With all that has been spent over the last decade on upgrading CAP's communication system, do you comm gurus believe that we have actually increased our range of capabilities or that we have just replaced a bunch of old equipment but that there hasn't been any real increase in what we can do with the system?
Overall, We've replaced old equipment and rendered obselete most member supplied equipment. Are there more radios available at missions -- or fewer ?
Do you have cadets at missions bringing their radios ?
Does your local net have more checkins ?
If you operate in an area with overlapping repeater coverage, if you are on repeater 1, would you hear a call on repeater 2 ? Not any more--we have tone squelch engaged on CAP radios -- we are deaf to the repeater we're not on. And, we're supposed to be monitoring a simplex guard channel.
Technical capabilities are up-we can do p25 and ALE, but operational capacity is DOWN.
Overall we have more radios available at missions than ever before, and when they arrive they are, for the most part, standardized and
fully functional. We spend very little time during missions trying to get some $25 piece of ebay junk to work.
The increased funding means that people who would not normally be interested in spending money on something they use twice a year,
now have something issued to them. The TOC's mean that a lot more radios are in the hands of ES people and commanders instead of
Comms people. These people confidence check their equipment on a regular basis, but have no interest in being HAMS, so they don't participate in the nets.
If you think about it, we really don't have much capability. Yeah we have a few P25 conventional repeaters, and some HF gear.
In a Radio geek world, we really don't have one huge 'system' we have hundreds of single site 'systems'
There is sooo much more capability that we can leverage from using P25, that national does not see, or will not allow.
What capability is needed that we don't have?
"Needed" being the key word.
Encryption is unnecessary for most of our ops, and not used by similar agencies
Digital is nice to have but presents its own unique challenges.
CAP's current state of comms meets or exceeds its current mission mandates, which is why they are as they are.
A BIG change that has occurred in the past decade or so in CAP Communications is it's role in the organization.
We've gone from formal nets where a large amount of formal administrative traffic was passed to a system that is now pretty much a "tactical" radio system.
The radios are just another tool to be used during our various missions. Be it ES, DR or even the local airshow.
"Need" is a word that varies according to the mission goal set. With enhanced capabilities, we might, I say again, might, be able to address missions that will assure our continued survival as an organization. Comm systems are like pistols and fire extinguishers: You don't need one until you need one badly! The City of New York thought that their Comm system was the pride of the World's EMS until a couple of "Community Organizers" swatted America armed with a couple of box cutters. Taking a sharp, clear look at our real world capabilities before the shoe drops is a prudent idea, and I don't think you will find many Communications professionals who would rate our systems in the worlds top ten.
Major Lord
Not being a comm geek all I see are more radios available for ground team use than we ever had before. Encryption, assuming it does come along, will be a nice thing to have every now and again.
I don't get too misty eyed over the radio nets being much diminished. I've never heard of them being used in any real useful way other than to just make sure the darn things still work. I've never seen a need for seamless CAP radio communication across the country. So long as we can handle our local tactical operations, I'm happy.
If you think about it nothing has changed, yea we went digital. So what! If anything we DECREASED the range. There is no more 'Fringe' coverage. With digital its either received or not, if you start dropping packets then you drop your traffic.
Crypto really isn't a big deal, just about everyone is using some type of crypto.
If National would have thought it out a little more, we could have soe really neat capability, but again National failed!
Quote from: SARJunkie on January 23, 2011, 12:20:41 AM
If you think about it nothing has changed, yea we went digital. So what! If anything we DECREASED the range. There is no more 'Fringe' coverage. With digital its either received or not, if you start dropping packets then you drop your traffic.
Crypto really isn't a big deal, just about everyone is using some type of crypto.
If National would have thought it out a little more, we could have soe really neat capability, but again National failed!
We have found our range has INCREASED by about 10% when using digital modulation.
Quote from: cap235629 on January 23, 2011, 12:38:54 AM
Quote from: SARJunkie on January 23, 2011, 12:20:41 AM
If you think about it nothing has changed, yea we went digital. So what! If anything we DECREASED the range. There is no more 'Fringe' coverage. With digital its either received or not, if you start dropping packets then you drop your traffic.
Crypto really isn't a big deal, just about everyone is using some type of crypto.
If National would have thought it out a little more, we could have soe really neat capability, but again National failed!
We have found our range has INCREASED by about 10% when using digital modulation.
Most of the new repeaters from national were cranked up to a higher TX power to compensate.
