SPARC Mobile Communications Unit

News

April 17, 2009 - Power Point Presentation for MCU - Download Here
April 15, 2009 - C2 photo and SPARC mentioned in ARES E-Letter

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Shore Point Amateur Radio Club in affiliation with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service of Connecticut has completed "C2", a Mobile Communications Unit providing professional grade Amateur Radio communications for disaster relief, special events, club and ARES District communications, and provide the community with an added asset should we be called upon by our served agencies or the community. This project is an improvement on "C1", which was an SUV based unit released in March of 2007 and was retired by the end of 2007. The new design employs two parts which make up the “Mobile Communications Unit”. First a 2007 Ford Expedition EL shall serve as a “Tactical Communications Unit” (TCU) to provide mission critical voice, data, and video communications from the field. Second, a 16.5' x 8.5' trailer with a unique 7' interior height shall make up the “Emergency Operations Center”, or EOC. This unit shall serve as a mobile “nerve center” for emergency communications and can be positioned at any location that has an effective RF footprint in Region II. Both the TCU and EOC shall communicate and work in harmony for the effective and reliable transfer of information through several forms of communication media.

This framework provides a four season unit capable of providing an array of communications capabilities from virtually any location. The design is modeled after professional public safety grade units used by local, state, and federal agencies to assist the community for various different missions. It is important to remember that it is often times equally as important to maintain a professional appearance and demeanor when serving the community as it is to provide effective communications, especially when in the public eye. The versatility of C2 is unique in that it can provide a base of operations for various missions such as public service events (walk-a-thons, fireworks comms support, agricultural fair assistance, etc), club activities such as Field Day, or can be moved to a location to serve as the center point of any club or ARES Section radio activity. This unit also serves as a unique opportunity to take the best of our capabilities to served agencies and the general public to demonstrate what Amateur Radio can do in the best interest of the community. The following is a detailed description of the unit, it's two parts, the equipment, and it's specs.

I. TACTICAL COMMUNICATIONS UNIT

The Tactical Comms Unit is a design taken from the original MCU (C1). Refined through field experiences from the original, this unit provides the ability to set up a roving multi-mode and multi-band communications outpost, as well as set up a stationary operating post. The SUV has an operating position in the front driver/passenger seat for roving operations as well as a full professional grade Communications/Command console in the rear hatchback for stationary operations. The unit has been professionally outfitted with the latest Whelen Amber Caution/Advisory LED lighting for the safety of the operators, nearby pedestrians, and motor vehicle traffic when in a stationary or roving operations setup. Also when the TCU is towing the EOC, this improves visibility and safety for the MCU and other motor vehicles.

The front seat operators position has the following equipment available: Kenwood TM-D710A Voice/Data VHF/UHF mobile radio for APRS and voice communications, Motorola high power VHF Astro-Spectra for analog and APCO P25 (Project 25) digital voice capability, Motorola Spectra 900MHz FM voice radio, Alinco DR-235T 220MHz FM voice radio, Motorola MaraTrac high power 6-meter and VHF-Lo FM voice radio, Uniden BC-996t Scanning receiver, Panasonic Toughbook CF-28 docking station, and GPS/ APRS Mapping and Tracking system.

The rear of the vehicle hatch reveals a field communicator’s position. This position has a Motorola Astro Spectra capable of digital APCO P25 and analog voice at high power, a Motorola UHF 70cm Spectra for voice communications, and a Motorola 900MHz spectra for analog voice. A Panasonic CF-28 Toughbook is connected to the Kenwood TM-D700a Packet Digital communications modem for APRS tracking, Winlink, Airmail, Outpost, and traditional packet. A printer/fax is installed as well as a dedicated VoIP connection. Future capabilities include an ATV transmitter for sending live video via 430MHz FM to the EOC portion of C2 from the field. An optional special enclosed tent for the rear of the SUV is carried for long term setup in various weather conditions.

