Mission for CAP?

[scooter]

Just read the Denver Post about the HLS money spent by various government agencies on all kinds of things to use in the event of a bad guy attack. One of the items was 800 g/mhz (?) radios. Really great radios except they are almost useless in the mountains, great in flat country, line of sight. The article stated the only way to make them work in the mountains was build more towers for relay and they are very expensive. Don't have the bucks to do it. Everyone stumped. So this got me to thinking about our airborne repeaters. I don't think the current ones work with these radios but it must be possible to build one that would. Then when the troops need comm in the mountains, we could just put a high bird up there and they could talk to each other via the repeater.

I'm not a radio guy so was wondering if airborne repeaters are feasible with this radio system. Has to be cheaper than millions for towers.

[PHall]

Total waste of time for our Cessnas, they don't have enough endurance to make them practical for more then a day or two.
Now something like a blimp or a tethered aerostat, that would work.

[arajca]

The 800MHz system in CO is a trunked system so you can't just throw a repeater up at any time like we can with the CAP system. The 800MHz repeaters need to have a link to a central controller which assigns the frequency within the group of frequencies available.

No handheld radios work in the mountains well without repeaters. I live in the mountains of CO and I'm familiar with VHF, UHF, and 800MHz performance in the mountains. I do get ~15 miles from home to the local 800 repeater without problem. In my Fire Corps role, I get similar ranges for the VHF system, and only 1-2 on simplex channels. UHF is similar.

[JC004]

Total waste of time for our Cessnas, they don't have enough endurance to make them practical for more then a day or two.
Now something like a blimp or a tethered aerostat, that would work.

Dude!  CAP blimp!  YES!   

I would so ride one.  I mean....they'd be good for recruiting because everyone at least glances at a blimp.   

[coudano]

Actually we have done some research on putting a repeater up on a tethered balloon.  Think like those ones you see flying at the car dealership.  As a ground team / deployed comm mission.

[Al Sayre]

^^Problem with that is all it takes is some smart ass kid with a BB-gun and you now got a $10K pile of trash in a small hole in the ground...

[Buzz]

^^Problem with that is all it takes is some smart ass kid with a BB-gun and you now got a $10K pile of trash in a small hole in the ground...

At the altitude you would need to hang the thing, only a .50BMG round might be able to reach it.

[Flying Pig]

Gear is gear.  If its going to be purchased regardless I dont advocate giving it to volunteer non-profits.  CAP included.  Give it to Law Enforcement agencies. Dont rely on volunteers in order to use it.  Yeah...I know some of you are walking around wringing your hands at that statement.

[wuzafuzz]

Gear is gear.  If its going to be purchased regardless I dont advocate giving it to volunteer non-profits.  CAP included.  Give it to Law Enforcement agencies. Dont rely on volunteers in order to use it.  Yeah...I know some of you are walking around wringing your hands at that statement.

Depends on the gear.  We don't need $500k command post vehicles for CAP.  However, CAP can make perfectly good use of some items that would actually see more use than some of the HLS funded doomsday caches mentioned in the Denver Post articles.  We can live without they toys...fits into the "would be nice" category. 

Some of the HLS related spending has been put to excellent use, some has amounted to nothing more than empire building.

[GTCommando]

^^Problem with that is all it takes is some smart ass kid with a BB-gun and you now got a $10K pile of trash in a small hole in the ground...

At the altitude you would need to hang the thing, only a .50BMG round might be able to reach it.

Like Al said, all you need is some punk with a Barrett .50BMG...

[coudano]

^^Problem with that is all it takes is some smart ass kid with a BB-gun and you now got a $10K pile of trash in a small hole in the ground...

At the altitude you would need to hang the thing, only a .50BMG round might be able to reach it.

Like Al said, all you need is some punk with a Barrett .50BMG...

Really i think you'd need to be more concerned about a punk with a pair of scissors...
just sayin.

[KyCAP]

^^Problem with that is all it takes is some smart ass kid with a BB-gun and you now got a $10K pile of trash in a small hole in the ground...

At the altitude you would need to hang the thing, only a .50BMG round might be able to reach it.

I thought everyone had a .50BMG....  Oh wait I live in ky...  :angel:

[Flying Pig]

Most people in CA arent citizens, so we dont get to have them.  Ive always wondered about how the rest of the country lives.