[Ares-races] ACU-1000 Audio Bridge

[Marlo Montanaro- KA2IRQ]

Ooops- sorry for the previous blank message.

We have several counties that are using ACU-1000's in NJ.  In my county the
general feeling is we don't want amateur radio transceivers connected to
them.  From what I understand, you connect all your radios, microphones (or
telephones/Satphones), and speakers to the ACU-1000 and the system allows
you to connect any audio source to any transmission medium (i.e., a radio or
phone).

In a county communications van, for example, it would allow the audio from
the EMS radio to be rebroadcast over the police radio, or the fire radio to
be rebroadcast over their Nextel phone link- allowing an emergency manager
without the fire radio to hear and communicate on the fire frequency (just
as one example) by using his Nextel or OEM radio.

Nifty device.  Solves all the problems of switching and impedance matching
all the different radios by digitizing and using wiz-bang computer
technology.

But we asked them not to connect our county RACES radio in the comm van to
the ACU-1000 because a) we wanted to keep things simple and avoid problems
if the ACU-1000 failed (after all, we are their backup if all their stuff
fails), and b) we didn't think rebroadcast of official government
frequencies over amateur radio, or vice versa, was a good idea or in our
case, necessary.

Time may tell a different story, but we wanted to err on the side of
caution.  I would check the regs and make sure you understand all of the
ramifications before connecting amateur radio equipment to the ACU-1000.
Again, I may be totally off base, so you have to make your own decision- I'm
not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.


73,
Marlo Montanaro- KA2IRQ
RACES Radio Officer / ARES DEC / Skywarn Deputy Coordinator / ARRL PIO
Monmouth County, NJ


-----Original Message-----
From: ares-races-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ares-races-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of
pearl at commcor.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 2:03 PM
To: Lou Dartanner
Cc: ares-races at mailman.qth.net; ares-races-bounces at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Ares-races] ACU-1000 Audio Bridge


Don't know much about them, but here is a link to some technical
descriptions.

http://www.jps.com/downloads/PDFS/acu1000app.pdf

Steve, N3LJZ
n3ljz at arrl.net



Lou Dartanner <boomer at rain.org>
Sent by: ares-races-bounces at mailman.qth.net
07/28/2004 12:44 PM

To
ares-races at mailman.qth.net
cc

Subject
[Ares-races] ACU-1000 Audio Bridge







I received an e-mail from our local (Santa Barbara) County Office of
Emergency Services planner asking about the ACU-1000. The State of
California has "a few" and it's his understanding that "they use ARES
folks to operate them."

Has anyone had experience in working with this equipment in an
ARES/RACES function?

Lou Dartanner, N6ZKJ
Emergency Coordinator
Santa Barbara South County ARES
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