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Incident Command/Situational Awareness


Rockwell Collins announces plans to offer nationwide disaster communications system via HF radio

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 18th August 2015
Rockwell Collins announces plans for ARINC UrgentLink, a nationwide high-frequency (HF) radio network that is designed to provide communications between public-safety and critical-infrastructure entities when local terrestrial networks have been destroyed by a man-made or natural disaster.

What is in this article?

  • Rockwell Collins announces plans to offer nationwide disaster communications system via HF radio
  • Rockwell Collins announces plans to offer nationwide disaster communications system via HF radio

Rockwell Collins announces plans to offer nationwide disaster communications system via HF radio

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Rockwell Collins yesterday announced plans for ARINC UrgentLink, a nationwide high-frequency (HF) radio network that is designed to provide communications between public-safety and critical-infrastructure entities when local terrestrial networks have been destroyed by a man-made or natural disaster.

UrgentLink utilizes spectrum allocated for maritime use, but it can be used on land during times of disaster, when normal communication infrastructure is inoperable, according to Dave Chapman, product manager for Rockwell Collins.

“We believe it’s the first purpose-built network for disaster response with nationwide coverage,” Chapman said. “We’ve developed a system and a network that allows people to communicate using HF radios instead of traditional land mobile radios in disasters like this—and we made it easy.”

Because of the propagation characteristics of the spectrum, HF radio has long been used as a method to communicate across vast distances, but it traditionally was the domain of amateur-radio operators licensed by the FCC. By using automatic link establishment (ALE) technology, the Rockwell Collins system lets HF radio can be used by anyone, Chapman said.

“[With ALE], the radios are constantly talking to each other to determine the optimal frequency to use the next time the next time they place the call,” he said. “Instead of the traditional way that ham radio uses, it’s kind of one-touch calling, so that anybody can use it—it doesn’t take a specialization or an FCC license to do so.

“That allows emergency managers, police officers, hospital administrators or anybody to reach outside a disaster zone and report what they need—after-response help and things like that—as well as talk to peers and other customers who use this service within the disaster zone.”

Rockwell Collins currently has a pilot HF network with a large sheriff’s department and is in discussions to deploy other pilot systems, Chapman said. The company plans to offer commercial HF service within a year that will not require customer maintenance, he said.

“We’re going to run this as a service, similar to having a cell phone,” Chapman said. “We will supply them with a radio that will work on the UrgentLink network, then Rockwell Collins will go out and do the install and manage it.”

“[Customers will] pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee that gives you access to the network and the services that come with it.”

1 | 2 |
Rockwell Collins announces plans to offer nationwide disaster communications system via HF radio
Tags: Disaster Response Incident Command/Situational Awareness News State & Local Government News

8 comments

  1. Avatar Toby 19th August 2015 @ 3:33 pm
    Reply

    Sounds great but Amateur
    Sounds great but Amateur Radio has this for free and incorporates voice plus data and asset tracking. I fail to see the advantage except for the people making the money…

  2. Avatar PeterHam 20th August 2015 @ 2:53 pm
    Reply

    Too bad the spectrum they are
    Too bad the spectrum they are using belongs to THE PEOPLE not Rockwell/Collins. They are going to charge a fee? Hopefully the fee is for the equipment rental because the spectrum belongs to us.

  3. Avatar Kb5zcs 20th August 2015 @ 5:00 pm
    Reply

    This is going to be for
    This is going to be for people that dont want to study and go take a test for Ham radio,all though Ham have been providing this service as free for years now…….

  4. Avatar W1MLK 21st August 2015 @ 9:21 am
    Reply

    Its the same as Motorola
    Its the same as Motorola exploiting law enforcement by selling them re-packaged spectrum & promoting operating modes to those who know no better. Law enforcement falls for all of this pseudo-cryptic-special-radio crap from manufacturers who promote this stuff to ignorants who can’t see past mainstream ideas and concepts.

  5. Avatar ts.atomic@gmail.com 21st August 2015 @ 3:25 pm
    Reply

    Ham Radio is FREE!!?? My XYL
    Ham Radio is FREE!!?? My XYL has a *drastically* different opinion!! Like, the polar opposite of (ahem) “free”… Considering there are lows and highs, how much $$ has the *AVERAGE* Ham spent before he can key a mic on HF? I would bet the average for a ham station that is a reliable performer would be well north of a cell phone. The radio, power supply and antenna are just barely scratching the surface.

    Then there’s station grounding (to NEC code?), UPS/Surge protection, perhaps a mast/tower may be needed, maybe a tuner is required in some situations… My point is – an Amateur Radio station is nowhere *near* free and can be outright bloody expensive for even the *AVERAGE* station. You might argue that one could build everything from scratch with parts salvaged from old TVs and radios, but folks who can do that (in the context of the Rockwell/Collins plan) are going to be as rare as hen’s teeth.

    Seriously, the fee is *obviously* not for the spectrum. It’s for the gear, setup and maintenance.

    Look at it this way — If the folks who will be operating this gear are *not* hams, what are the chances this will spark their interest in becoming one? I’d say better than if they weren’t exposed to the tech at all. I don’t see this as a bad thing at all. So, lighten-up, you hard-core Amateur curmudgeons! Instead of brainstorming for any possible way to object; why not brainstorm for the positives. Who knows, it might just break the rust loose in your attitude-engine and free you of your curmudgeon status!

  6. Avatar Tom Stone 21st August 2015 @ 3:33 pm
    Reply

    I did not read anything about
    I did not read anything about using the HAM bands, just HF. But yes HAM’s offer this service for free even using digital modes.

  7. Avatar Fog 3rd September 2015 @ 1:10 am
    Reply

    For all those saying hams
    For all those saying hams offer this service already, you are dead wrong. Hams provide communications that can utilize some of the same HF freqs and propagation as this, but that is about where the similarity ends. In no way does it approach the capability they are proposing here. Why do all the hams seem so scared of this? Its not going to eliminate what we do, just augment it. Stop being so OLD fashioned….

  8. Avatar kc6qpo 7th September 2015 @ 12:55 am
    Reply

    There is no monthly fees to
    There is no monthly fees to use Ham Radio on HF. I recently bought a ham radio at a yard sale for $40, I spent $5.00 in parts to repair it, I spent $10.00 on an antenna for it, now I talk across the oceans with it.

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