Taller deployable towers could provide a ‘light at the end of the fiber’ for disaster response

While my fervent request to them is for a unit that will handle 8 channels (or more) in the 800 MHz spectrum, it will take a lot more R&D (read that as $$$) to get there. This is a project that either the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to step up and fund or collectively provide law-enforcement and fire-services agencies with grant funding.  However, at the current level of development, a single channel in either the public-safety VHF or UHF bands is just about a reality.

In the case of Hurricane Katrina, everything from the Texas/Louisiana boarder to the middle of the Florida Panhandle was affected in some manner. While all of the media attention was drawn to New Orleans, the actual ground zero was Waveland, Miss. Waveland, in Hancock County is in the southwest corner of Mississippi. A single-channel system in the 500’ to 1,000’ range would have provided a command channel that could have served New Orleans, Mississippi and most of the Alabama Gulf coast. That capability alone should bring the DHS/FEMA folks running with checkbook in hand. The question is, will it?

Our month in Waveland had us trying to cover all of Hancock County and part of the adjacent Harrison County from the 100’ capability of our Alumatower trailer. While highly successful in our tiny area of operations with a five-channel 800 MHz trunking system, three conventional 800 MHz mutual-aid channels, three conventional UHF mutual-aid channels and three conventional VHF mutual-aid repeaters, we needed far more coverage area. The lightweight Tower Top Preamp for transportable infrastructure developed afterwards by Bird TX/RX provides us a 30% to 50% range increase. But we are still at 100’ AGL.

When the FORAX/HARC is finally in production in the 800 MHz band, it will truly provide the light at the end of the fiber for disaster-response communications.

Ben Holycross is the radio systems manager for Polk County, Fla.