II. Emergency Operations Center

THE TRAILER

The project starts with a Homesteader, Hercules model cargo trailer. The trailer is a 16.5' long, 8.5' wide, 7' tall (all interior dimensions) has dual axles and is capable of a total weight of 7,000 lbs. The trailer has been outfitted originally with unique livable amenities to include a full RV style door and window on the curb side, slider window on the street side, increased headroom, 120 Volt electrical system prewired with shore line, interior fluorescent lighting, interior finished ceiling, rubberized washable flooring, and a roof mounted air conditioner and heater with thermostat hard wired to the electrical system. These amenities made for a perfect foundation from which to build a mobile communications center. The design is to make the interior as much like a finished room as possible. As such, when we took delivery of the trailer, it was sent to a contractor to further enhance it's interior facilities. After researching similar units designed for public service agencies, a decision was made to cover the walls with industrial wall carpeting. The forward end of the unit was outfitted with a full compliment of kitchen style cabinets, custom countertop, additional power outlets, and a refrigerator/freezer. The forward wall adds a 37" LCD flat screen HDTV monitor. The rear cargo door of the unit was covered with wall carpeting as well and the spring mechanism was covered with a custom cover to further enhance the finished interior "room" feel. Track lighting was added over the console and countertops for low level work lighting.

EQUIPMENT INFRASTRUCTURE

Now that the interior framework for a communications center was complete it was now time to design and outfit the technical equipment and furnishings. W1HVN and K1SOX of the club both have experience as public safety 911 dispatchers. As such, both have had experience working with Motorola professional 911 dispatch consoles. Concurrently, both had the great idea of attempting to bring in these consoles to serve as the mainframe nucleus for the comms center. Easier said than done, however, ended up being the result of this vision. Months of searching for this unique piece of equipment turned up little opportunity. Finally after some months of searching a local Motorola dealer referred us to a Motorola dealer in northern New England. This dealer had a stock of previously used consoles removed from service recently from a city 911 center. With much enthusiasm, a cargo van was rented and a daylong road trip was launched to pick up the consoles. The consoles required a great deal of refurbishment. Over the course of several weeks the consoles were all cleaned, sanitized, and freshly repainted. A grueling task, but nonetheless much worth the effort. They were then installed in the MCU to make for a perfect fit by the interior contractor. A custom countertop surface was made by the contractor to complete the original design and refurbishment of the consoles. The consoles use 19" rack mount spaces to professionally mount the equipment. A professional comms center was now born. Many custom 19" rack mount panels were purchased and reused from the C1 project. Some were custom crafted. The radios and equipment were dry fitted.

ANTENNA BRIDGE

This design phase raised the need for a flexible yet effective antenna array to compliment the capabilities of the radio equipment. A unique "antenna bridge" was designed. This bridge not only provides a deck for antenna mounting, but also provides protection to the OEM roof of the vehicle and more so an outstanding ground plane for the antennas. One of the best aspects of C1 was the installation and performance of the mobile HF screwdriver antenna. Worldwide solid contacts to places such as New Zealand, Russia, and the Orient were easily achieved. To keep with the incredible counterpoise and ground plane friendly design, the antenna bridge was designed to bear the weight of the Tarheel Screwdriver Antenna and a brand new fully automatic lay down motorized mount. At the touch of a button, the antenna goes from a fully horizontal position for travel to a fully vertical position for operating. The antenna sits squarely in the center of the trailer top and "sees" the entire structure as it's counterpoise and ground. The result is a very well tuned and performing all band HF antenna. The bridge and it's antenna components were raised into position by a crane, as the entire assembly weighs approx. 250-300 lbs. 10 NMO mounts with an array of mobile antennas ranging from 28MHz to 928 MHz were installed.

ANTENNA/RF INFRASTRUCTURE

Custom made coax patch cables were ordered to enable the use of our antenna patch bays. A rack mounted BNC coax patch bay with 24 connect points is employed to allow the connection of any antenna (or band thereof) to any one of the radios on board through the use of BNC patch cables. On demand, one of the two operators can switch antennas on the fly for maximum flexibility. This also adds flexibility to the operations given the mission demands.

The unit uses one professional grade, MIL SPEC deployable antenna mast of 30' in addition to the unit mounted antenna assets. The tower shall be mounted to the forward end of the trailer, and will have at its highest point a VHF/UHF Diamond X-300A antenna and a horizontal crossbar having a weather station anemometer, a 900 MHz Laird Technologies repeater antenna, a Diamond X-50A, and two color cameras for exterior surveillance of the staged area.

EXTERNAL POWER

One key element of the unit is a super quiet and clean Honda 3kw generator. This clean inverter based unit shall provide power to the 60 amp and 30 amp power supplies (for dc radio equipment), interior lighting, as well as the sensitive computer and video equipment on board. A separate generic 1.5-2kw generator can be added to provide power to the environmental systems and outdoor lighting if power demands become too high.