VHF radio system is adequate for our current mission needs. If there's no mission (or net scheduled) it is unlikely that anyone is monitored the frequency and any calls for emergency assistance should be by cell phone to 911 OR if the CAP radio is equipped with a public safety frequency channel, than call that dispatch center. Otherwise, likely a good ham VHF/UHF combo WT will get you help.
HF SSB/ALE wise, it is still an on going experiment as to whether the current sun spot cycle will support effective communications to every region and wing from National HQ, NTC, or lst AF. It is likely that a SATCOM digital terminal would likely be the best choice at this time.
I noted on another list a posting about an article in "Monitoring Times" magazine, that CAP was going to be authorized access/use of DOD HF SSB/ALE/Digital system (and sub systems) in the future. The information if correct would allow ANY of our HF stations to get relay assistance via phone patch or automatic routing email (encrypted/unencrypted) from either of two remote control points (MD & ND) and would allow access to remote transmitters/receivers in AK, HI, MD, ND, PR, SD.
For those CAP units on military bases, it is likely they have to DSN (defense switch network) which is a voice system that normally operates on separate wire/optic lines but also can be tied into SATCOM if necessary. Also units may request assistance from the local command post that also have access to SATCOM and other communications methods IF comms with higher headquarters cannot be achieved via the CAP radio communications network or regular commercial landline telephone or cellphone service.
RM
Here in the midwest(MN) we are about to experience another round of flooding
In order to fulfill our misson to help out local goverment agencies ( that do support us through allocations)
We would like to provide Aerial Photographs and ad as you know SSTV is out becasue of the narrow banding.
Other than dropping a memory card by parachute, I am open to suggestions.
802.11b works from air to ground. The aircraft has to be lower than 1000 and right overhead, and you can transfer images via wifi. We transfered several gigs of data very successfully.
Im trying to get national to apply for a waiver to use 4.9ghz (licensed public safety WLAN) for airborne use. We got a waiver for my real job, and we can send live video 30+ miles from a helo.
Sprint Aircard while airborne. (Sprint and FCC have no issue with this), again this has been the norm in public saftey helo ops for years. But CAP hasn't caught on. or has "issues" with it.
At one time National also has several hi-Def live video microwave transmitters, but got rid of them after they failed to work. I call operator error, again i used the same equipment in my real job with no issues.
Quote from: rdbyam on January 24, 2011, 11:30:32 PM
Here in the midwest(MN) we are about to experience another round of flooding
In order to fulfill our misson to help out local goverment agencies ( that do support us through allocations)
We would like to provide Aerial Photographs and ad as you know SSTV is out becasue of the narrow banding.
Other than dropping a memory card by parachute, I am open to suggestions.
1. Take photos and video.
2. Land.
3. Send photos and video to customer.
4. Ask customer if they have what they need.
5. Rinse, repeat.
Also, last I checked ARCHER was still operational (warts and all) - request the bird and use it.
If that AirCard won't or isn't allowed to work:
Find local ham group that has the SSTV gear, ideally ARES/RACES so they can be activated under the auspices of the local public safety folks. Obtain permission to take them up for flights. Fly. If they are using 2 meters they might even use the spare external antenna on our planes equipped for portable repeater operation.
Or simply do what some others have suggested, fly, shoot, land, deliver, repeat as needed.
Quote from: wuzafuzz on January 25, 2011, 07:24:24 PM
Or simply do what some others have suggested, fly, shoot, land, deliver, repeat as needed.
In my experience, this is the best option. It's better to wait a little bit to deliver a large number of high-quality photos on the ground than transmit grainy photos from the air via SSTV. I've never seen one of our customers require that kind of near real-time data on a situation.
Yes - several times over.
Assuming a 1:1 replacement as the lowest denominator, digital modes give at least +10% coverage, in addition to encryption.
We added new sites, increasing our wing's footprint by about 300% (in area).
The tactical repeaters filled in the other holes, giving us 100% coverage with redundant layers to spare. We didn't have that before.
HF ALE Suites baselines us to 100% C4I capability from National down to unit. We didn't have that before.
The new repeaters reset the DMS timelines. No more scrounging to obtain replacement parts off of EBAY or DRMO. It's brand new. We can redirect that energy to training and proficiency.
We have true interoperability capability now, and can easily add channels to meet time critical mission needs. We didn't have that before.
The USAF has a fully operational LMR system with nearly nationwide coverage. We NEVER had that before.
So, yeah, let me count the ways... Oh, and this was done with volunteers.
You should be very proud of the historic work this past year.