[FLARES] Sarasota "Ex-Plan" Weapons of Mass Destruction Drill

[Ron Wetjen]

Keith Kotch wrote:

> Could you elaborate on the problems and solutions with the ATV signal.
 > Also, please give the equipment and power used for the ATV portion.

Sure.

We had two of the PC Electronics ATV transmitters.  One was the full 20W 
output, and the other was throttled back to about 8W (for eventual use 
with an amplifier - which we didn't use for this drill).  We used 
camcorders to shoot the video, and since the goal was to be able to go 
"portable", we used portable battery packs to power the transmitters.

(A week before the drill, we ran tests from the "drill" scene, in 
downtown Sarasota, which was about 1 mile from the EOC.  2 days before 
the drill, the location was changed ... moving it about 3 miles away.)

The morning of the drill, and before the drill started, we tested 
various radio/antenna combinations.  ATV-1 ended up being the 8W 
transmitter and a 5 element yagi mounted on a 12' collapsible mast, fed 
with 3/8" heliax.  This ended up being our "portable" station.  ATV-2 
was the 25W radio, using a mag mount mobile antenna.  This station ended 
up being a "fixed" station set up at our Communications Trailer.

At the EOC, we had both a vertical and yagi available for receive.  The 
coax ran down into our RACES room in the EOC, and into a downconverter, 
feeding the video into a TV monitor in the room.

After our initial testing one week before the drill, a splitter was 
installed in the RACES room, to feed video onto a large monitor inside 
the EOC.  A long run of cable was also needed.  We think the combination 
of the splitter and long cable run, may have caused the poor quality 
signal.  The video was fairly useable in the RACES room monitor ... but 
when viewed on the giant screen in the EOC, the picture was too 
"grainy".  Even the addition of a pre-amp didn't help the picture 
quality.  This will be one of our upcoming projects after the Holidays 
... to try and solve the picture quality problem ... especially on the 
large video monitor inside the EOC.

We didn't shoot continuous video from ATV-1, since it was running off a 
battery.  We shot a couple minutes, then shut down to conserve power 
and/or change to a new location.  Towards the end of the drill, we shot 
a very long scene (a SWAT demonstration) ... which eventually finished 
off the battery!  So either limiting the time of shots or increased 
battery capacity, would be another thing to consider, especially if 
going "portable" to shoot video.

So that was the trials and tribulations of our ATV efforts.  In theory, 
it sounds very good ... in practice, at least our first crack at it ... 
didn't go as well as it probably could have.  But that's why we do these 
things ... to find and fix problems before it's needed for real.

Hope that helps.

Happy Holidays ...

73, Ron  WD4AHZ