I would caution that we not get too excited about this. The technology has been in existence for several decades. The use of the Ubiquity equipment over the old Cisco routers was a major improvement, but.. the reality is that while this has caught on in some parts of the country for the majority it is more dream than reality. Costs of the equipment aside, the need for point to point infrastructure limits its real use in an emergency. While we may install at some fixed locations (hospitals are popular choices) this does not mean the backbone needed to make it useful exists where needed. Yes, I can put one on a trailer and haul it out to a disaster location and then point it.......where? In many rural parts of the county there is nothing to point to, and doubtful I will have a fleet of them to spread along until I can find a connection needed. Then there is the overall interest. Again while there are pockets of the country that have shown motivated hams willing to invest time and money the reality is the percentage is small. Here, in a relatively populated area and home to the original inventors of the Broadband Ham project we have seen little interest in actually deploying it. The only truly active link is between two repeaters about 40 miles apart. Even an offer of space on their roofs by the local hospitals and several EOC's have produced crickets in response. No interest, no volunteers, no backbone. Again, I have seen where this HAS had success in some parts of the US and even throughout Europe but this is not a technology that I feel could be depended on being available or useful in a major disaster. Wish it could, but reality says otherwise. And..the other reality is that more and more emergency response departments now have portable satellite connections that would be used instead, likely more so as Elon keeps throwing sat's in the air 50 at a time. Lee Lee H. Cooper, PMP, CKM, CKF, CSM, ITILv3, LSSGB, W5LHC Vice Director, West Gulf Division ARRL - National Association of Amateur Radio w5lhc@arrl.org (512) 658-3910 *"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat" - N.B.* On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 10:39 AM Minster, David NA2AA (CEO) < dminster@arrl.org> wrote:
One thing I forgot to include on my status (and it’s there now) is referencing a project growing from this presentation from Erik about the applications and infrastructure his groups have built using Mesh networking. Their applications answer the question: we’re connected on Mesh – now what?
One of the features is that they have determined a mobile Mesh infrastructure is critical to what they do. He and I had a 90 minute Zoom call going through this presentation and brainstorming.
His biggest feature is also his biggest nightmare: they are turning portable light tower trailers into portable generator/tower servers and in some cases, where they pull the engine out, a portable tower with rack mounted servers inside the trailer. The are small, relatively light, are road portable and air portable! We even brainstormed on ways to do what he’s doing with smaller lighter kits that could fit on a Cessna Caravan (for example). The nightmare is the engine. They are very difficult to restore. They need a resource who can jump into any engine and make it work!
I sent him a list of YouTuber’s I know who specialize in restoring old vehicles – and it’s all about the engines. The primary guy, Kevin who runs a channel called Junkyard Digs, is interested in participating in the project and creating cross-over content between his channel and us. This could be a very cool way to get middle America teens and twenty-somethings interested in crossing over into EmComm with their wrench skills! Kevin by the way is a young veteran and serves in the Iowa National Guard.
Stay tuned…
*From:* Erik Westgard <ewestgard@att.net> *Sent:* Wednesday, December 16, 2020 12:02 PM *To:* CEO Mailbox <ceo@arrl.org> *Subject:* Twin Cities Marathon /Mesh /Tower Trailer Fleet
Congratulations on your appointment. I manage probably the largest Amateur Radio Medical Command Center we have (>100 hams) at our annual event. The command trucks are all hams here.
We built a mobile mesh tower fleet and have some ideas on databases, dashboards and moving us from standing around waiting for the cell phones to break to a more direct public service model. I have been pestering Paul Gilbert and Rick Palm on this also. I recently held a meeting with the Cajun Navy Relief folks. Do you have time on your calendar- say an hour to discuss this?
Erik Westgard, NY9D
Coordinator, Medical Communications Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
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