Cameron County Adopts New Portable HF / VHF / UHF Ham Gear
May 7th, 2009 Posted in SPARCS
Our local RGV Cameron County EmComm team was contacted this week with a huge surprise, just in time for drills and tests in the upcoming HUREX 2009 and other events that will span Summer 2009 as we head into Hurricane Season.
Once the County contacted our group a committtee was quicly formed and reported to the secondary EOC location for the County, located in Harlingen, Texas. KB5TMC, KE5YYY and K5REW met with Cameron County Office of Emergency Prepardness Officials as the portable equipment was delivered by the vendor. The 3 hams each assisted the commercial radio techs as they were testing additional portable radio gear meant to follow the Office of Emergency Prepardness in various hurricane situations.
Equipment received and now being tested as this artice is written is a Kenwood TM-710 Dual Band VHF-UHF fixed station; and a Kenwood TS-480 HF to 6 Meter fixed station mounted in a commercial radio cabinet along with their respective power supplies. In addition, a highly portable antenna system was purchased and chosen by the radio communications vendor however it’s performance is leaving much to be desired considering that the antenna performs best at 20 meters and above which broadcasts right over the top and beyond where our signals need to be the strongest in a disaster. Since our target for HF disaster communications is 80 Meters night time and 40 meteres daytime, our antenna requirements are for dipole and NVIS antennas in the horizontal plane.
Steps have already been taken to correct the antenna issue in ordering a 90 ft. B&W folded dipole which is designed for up to 400 miles range, fitting exactly the requirements for establishing communications to the State EOC, Camp Mabry in Austin and FEMA Federal Regional Center in Denton not to mention various MARS and SHARES stations across the countryside.
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