BLUE MOUNTAINS RFS GONE TO GRN

[system_tech]

I know Col05 is busy, but basically there was a major issue with Blue Mountains PMR system with one of their sites, hence the quick move to GRN.
As mentioned in other parts of the forum, we have have experienced numerous busies in the mountains this week with Tomah coping the most traffic.

Is there not a least a couple of transportable units that have the ability to be deployed to provide additional capacity to the GRN ? If not, why not ?

Unless there is anything brand new, the so called GRN portable site is sitting at Dubbo and has been for around 10 years.

There are quite a few issues with a portable site. Frequency assignments deopending on area / other 400 - 420 channels being used, as base stations need to be reprogrammed and cavities retuned (Govt did not think to licence a set of portable frequencies) and also links from the target area back to the NOCC. No company can put in a link in a day or 2, or perhaps even a week.

ST

[centralcoastscanman]

The only portable sights i know of are a portable PMR Repeater that have been made by Karera Communications.
Its basically a suitecase with a tait radio inside from memory and has the option for a cable to be plugged into it so you can apparently smartbridge it into the GRN.
No one that i've spoken to in our region has heard of this cable so i'm not sure whether the functionality does exist or not, but there is a document that lists all the channels that are programmed into it for NSWFR, NSWAS, NSWSES and what channel it is in their radio's

[BerryV]

Unless there is anything brand new, the so called GRN portable site is sitting at Dubbo and has been for around 10 years.

There are quite a few issues with a portable site. Frequency assignments deopending on area / other 400 - 420 channels being used, as base stations need to be reprogrammed and cavities retuned (Govt did not think to licence a set of portable frequencies) and also links from the target area back to the NOCC. No company can put in a link in a day or 2, or perhaps even a week.

ST

Cavities/combiners would not need to be re-tuned when properly set-up as a dedicated NSW or even Australia wide mobile site. I see the only weak link in the chain to be the IP link back to NOCC. In most cases, it's an existing site that requires increased capacity as per Mt Tomah's example over the past 2 weeks.

Use any of the mobile phone providers as a prime example. I'm sure that you are already aware that when any significant event where there is projected to be a large number of mobile phone/data requirements the major networks deploy transportable sites to increase capacity. Yes these are usually only required within metro areas but all 3 SP's have these available. Why should the GRN be any different(if not more critical!!)

[system_tech]

Unless there is anything brand new, the so called GRN portable site is sitting at Dubbo and has been for around 10 years.

There are quite a few issues with a portable site. Frequency assignments deopending on area / other 400 - 420 channels being used, as base stations need to be reprogrammed and cavities retuned (Govt did not think to licence a set of portable frequencies) and also links from the target area back to the NOCC. No company can put in a link in a day or 2, or perhaps even a week.

ST

Cavities/combiners would not need to be re-tuned when properly set-up as a dedicated NSW or even Australia wide mobile site. I see the only weak link in the chain to be the IP link back to NOCC. In most cases, it's an existing site that requires increased capacity as per Mt Tomah's example over the past 2 weeks.

Use any of the mobile phone providers as a prime example. I'm sure that you are already aware that when any significant event where there is projected to be a large number of mobile phone/data requirements the major networks deploy transportable sites to increase capacity. Yes these are usually only required within metro areas but all 3 SP's have these available. Why should the GRN be any different(if not more critical!!)

In my previous employment I helped commission the GRN Portable Site. I came to that position while it was being built. I can tell you that it had 7 standard Motorola Bases, 5 for trunking and 2 for PMR. The configuration and equipment was identical to that in a standard GRN Site. The bases needed reprogrmming to changes frequencies, no drama there but the transmit cavitities definitely needed retuning when changing channels.

I know all this as we set it up at Chullora GRN Site and borrowed some of the Chullora Frequencies for the test (corresponding actual Chullora frequencies were turned off). Cavity retuning had to occur.

So:

1. It did not have a set of "go anywhere" frequencies.
2. It certainly did need tx cavity retuning.

And for the record, the specifications were written / signed off by the Govt, not my comany, as we built it and couldn't write the specs.

[ivahri]

The only portable sights i know of are a portable PMR Repeater that have been made by Karera Communications.
Its basically a suitecase with a tait radio inside from memory and has the option for a cable to be plugged into it so you can apparently smartbridge it into the GRN.
No one that i've spoken to in our region has heard of this cable so i'm not sure whether the functionality does exist or not, but there is a document that lists all the channels that are programmed into it for NSWFR, NSWAS, NSWSES and what channel it is in their radio's

Portable PMR repeaters are a dime a dozen... nice ad for Karera but I can think of such units built by Mastercom, Comgroup, and I bet there are more... Using a mobile not designed for the duty cycle of a repeater is a space saving but poor approach to this... most agencies have portable repeaters of some kind.

Cheers

Richard

[ivahri]

Most of what has been said is correct- you can't just rock up to a major communications site and and just use whatever frequency you like without a high probability of causing interference (potentially to the services you are trying to assist). Mount Tomah is one of the worst places to do this- a major site elevated above the Sydney basin so that it radiates a long way. The ACMA are very helpful in situations like this and would have provided input on the best way to tackle the problem.

The CoW (Cell on Wheels) concept was a flawed concept sold by a previous manager that didn't have a clue about the concept of shared spectrum and sold quite irresponsibly to management who didn't have a clue about the spectrum practicalities... at least at Dubbo it was doing something useful instead of gathering dust in some storage depot. It should have been named LoW... Lemon on Wheels.

Cheers

Richard

[cartman]

That was the name of the millenium train

[centralcoastscanman]

The only portable sights i know of are a portable PMR Repeater that have been made by Karera Communications.
Its basically a suitecase with a tait radio inside from memory and has the option for a cable to be plugged into it so you can apparently smartbridge it into the GRN.
No one that i've spoken to in our region has heard of this cable so i'm not sure whether the functionality does exist or not, but there is a document that lists all the channels that are programmed into it for NSWFR, NSWAS, NSWSES and what channel it is in their radio's

Portable PMR repeaters are a dime a dozen... nice ad for Karera but I can think of such units built by Mastercom, Comgroup, and I bet there are more... Using a mobile not designed for the duty cycle of a repeater is a space saving but poor approach to this... most agencies have portable repeaters of some kind.

Cheers

Richard

I never really got the idea behind the suitcase method especially being told to us its a portable repeater... I thought a portable repeater would be a portable grn repeater in a trailer type configuration with a pump up mast...
It does the job for what people need it for in our region and i guess it would be alot cheaper them a trailer based repeater that is designed to be a repeater.