Governor's $250,000 Grant to Amateur Radio Goes Online as Oregon Hams Install New Win

[ARRL]

This month, Oregon ARES® members will complete the state-wide installation of Winlink, thanks to a $250,000 grant from Governor Ted Kulongoski. In 2007, the governor was impressed by the hams' ability to handle emergency communications when severe winter storms wreaked havoc on Oregon's North Coast and flooded the City of Vernonia, knocking out 911 services, Internet and phone service for an extended period of time. The Oregon Office of Emergency Management said that during the storms, the radio operators were "tireless in their efforts to keep the systems connected." When even state police had difficulty reaching some of their own troops, ham radio worked, setting up networks so emergency officials could communicate and relaying lists of supplies needed in stricken areas.



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[KingCobra_CDX882]

That is great to hear

 

[SR385]

They just put the control of their entire system in the hands of a few guys...the source code to Winlink is closed.

It has no place in amateur radio for emergency use as a result.

The whims of a few guys could take a Winlink infrastructure offline in an instant. If they didn't go along with the political ideals of the stations using it....if they wanted to disrupt a supply chain announcement because 'their side' of a conflict was served by that interest...the list of the potential for a few men to destroy a backbone being used for only the most dire circumstances is just huge.

They could in effect disable all Winlink networks and demand ransome in order to turn them all back on again.

I keep meaning to do a full outline of the problems with Winlink and publish it.

The intent of the system is good, but the pirates that are behind the system should not be trusted, particularly for the reasons that amateur radio is investing in this closed system.

All that money, they could have had a statewide, open spec/technology, broad-band data network. Hell for $250k, they could have had 5, 10Mb/s satellite uplink systems that could then have been linked into a wi-max style distribution point to all their emergency services locations.

It was a foolish, but well intended allocation of funds.

 

[mackmobile43]

Here's a few questions I have, if ham radio assistance in emergency situations are so extraordinarily helpful then why does'nt the 911 agencies have their own ham radio network?

They apparently have 800 mhz repeater capabilities that are used by law enforcement, why can't these be used in the same capacity and or simply just by ham radios and train the personnel to operate them?

Can Mr. ARRL Senior Member answer these questions?

 

[SR385]

It's not the radios, it's the portable/fluid nature of the equipment and operators.

Townships don't tend to invest in portable fault tolerant systems. Though post 9/11, a bunch of DHS money has gone into portable repeater trailers with powered extension towers on them.

The trouble is, in the case of a major/mass disaster there is higher potential for losing a singular resource that was the backup. With hams, you have people all over with their own radio equipment that is portable and often easily adapted for mobilized operations.

The whole concept is strength in numbers for redundancy.

In our local RACES we have radio equipment stashed all around the county, in addition to all our own equipment. Even if a severe hurricane struck the area, the likelihood is very high that a portable field ops station could be assembled and on the air in short order.

Locally, our amateur repeaters stay up on the air much more often than the municipal machines during severe storms and power outages. My local town's system goes down all the time due to power issues while my local repeater is always up.

Also municipal systems don't have the extra-regional capability that we do with HF NVIS comms (40m 75m). So if an even was severe enough to knock out telephones and cellphones, we would be the only ones immediately available for this capability.

Yes there are military and government units that have all of this and much much more with satellite links, but it takes them days to get on location. RACES are who provide the initial communications capability until being relieved by other resources.

Hams operated at ground zero for many days because comms were so constrained and comms coordination was so strained. There was equipment all over, but the agencies didn't have it running properly until days later.

Most cities don't even have a significant staff of radio techs capable of managing the actual repeater configurations...that's all done by contractors now. Towns may have a few guys that program portables, but those guys don't know how to whip up an improvised repeater, nor do they have a bunch of them lying around.

 

[mackmobile43]

It's not the radios, it's the portable/fluid nature of the equipment and operators.

Townships don't tend to invest in portable fault tolerant systems. Though post 9/11, a bunch of DHS money has gone into portable repeater trailers with powered extension towers on them.

The trouble is, in the case of a major/mass disaster there is higher potential for losing a singular resource that was the backup. With hams, you have people all over with their own radio equipment that is portable and often easily adapted for mobilized operations.

The whole concept is strength in numbers for redundancy.

In our local RACES we have radio equipment stashed all around the county, in addition to all our own equipment. Even if a severe hurricane struck the area, the likelihood is very high that a portable field ops station could be assembled and on the air in short order.

Locally, our amateur repeaters stay up on the air much more often than the municipal machines during severe storms and power outages. My local town's system goes down all the time due to power issues while my local repeater is always up.

Also municipal systems don't have the extra-regional capability that we do with HF NVIS comms (40m 75m). So if an even was severe enough to knock out telephones and cellphones, we would be the only ones immediately available for this capability.

Yes there are military and government units that have all of this and much much more with satellite links, but it takes them days to get on location. RACES are who provide the initial communications capability until being relieved by other resources.

Hams operated at ground zero for many days because comms were so constrained and comms coordination was so strained. There was equipment all over, but the agencies didn't have it running properly until days later.

Most cities don't even have a significant staff of radio techs capable of managing the actual repeater configurations...that's all done by contractors now. Towns may have a few guys that program portables, but those guys don't know how to whip up an improvised repeater, nor do they have a bunch of them lying around.

I asked ARRL this question. I know why hams do it but why does'nt the gov do it?