ON BOARD LINKED REPEATER SYSTEM

Built into the EOC is a fixed station 100 watt 70cm UHF repeater system. This fixed end repeater feeds the repeater antenna on the 25 foot tower. The repeater is connected to an ARCOM RC-210 controller capable of remote controllable operations through multiple ports. Also connected to the repeater controller is a Kenwood VHF/UHF remotely programmable remote base. DTMF control of the remote base frequency, band, offset, power level, PL encode/decode, and other features is possible for further flexibility. Finally, a 900 MHz low power local repeater is also linked into the repeater system. The MCU stocks 6 Motorola 900 MHz GTX portable radios and gang charger for use with the repeater. All three components are able to be linked together on demand and form a structure capable of picking up and sustaining communications in the case of the loss of fixed end land based repeaters and systems in a disaster. In addition to the 900 MHz portables, three Kenwood Commercial Grade UHF portables and chargers are stocked on board for use with the wide area UHF repeater.

COMPUTER HARDWARE/PERIPHERALS/SOFTWARE/VIDEO

Computer systems are built into the console structure of the comms center. The comms center is made up of two positions in the console. The number two position has a fixed machine with 4 LCD monitors which has 3G IP access. Hardware interface includes the following: Computer control of two Kenwood TS-B2000 All mode multi band HF/VHF/UHF transceivers, Kantronics KAM + TNC, Kantronics KPC 3+ TNC, sound card interface for multiple digital modes, scanner programming/control, Wireless internet via Sprint Air Card, standard land line phone service through VoIP with dedicated telephone number for the MCU, Video recording and surveillance. Some applications used are Airmail, Outpost, Q-Forms for passing emergency traffic via NTS channels. An "all-in- one" color printer/fax/scanner will also be incorporated at a later date and be connected to the VoIP landline for fax usage. A separate laptop computer is used to drive the 37” display on the forward wall. This computer runs UIView for APRS tracking and also is capable of several packet/data applications. Also on this screen is live HDTV television from Over The Air (OTA) broadcasters in the area. Video from the mast mounted cameras is also available for display through this device.

EXTERIOR

Two separate vendors in Connecticut provided the graphics and lettering. These were generously funded by K1SOX, W1MHz, and W1HVN. Our generous thanks to those members who aided in this high quality graphics application. This was completed in August. This design was similar to that of C1. Later in early Spring and late Winter of 2009 a new special patch and emblem were desgined by K1SOX for C2. This design was incorporated into the graphics for the TCU, the EOC, and used on professional grade polo shirts worn by SPARC members participating in C2 events. Scene/Flood/Amber Advisory Lighting by Whelen Engineering is used and installed. This is a combination of new LED technology as well as traditional halogen equipment.

THE TIMELINE

The project began in March of 2008 and finally was completed in March 2009. Delivery for the trailer was made in April of 2009. A continuous effort of labor began in March of 2008 and still to date has not entirely stopped. The official rollout took place on March 8, 2009 in Orange, CT. Brian K1SOX, Chris W1HVN, and Dan KB1MMR all provided their time in the completion of this effort. Dan KB1MMR spent many days and nights of his time doing much of the work and his talented efforts are very much appreciated.

RADIO EQUIPMENT

In addition to the repeater equipment discussed earlier, the following radio equipment is installed and operable:

Two Kenwood TS-B2000 computer controlled transceivers with two RC-2000 remote control kits, a Yaesu FT-7700 dual band transceiver, 6 Motorola Spectras for VHF/UHF/800/900, one Motorola Maxtrac for VHF-Lo, a Motorola Astro Spectra for VHF APCO P25, an ADI 220MHz radio, a Uniden BC-796D scanner, Kenwood TS-140 HF transceiver, Kenwood TS-440S HF transceiver, 2 Kantronics KPC3+ TNCs, a Kantronics KAM+ TNC, 7 Motorola GTX 900MHz portables, 3 Kenwood TK series portables for UHF.

OPERATOR QUALIFICATION TRAINING

Training sessions on the unit will be planned. Those persons interested in being qualified will receive training on the equipment and use of one of two operating positions. These sessions will most likely be on weekends at a location close to the unit's place of storage. A training program will be developed and operators shall complete all phases of the training before being assigned to a duty position. Of course informal operations during non-emergency use is encouraged and welcome. Both SPARC and ARES members are invited to attend this training.

Chris - W1HVN
3-10-2009

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3/16/2009