Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day – ARMAD 2011 will be held on 28 May 2011 (the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend).
The purpose for having Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day is to give a shout out in support of those serving on the Front Line as First Responders and Military Personnel. As well as those that have served and families that have given their all in support of Freedom around the World.
System Check 2009 12 12 16 37 Z
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There’s been a lot of activity in the past month in several different areas regarding communications support.
Thanks again to those that are helping with everything.
The ALERTradio ERC | Forum is operational once again via http://forum.alertradio.net
It’s time again for Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day (ARMAD) on 23 May 2009, here in Madison/Huntsville, AL. We will be setting up at a new site this year. When more information come available we will announce the site location.
The Asterisk Amateur Radio Network will be join with the Drake State Technical College Amateur Radio Club promoting the use of amateur radio along with giving thanks and appreciation to our men and women who have served and who are serving now in the Arm Forces. This will be a great day for all to come out and support the troops on a job that continues to be at the fore front of our mission for the country and the world.
We hope to have HF/VHF/UHF radio system setup for operations. Making contact to other ARMAD or any amateur radio stations. We will also use VoIP systems such as Asterisk, IRLP and Echolink for those who would like to call in. There is also a special IRLP reflector for all IRLP station to call into. This IRLP reflector is experimental node 0011. This is a special IRLP reflector and you will need to make sure your IRLP node are setup to make the call into. More information will be put out on these special parameters in a few days. So stay tune.
For Asterisk call in, one can call in on AST node 2048, this way you will be able to talk to IRLP and echolink nodes alike. For Echolink nodes one can call in on the Kansas Reflector, node 44445 and W4WWM-L, node 54572. Any of these connections will be fine. We would also like to try something new. We will have a control Ham Radio operator standing by for third party calls. This way we can also show the power of Asterisk PBX. So look for more special information on how this will happen here on this site.
Anyway we will look for all to come out and support this great day for ARMAD and to make radio contacts using our hobby, amateur radio to communicate. 73 and Stay tune for more info!
Will / W4WWM
It’s all about being ready …
When was the last time that you checked over your supplies? Not just the gear in your Go-bag, what about the gear in your vehicle, home and most important your own physical health.
Good physical health has to be the greatest supply that we overlook, yet it is very critical in order for us to be able to accomplish our mission.
When we are activated for a mission are you ready?
In the 1800s there was the frontier of West. Today we have digital frontiers to explore. The digital frontiers may not always be digital voice or data that appears within this new frontier.
Some may remember the days of 1200 baud packet that was quite popular in the 1990s. This technology is now present in APRS, with even a hint of low-speed data showing up within the VHF and UHF bands via D-STAR enabled radios as well as telemetry.
For those that have radios such as the Icom ID-1 it is possible to have 100kbps data from the Internet available in your vehicle. In order to do this a base station with a ID-1 or a D-STAR 1.2GHz data repeater is required.
Most of us have some form of a wireless network in our home or business that operates via the 802.11 standards. Did you know that this same equipment can be used in Amateur Radio with higher RF power and higher gain antennas? Within Amateur Radio this technology is known as High Speed Multi Media or HSMM. The primary bands for HSMM are 2400, 3300 and 5800 MHz. The 902 MHz band can also be used for high speed data. One of the key advantages to HSMM is in its nature of being able to take a “off-the-shelf” wireless network adapter and access point add a higher gain antenna to them, and for longer range RF amplifiers can be added under FCC Part 97 rules.
Imagine having access to high speed video, IP-phone and Data Connectivity in your vehicle,or during special events and emergency incidents being able to provide data, video and voice to the agencies served. As well as providing “last mile” coverage into a disaster area.
Did we mention telephone service? With the development of Internet telephone services as well as telephone servers such as Asterisk which provide flexible interoperability between PSTN, Internet Phone and Radio dial tone can be presented along with the last mile capabilities of High Speed Multi Media create a resource that can be highly beneficial to the community and the nation.
What is next in the Digital Frontiers? As it was in the 1800s with the migration West the same is occurring with the digital migration. With networks such as Asterisk the migration is made easier as analog and digital technology is made one. On the Internet you can find more information about Asterisk and HSMM at http://www.asteriskradio.net.
Just like other living things there are good and bad times for dynamic paths that are taken.
One can opt to be static yet knowing dynamic paths will move you.
Be flexible with the methods that are used, yet maintain the basic standards that allow a incident operation to be conducted safely. Standards which remain static can be used as a basis for operation integrity and also represent a road map to a successful mission.
Standard Operation Procedures provide the static portion for operational planning yet they should also be dynamic so that when new methods are presented they can be placed into the Standard Operation Procedures as soon as possible.
Every situation, every incident is different, thus the need for being dynamic in operational style. At times incidents will take place that are not amongst the normal operational situations. This indeed is one of the times that we need to be dynamic in readiness and response.
Flexibility is a key ingredient to readiness and the “all hazard” approach to emergency response and planning.
As a organization which path are you opting for: static or dynamic flexibility?
This is an introduction to today’s Army MARS. Our discussion is general in
nature, and organized around three questions: (1) What does MARS offer as an
asset to the military, to emergency management, and to the broad community of
emergency responders? (2) What kind of skills do MARS members develop? (3)
Looking ahead, who will MARS members be?
