a reasonable level. Almost all systems communicate between ground personnel via repeater only. A wonderful idea on paper.
Now, these new radios can only be received by similar radios and usually only via a repeater. However, 800 MHz has other inherent problems. That is it's short range and line-of-sight capabilities. During the early roll-out of the 800 MHz trunking systems, many dead spots were found but during the past year, most of these have been resolved. The solution is to install multiple "repeaters" throughout a region to allow ground personnel to communicate with command or other ground personnel, and yes, even other departments.
Hurricane Katrina wiped out the repeaters and with the inherent limits of short range and line-of-sight and requiring a repeater to function over a large area, all those walkie-talkie radios of the police and fire departments became useless bricks costing over $1000 each.
Enter the Military. They were using old 50 MHz radios as they have used since WWII. Why do they use these? Well, they don't require a repeater for one thing but, they are higher power, lower frequency and capable of transmission over wide areas and varying terrain. Even high-rise buildings don't totally stop their signal. As you watch the news, you'll see the military using these huge and heavy radios with their long antennas. What are they doing? They are COMMUNICATING!
Even the older 150 MHz radios that the police and fire used to use could do better than the new high-technology 800 MHz radios of today. Motorola, E.F. Johnson and others made a mint after Homeland Security required the transition to the new systems and it only took one big storm to show how weak the new system really is.
What did we learn, if anything? Well, for one thing, keep a ready supply of the old low-frequency radios in case of a major disaster - at least you will still be able to communicate. Newer, fancier, smaller, lighter is not always better.
Just my thoughts as I listen to the old radios doing the job that the new ones were designed to do.
After 9/11, Homeland Security, a new office of the government, decided that communications (radios, etc.) had to be capable of communicating with other departments. The U.S. has spent many billions of dollars to replace all the major police, fire, sheriff, ambulance and other services with 800 MHz Trunking radios all across the country -- including the gulf coast. These use "talk groups" to enable one department to communicate with another department when necessary but can be turned off to keep traffic to a reasonable level. Almost all systems communicate between ground personnel via repeater only. A wonderful idea on paper.
Now, these new radios can only be received by similar radios and usually only via a repeater. However, 800 MHz has other inherent problems. That is it's short range and line-of-sight capabilities. During the early roll-out of the 800 MHz trunking systems, many dead spots were found but during the past year, most of these have been resolved. The solution is to install multiple "repeaters" throughout a region to allow ground personnel to communicate with command or other ground personnel, and yes, even other departments.
Hurricane Katrina wiped out the repeaters and with the inherent limits of short range and line-of-sight and requiring a repeater to function over a large area, all those walkie-talkie radios of the police and fire departments became useless bricks costing over $1000 each.
Enter the Military. They were using old 50 MHz radios as they have used since WWII. Why do they use these? Well, they don't require a repeater for one thing but, they are higher power, lower frequency and capable of transmission over wide areas and varying terrain. Even high-rise buildings don't totally stop their signal. As you watch the news, you'll see the military using these huge and heavy radios with their long antennas. What are they doing? They are COMMUNICATING!
Even the older 150 MHz radios that the police and fire used to use could do better than the new high-technology 800 MHz radios of today. Motorola, E.F. Johnson and others made a mint after Homeland Security required the transition to the new systems and it only took one big storm to show how weak the new system really is.
What did we learn, if anything? Well, for one thing, keep a ready supply of the old low-frequency radios in case of a major disaster - at least you will still be able to communicate. Newer, fancier, smaller, lighter is not always better.
Just my thoughts as I listen to the old radios doing the job that the new ones were designed to do.
