*KANSAS* *NEBRASKA* Reflectors Net
Wednesday 20:00 Central Time (Winter 02:00Z  Summer 01:00Z Thursday)

Friday Open Forum Net
Friday 20:00 Central Time (Winter 02:00Z  Summer 01:00Z Thursday)

Nets are available via:

EchoLink

• *KANSAS*  Node: 44445
• *NEBRASKA* Node: 256740

Asterisk RF Gateways

• KC0SOK   Node: 2095
• KC0EQA  Node: 27553
• KB5MDH Node: 27060

Asterisk PBX

• Conference 8503

We’re Still Here …

doing a bit of regrouping along the way and hope we can get the infrastructure fully operational again.  The summer has been a rough one across Kansas and over two thirds of the United States is dealing with Extreme Heat Conditions.  Plenty of humidity but the atmosphere is so hot that rain evaporates before it has a chance to be rain.

Working on getting a way to get a large enough bandwidth pipe to handle the PBX and RF Gateway at Derby.   Hope to have some of the resources back online very soon.   Both are functional for local operations currently.

Some of you may have heard me talking about Tropo.com in regards to building some VoIP applications.   Definitely some neat things coming up that can be quite beneficial for system control and status notification, alert activation among other PBX / RF Gateway communication needs.   Also there is a way to include SMS to DSTAR Text as well as text messaging to the commercial digital systems.  Will be talking about that as development work continues.

Soon as we can get a PBX up and running again will be back on the nets again …

 Update 5SEP2011

Yes, we are indeed still here. Still a tad on the challenging side, yet we know that we can make it. Definitely been a learning experience for all. It finally cooled off a bit here in Kansas, be nice if it was here to stay. A week in the upper 70s lower 80s for highs is a treat for sure.

We have several off-set “hosted PBX” offerings available. Once we have enough people interested in helping with the cost of operations will finalize the set up. The idea of having some redundancy with the PBX services will come in handy as we have seen this past spring and summer with some of the situations that have taken place.

May the support that is needed be present so we can continue to support those that need are services.

Asterisk RF Gateways

Added InterOp_Kansas with information regarding Kansas Mutual Aid Communications Resources.

Remote Base:

What is the function?

What will it be used for?

How will it connect to other stations?

What is the function:

A Remote Base provides a method in which locations outside the normal range of a Base Station or Repeater can be accessed. Thus providing additional communications coverage area.

What will it be used for:

Provide additional communications coverage area; also can be used to augment communications resources in emergency situations and special events.

How will it connect to other stations:

Depending on the complexity of the Remote Base (and the amount of funds available) the ideal situation would be to have a combination of RF and Internet backhaul capabilities. If Internet access is available this would be the ideal method for connectivity. Once again if funds are available use of Satellite Internet services would provide some additional remote accessibility.

When using RF backhaul capabilities there are number of methods that can prove to be beneficial. When possible consider VHF Links and for full-duplex A VHF / UHF combination. We cannot forget about the flexibility of HSMM on 2.4, 3.3, 5.8 GHz and even 902 MHz has some promising potential.

Can HF be considered a viable extension of the Remote Base Link? Depends on the mission objective. Looking back to some of the applications in the past couple of years where HF Remote Base Links have been used as a method to receive emergency traffic from distant locations out of normal range of EOC there may be some practical usage for HF.

The way the Amateur Radio licensing is set up it is rather tough to test a station in a non-emergency setting. Especially for those holding a Technician Class license. There are some that have taken the test for the General and Extra class license and passed the test yet don’t have a clue about the technology that they were tested on. It appears that some don’t really care about the technology just the fact that they can now “talk voice on HF.” In some instances voice on HF will not be the best approach for getting the necessary information from those that have it to those that need it.

Okay back to the Remote Base chatter …

So what do we need to create a Remote Base?

What do we need to create a Remote Base:

Determine the type of terrain in which the Remote Base will operate;

is it urban, rural, forested, hilly, mountains, etc.

What resources are available;

Internet; Dial-up, Broadband, HSMM, Satellite;

RF Equipment – HF, VHF, UHF, Microwave;

Power – Grid, Solar, Wind, Battery, Generator

Antenna Structure – Building, Tower, Mast;

What is the distance that needs to be covered between the Remote Base and Base / Repeater Site:

Will the distance require additional enhancements via extenders, cross-band repeaters, etc:

Once the above information is available we can start working on creating the actual Remote Base

Are you really ready?

When the power fails will your equipment still operate via generator or battery back up?

Is there enough fuel and battery capacity to last several days?

What is the plan for longer term outages?

Do you have alternate sources for obtaining fuel and batteries (that are already charged)?

What about re-charging the batteries, if you have solar and wind power resources available will they be able to recover the load and still charge the batteries?

The Digital Analog Radio Network is near.

DARN defined as “to mend by weaving thread across a gap” that is what is being done.   Those that want to see flexibility will go with the DARN approach, as a improvement while there will be others that find it to be just annoyance.    DARN definitely fits the new Digital Analog Radio Networks.

Sometimes logic can indeed be simple (send in most potentially linkable exchange).

Nothing is really free …

So why is it that independent groups have such a hard time getting funding in good time and definitely during tougher times?

There are many agencies and organizations that benefit from the support resources of these independent groups. Yet there are those that will frown at the idea of not having control over the independent resources and go as far as to make sure that the funding that independent groups are eligible to receive never gets to them. As time has progressed there are those that are saying that it is getting harder to find good volunteers, rural fire departments are suffering, some services are even going as far as securing their doors and ceasing operation due to the lack of resources.

Yet there are those that are willing to help, they want to be independent in nature so the resources can be utilized by any agency that needs it without having to have the approval from a controlling agency first. There are those that have said they would be glad to help, but they can not afford to leave their work and when they can leave work, who covers their expenses for them?

We want instant access to the many support resources that are available, yet in order to have the resources available on short notice those that respond to the call need to know that expenses that they have will be covered. The challenge of maintaining equipment and the cost of transportation is definitely part of the problem. What about the cost of training and making sure the necessary equipment to provide a proper response is available? Then when the equipment is available what about the people that will operate the equipment, will they be able to handle the cost without some support financially?

The resources are present but what about the funding?

Nothing is really free …